Welcome back to Kids Get Crafty! Bringing you “Animation for Kids” – a perfect “craft” for kids, tweens and teens. I am VERY excited about today’s craft, mainly because, the kids were SOOO excited. They loved every minute of it and it was a great great great afternoon spent. Actually… it was several afternoon’s spent at both Red Ted HQ and the neighbour’s house. From our 3yrs old to my neighbour’s 9yrs old, to my husband and I – we all loved it!
This is most definitely an activity which is all about the process and less about the result… though of course we love our results! And this a really good activity to get those “reluctant non crafters” to have a go and have some fun – in order to be creative you don’t have to stick to the “traditional mediums”. With digital technology, photography and now animation are easily accessible to our youngest readers. And does your child say playdough is for babies? Give them animation and plasticine and a whole new activity begins!
So… what made us want to have a go? A few weeks ago my lovely neighbour came back from a festival weekend away and showed me this:
Her 9 year old son had made these plasticine owls. I thought they were FABULOUS. Then she told me, that at the festival they had also made a movie with it. I was balled over. The children were so enthusiastic! How many 9 year olds do you get telling you that plasticine is great? Most say that that is something for babies. No more! Plasticine is the new craft for bigger kids.. especially if you then go and animate with them.
And here is what his younger brother made:
(a crab and a scorpion)
I am SO PROUD of both boys! And they are not even mine!
By coincidence Hue Animation contacted me and asked me whether we would be interested in their animation package. Absolutely! And a few days later we received our complimentary green camera and software. Wow. What fun indeed.
Red Ted isn’t really old enough to work with plasticine – or not in a way that would be useful for animation. So we grabbed some favourite toys and crafts (our Gumnut Octopuses) and made these:
- Love Octopuses – was my first “trial of the camera” – not bad for a first go?
- The Train – was Red Ted’s first go – you see the odd hand!
- The Tunnel – was Red Ted’s and daddy’s go.
- Cheeky – another go at the train and the octopus. Look, no hands!
Want more examples of Kids’ animations? Check out the Zu3D gallery. I could spend hours Ooohing and Aaahing! Primary school children made many of the entries!
Red Ted totally got it and adored it. I admit that the first video was slightly “stressful” – how do you explain to a 3yrs old “not to touch or lean into the picture”. But when he saw the result he totally understood and was very good at keeping his hands away when the next shot was being snapped. He had lots of fabulous ideas for more videos. We just had to help him moderate it into something “realistic” – i.e. we had a small ish space and it is difficult to have things flying through the air!
I think for our next attempt we will create a “proper stage” – make it a real craft extravaganza! In the meantime, some top tips:
1) Keep it simple to begin with
2) Sellotape things down (e.g. our tunnel)
3) Use clever things like bluetak or these great clear Scotch Restickable Tabs if you want to make things walk up the side of things (we only thought of this AFTER we had our hands on show!).
I will not explain how to use the software – as we are only “just learning the ropes” ourselves – and I could write an essay on tips and tricks. However, I am not the most techie person and I was able to make a basic video with Red Ted within minutes. Combining them took my a tiny bit longer, but again, it was pretty intuitive and not rocket science. I think it is the software combine with the funky camera that makes this a really fun activity (and possibly gift?). I have made mini videos before, painstakingly taking photo by photo and adding these to a movie maker programme. It was a horrendous tideous affair, whilst this was quick, fun, easy and terribly rewarding!
Hue Animation rocks! And I recommend it to everyone!!! I reckon this would make a FABULOUS Christmas Day activity. And we are going to make it a tradition in our house to make a Christmas movie a year (watch this space). And I know that in now time my kids will be expert at this and know how to use the software much better than I ever will!
This is only a sponsored post in as much as that Hue Animations gave us the camera and software to use. However, I was keen to write a post about this already and I was not obliged to share our thoughts with you. All thoughts and words are mine.
That is quite simply the coolest thing ever!!
If Santa doesn’t bring me one of those then I’m going to refuse to believe in him anymore!
that’s brilliant! I remember making something like this at school over *cough* 25 years ago……I so wish we still had the video. I wonder if it could be done with a regular camera & limited software such as Windows Movie Maker??
Helen – yes you can – have made similar before – but MUCH shorter and takes MUCH MUCH MUCH longer. And is so much harder to add music and titles etc…
Go Red Ted!
So pleased that you like the pack. As you know my husband made the software Zu3D and I thought these links might be helpful to readers
One is about using animation with young children and the other is to a video tutorial for the software. You can download the software for free too if people want to try before they buy. Or are too impatient to wait for Father Christmas x Great review x
http://www.edspire.co.uk/year_2011/01/17/zu3d-%E2%80%93-learning-through-play-in-the-early-years/
http://www.edspire.co.uk/year_2011/01/17/software-review-zu3d/
http://www.zu3d.com/tutorial-video
http://www.zu3d.com/download
That is great, we will put it on our christmas list, it looks like so much fun.
Come back in a day or two.. we are giving one away!!! 🙂
This looks such fun to make – I bet the kids loved it.
That is brilliant! I can’t believe you can achieve such wonderful results on a home computer – it’s fantastic. Amazing you can do something like that with a three year old. Will be checking out for more updates on this. My daughter would love it!
Kids I look after have been playing with (and kept busy with) Hue Animation for a while now and LOVE it.. There is no end to what you can do and it’s very easy. The older kids like that you can upload videos to YouTube really easily. P.s Clear fishing wire can help things fly!
Oooh I have some fishing wire!!! Thank you for the top tip!! 😉
This is really great and looks like a lot of fun too! 🙂
That is brilliant! Love it!
I’m glad I found my way here! Those are so cute!
WOW!!! That is amazing. I will have to try it with Zak. xx
Honk Honk! I love it! I am planning a lego mans disco video when I get time – will keep you posted!
It’s so much fun!
Love the video – go you!
Annie – a lego man disco!??!?! HOW COOL! Can’t wait to see it 🙂
Fantastic. I want one. It’s going on the Christmas list!
Blue Bear Wood – HOORAY! 🙂
Absolutely fantastic – did an animation with my daughter and hubby last year involving dogs peeing up trees (daughter thought it was hilarious) and a mouse eating cheese. Desperately need to dig it out and watch it now. Such fun to make!
Ooooh can you share it online? Would love to see it!
Ha! Found it in hubby’s flickr stream, please forgive the toilet humour. We did enjoy doing this so much. Happy days! http://www.flickr.com/photos/nathanbarry/5200994979/
Maxine – I LOVE it! Go you. You must have taken TONS of shots!
This is such fun, my son would love it! He’s always making little videos with toys and this software would really make the animation so much better…I am going to try out the software immediately:)
Thanksxx
And the giveaway is now live: https://www.redtedart.com/2011/10/13/giveaway-make-your-own-animations-kit/ 🙂
VERY cool Maggy!! I love animation especially for kds or done by them. The kids at our school (year 3 and above) used to use the MacBook with a camera attached, as it has a pretty good and simple editing software too. One day, when I’m big enough, I’ll have a go! 😉
Maggy, it was all done on an iPhone, amazingly. My other half was mainly responsible, being the resident pet geek. My favourite bit was helping my daughter make the characters!!
I’ve always wanted to try stop motion animation. Love your videos.
How cool is that?! My second son in particular is a keen animator, I feel inspired to get him and Bonus Boy working together on a project. Many thanks for linking up to Something for the Weekend! x
how amazing is that!! I think I have watched the video about five times through out today hahaha.
Adele – that makes me VERY happy 🙂 we keep watching it too 😉
I love this project. The music you selected is such fun!
Fantastic activity! The boys have done an excellent job here…love it!
How fun! I just bought some animation software and my ten year old son and I are trying to learn it. We bought Toon Boom Allstars. I’ll be looking into this one. Thanks for sharing your fun!
Wow! That is very cool. I think you are correct that this would be a great way to get the craft reluctant child interested. Great job!
These are super cool- will have to pin this for when I go back to teach art! Thank you for linking up to the The Sunday Showcase
This is fantastic! My daughter has been trying to make movies, trying different methods. I can not wait to show her this post! 🙂
Oooh I hope she likes it!! 🙂
Ah, I wish I’d gotten this for my son for Christmas! Too late now… I’ll have to keep it in mind for his birthday. This would be such a great thing for me and him to do together 🙂
Oh yes what a fun idea for next year!