Pencil
Pencil is a 2d animation, open source, cross platform free software program. It is simple to use and there are plenty of videos on how to get started. It just seems perfect for beginning animators in the art class. It is easily downloaded onto a computer and students who have ever used even a “paint” program on a computer can learn it right away. The task of drawing each image over and over in order to create the movement in the animation is wonderful practice for drawing skills. Students from about fourth grade and up would be absolutely delighted with this activity.
In my fifth grade art classes, I recently asked how many students like to doodle. All hands went up. We went on to talk about doodling creatures and continued on a project in which they turned their “doodle creatures” into a surreal painting. They turned out great. I can see that these students would be totally engaged in making an animation using their scanned in surreal paintings.
This is a wonderful tutorial that was done by a young person on using Pencil. It is easy for follow and is very charmingly done.
Once the animation is made, it can be exported as a sequence of PNG images, or as a Flash movie or a QuickTime movie. Then the movie can be shared on the web. Wow! Instant animator. These can then be viewed and a class critique done OR, if we have blogging set up or portfolios on Flickr, students can post their critiques in the comments.
This “pencil” art lesson can not only help students better drawing skills, but also can include art history, with surrealist painters, animation artists such as Disney and more recent filmmakers and animators.
The drawback is that there may be problems getting permissions to download the software or posting the videos on the web. I believe that these could be managed. The software IS free and open source. If permissions cannot be gotten to upload to the web, the movies can be copied to a folder on the server accessed from the school computers and students can view them that way. I believe that I will find a way to use this one!
Credits
Photo obtained via Flickr. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/hownowdesign/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
I downloaded Pencil and have not yet started to use it in class or learn it yet. We use Flash, but I have encouraged my students to download Pencil and work on their projects at home. I am hoping that they enjoy it and I encourage them to explore on their own. That's the best thing they can do to become a true lifelong learner.
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