Cartoons Brought to Life

For this project I have two inspirations.  The first is Marty Cooper's wonderful animations.  I love the introduction that Adam Savage give in the video below.  Be sure to watch the videos on Marty's youtube page before showing your classes.

This project was even more focused on what the Art Ed Guru had posted.  If you scroll down to Photo/Animation Cells, you will see the post that was intriguing... there are lots of other cool posts and lesson ideas on this blog as well.  I'm a big fan!

So here is what we did... and what I would change.  I had the kids draw a cartoon on a scrap paper.  The cartoon had to be original, NO SPONGE BOBS!! They transferred the cartoon to a transparency sheet using sharpie markers.  These sheets I cut into fourths but I think I would make sure to give the kids more space next time, maybe a half of a sheet.  This will allow the artist to keep their fingers out of the photo better.

Another hint I have is to not use paint.  I used acrylic paint for these and as the students were using them the paint flaked off.  I think I would stick with white-out like Marty Cooper did above.

Some of the hints I gave the students after teaching this lesson a couple of times...

• Move the camera, not the figure. 
• hold the tips of the plastics corner
• Keep the cartoon no more than a arm length away from the camera.
• Communicate with your team members.

Here are a couple of finished pieces below...

I tried to give some examples of what worked well, what maybe didn't, and how to crop.  This slide show was to promote conversation and the explanation of the rules that were established for this lesson.

I had the students save to their google drive and share via drive too.  It took one day of creating the cartoon, and one fun day of picture taking.  This project was an easy motivator.  The 5th grade loved it.