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Radio Show

 



 

As a result of looking at the importance of sound we have constructed a podcast in a lesson trying to use different sound effects on Audacity. In groups we have tried to incorporate recent current issues along with humour to produce an interesting radio show. Above is our radio show that we produced. 

The production was enjoyable but no doubt we encountered difficulties. The Audacity application has many features which enables differences in pitch, tone or even volume which can be very fun if you have time on your hands. Having looked at the importance of sound effects, creating our radio show demanded various different tones of voices in order to try and display different emotions.

The task involved using a number of different creative abilities whilst not detracting ourselves away from the importance of sound. Without visible scenes sound play an even more important role in portraying the message you are getting across and although this radio show is only a 2 minute clip, from the opening title you can identify that there is an element of importance and I feel that the various emotions in our voices throughout show elements that we are trying to get important news across.

Camera-Less Animation

Camera-Less Animation 

Having looked at various ways to learn from animations it was now time for me to produce my own camera-less animation. There are many different ways of doing this but we chose to look at the Thaumatrope and the Magic Lantern.

Thaumatrope

The Museum of the History of Science highlight that a Thaumatrope is a Victorian toy with a simple picture on each side attached to a piece of string. The idea of a Thaumatrope is that once that image is flipped to the other side quickly the object appears to move.

However, I myself did not find it as simple as just drawing two images on either side of a piece of paper HAHA! Actually after a few attempts of drawing just a simple smiley face I realised that I was making errors on the opposite side. I found that after flipping the string the face was upside down on the other side. In order to make a decent Thaumatrope measurements must be accurate as if the picture opposite appears in a different place it can look unrealistic to the viewers.

 

As you can see from the above images the Thaumatrope was not my most successful animation piece of work!


The Magic Lantern

Using artistic skills again, as a group we then created a Magic Lantern which is another historical device which uses camera-less animation. The Magic Lantern will present images you slide and will be projected on to a screen. As a task we were given the opportunity to create our own Magic Lantern and improvised with our own materials. We tried to create the image of the changes of weather but it was important the original images did not differ too much and that the frames remained the same size throughout the slide.

 

The most crucial element of the Magic Lantern was ensuring that no light got into the box in order to project the work on to the wall. As you can see from the two images we used a lamp to try and present the images but the classroom needed to be dark in order to clearly see what our animation was trying to achieve,

 

Stop-Motion Animation

 

Stop-Motion Animation

 

Stop-motion animation is an animation technique which involves making a physical object appear to be moving. The objects may often move in frames allowing the animation to look like an illusion to the viewers. We see stop-motion animations everyday whether it may be in adverts, TV programmes and there are even films which use this type of animation (Dragonframe). Stop-motion animation comes in various formats which include puppets, clay animation, cut-outs, models and silhouettes. The basic process of stop-motion is taking an image and moving the characters ever so slightly before capturing another photo. (Dragonframe)

 

Lego Animations

 

The Lego animations differ from the films in that the films use computerised animations compared to Lego Harry Potter which does use stop-motion animation. Alfie Olivier highlights that although the Lego Movie used computerised animation, he is happy for viewers to believe that the film uses stop-motion from the outset as its what he set out to do as the Animation Supervisor.

 

The Advantages of Stop-Motion

 

• It can tell stories through character, conflict and resolve, and visual interest satisfying the audience's psychological identification needs.
• There is something very fundamental about the physical reality of actual models, puppets, lighting and imperfection that we can identify and understand as humans.
• Animations allow you to teach an audience anything you would like it to.

The Disadvantages of Stop-Motion

Often if stop-motion animation has very little disadvantages as long as it is completed effectively. However if frames differ too much from the previous it may lead to the animations becoming less realistic. Another vital component of stop-motion animation is the quality of the images. If the quality of lighting varies throughout the frames it can lead to inaccurate animations.

Successes of Stop-Motion

1) Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Aardman and DreamWorks teamed up to make this stop-motion film in 2005.

2) Chicken Run. Another Aardman production which proved to be a success in 1994.

3) Fantastic Mr Fox. Made in 2009 and includes the voices of stars such as George Clooney and Meryl Streep. This stop-motion production had an estimated budget of $40,000,000.


A Short Stop-Motion Clip
                                                               



What is Animation?

Animation

 

Film Education indicate that animation is a process whereby we witness still pictures appear to move. Animation has existed for centuries in many different ways but as technology has updated animations have inevitably improved in quality. Film Education also insist that the reason we are perceived to see the mages is moving is down to the 'Persistence of Vision' theory. Our brain will hold on to the image for a fraction of a second and when another image is presented so quickly we cannot cope with the fast moving images.

Without even realising we come across animations every single day; may of the adverts we see; films we watch and many TV programmes all include animations of some sort. Animators will make changes in size, shape or angles in order to create the effect that they are moving and the speed of each frame can have a big impact on how the viewers judge the animation.

Possibly one of the UK's most successful animation is Wallace and Gromit. The film is a stop-motion and many Wallace & Gromit films have been created over the years with a large amount of success for Aardman Animations. Aardman have completed films such as Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep and The Pirates which are all well known in the UK.

Animation in Schools

Children at all ages are now encouraged to use the creative instincts and animation is a great way of doing this. Rather than using the traditional books and whiteboard there are now many pieces of software which enables children to use technology to broaden their learning experiences. Zu3D is a stop-motion software for children and adults which can be used to create short animated films at school or at home. Having sampled Zu3D myself the application requires patience and can be difficult for children at a young age to grasp.

Sound Effects

"Sound effects play an important role in conveying action. Music helps express emotion." Michael Geiser

 

 

From a viewers point we only have to view certain cartoons or programmes to feel the full force of sound effects. Linked directly to the quote above, music and specific sounds can portray various emotions and we react quite often get a detailed picture of a scene from the tone of sound we hear.  Not only in animation is sound important it plays a part in everyday life. Ric Viers in the Importance of Sound Effects (2012) highlights that the main goal of sound effects is to help tell a story and that we barely recognise sounds unless there is no sound displayed at all or if the sound effect is inaccurate or inappropriate.

For me, viewers are far more likely to be able to gain an accurate image of what is happening with just sound and no image rather than no sound but witnessing events. Below is a short clip of a favourite film of mine, if you have already seen it then you may understand the story but try and listen without sound first and see if you can understand what is happening.


 

What is a learning environment?

What is a Learning Environment?

Its often quite difficult to categorise what a learning environment is as there is so many different settings where we learn. A learning environment may be anywhere that engages or stimulates the individual. Education Scotland (2012) highlights that all learning environments should have a positive influence on children and young people. We learn at home, in education and quite often learn something new accidental.

Depending on the learning environment it may allow different individuals and learners to flourish at different times. For example, although children may be a in a formal setting such as school, there are opportunities for children to learn outside and quite often some schools have outdoor learning areas. Forest Schools Education indicate that forest schools are an innovative way to encourage outdoor learning and education. As long as the activities are meaningful and interesting for pupils it can provide great opportunities for learning. Similar if we look in the Foundation Phase in Wales, the Welsh Assembly Government emphasise the importance of creativity and children are given opportunities to explore and mould their own learning experiences.

 

 

 

However, many of today's learning opportunities may arise as the result of increased use of technology. If we look at schools today or even at home even children as young as 3 years of age may have access to an iPad or a computer in which they are able to extend their learning. In my opinion though due to the rapid increase of technology in the 21st century many children neglect outdoors learning and I worry that if this continues it will lead to children having poor personalities and inability to communicate and respect peers. 

Welcome to my Blog

Welcome

This blog aims to show you my journey in Education Futures and I will be looking at creative ways of learning and meeting new methods of learning head on. The blog will involve sound effects, animations using camera's and also camera-less animations and hopefully by the end of the module I will be confident enough to produce my own animations. My blog will have links throughout which will navigate you to the reference and if you have any questions with any of my views feel free to comment on any of the posts. Thanks, Rhod!!!