Teaching Film Animation to Children

Book excerpt: Under the author's direction, students from 5 to 18 years old have been making prize-winning animated films. In this guide intended for any adult who wishes to teach film animation, she describes and illustrates the techniques she has developed in her seven years of experience teaching animation to children in a workshop setting. All essential phases of camera work, synchronized sound recording, and optical sound recording are covered. In addition to price guidelines and evaluations of cameras, projection and editing equipment, films, and tape recorders, there are directions for adapting cameras that lack such features as single-frame release for animation work. Detailed instructions explain the various techniques used in creating characters, scenery, story, and sound. Animation methods such as movable and hinged cutouts, clay, toys, painted film, constructed forms, and pixillation (live actors) are described and illustrated. The approach recommended in the guide is designed to allow direct hands-on experience in which the child himself is involved in all aspects of creation, from the original story idea through the technical process to the final presentation.