Stop-Animation: What Is It?

Stop-animation is when you make a video by taking many photos of different poses so it looks like one movement. This video below was made using stop-animation. The people wore different color shirts and took many photos of them. In stop-animation you sometimes have to make more than one of a picture.

The video was made by French-Swiss artist Guillaume Reymond.

Cool Sheepherding

Have you ever heard of sheep herding? If you haven't I'll tell you what it is and the coolest things you can do with it. Sheep herding is where a shepherd uses dogs to move sheep from pasture to pasture. In early times, sheep were used for milk and cheese.

There is a video in which the sheepherders put LED lights (like holiday lights) on the animals so that they glow and can make designs that can be seen from the air.

In the video you'll see a fun and cool way to make images out of sheep. If you to see the video click here.

See What Animals See

Here is a website for seeing what animals see. The Museum of Animal Perspectives highlights videos taken from the backs of animals.

The site is curated by “video naturalist” Sam Easterson, who collects “animal-borne imaging,” point-of-view videos from alligators, bisons, armadillos, tarantulas, scorpions, and frogs. Then he adds or embeds it into Google Maps for geographical reference. For example, watching a snapping turtle normally involves staring at a lethargic hulk in the sun. But with a view from the snapper’s back, you see it cruise along the bottom of a lake, fend off a curious bass and paddle furiously for the surface and a breath of air. Below are a few videos from Mr. Easterson's "critter cam":

Great Moments in Lego History

Legos are used everywhere in the world by people of all ages. Also people use Legos to make videos and put them on the Internet. This first video is very interesting because a person used Legos to recreate a video game.

Most people who make these videos are very artistic. Usually the videos are two minutes which is pretty long for a normal video. It is also pretty hard to make the characters, back round, and vehicles.

These are some other Lego videos:

Review Baloonimals iPhone and iPad App

Student: Zach

Play around with the Balloonimals app on both Ms. Moorhead's iPhone and the iPad. Then read how the app was made on the ToyLab website. Consider what thought and engineering went into developing this app. Also, read this review on Wired.com's GeekDad website.

For your assignment, explain what Balloonimals is, how it was made, what Toy Lab had to consider in developing it, and what do you think of it. How do you think Hillwood's kindergarteners might respond to it?

A Fun Example of Stop Animation

Student: Jay

What is stop-animation video? Watch Pac-Man Stop Animation, a super-geeky Web video and an homage to the yellow man, for a quick example. The movie employs a movie theater and about a hundred gamers in monochrome T-shirts. By planning well and sitting very still, they’ve been able to replicate a full Pac-Man game, complete with a maze, ghosts, fruit and a hilarious a cappella soundtrack. On one level the movie looks a lot like people in colorful shirts sitting in a movie theater, yet it’s amazing how this performance also deftly captures the feel of 1980s graphics. It turns out that stop animation is an apt analogy for video-game animation, except here the students replace pixels, and the theater your favorite tube television.

Your article is really about stop animation — what is it and how does it work? Include the video below and up to four images as an example of how it works.




Source: VSL

The Constitution — What Happened on This Day in History?

Students: Jay and Alysen

On September 17 something big happened with the U.S. Constitution. Read this article first, and then watch the video clip below.

For your assignment, write what happened in history today for the U.S. Constitution. Remember to include your sources and to embed the video below. (Ms. Moorhead can show you how to do this.)

Extreme Sheepherding with LED Lights

Student: Anya

As an occupation, shepherding seems like it might get a little dull. But not for these Welsh hill-farmers, who debut, in this Web video, a new kind of herding that’s more about art than agriculture.

With the help of some enthusiastic collies, these Welshmen have created a special kind of precision-herding in which the sheep, bearing by turns LED lights and dyed wool, are choreographed into large-scale patterns and photographed for stop-motion animation from a nearby hill. The results are surprising, emergent works of art—there’s a giant sheep taking a stroll, an epic game of Pong and, almost unbelievably, probably the strangest rendition of the Mona Lisa ever created. They’re also proof that our woolly friends can be put to better use than the manufacture of yarn for holiday sweaters.

Write a story about this video. Also, give some explanation about sheepherding and why this would be difficult to do. What skills do you think it involves? Any math? Any science? Also, explain words or elements like Pong. What is it?

Include several screen grabs to show the process of doing this extreme sheepherding.