Me teach?

Hello all,

First a bit of background

I am 40 years old and not much better then a High School artist. I draw, paint, work with pastels, sculpt in clay, airbrush work is abysmal. Truth. I CAN draw my left hand rather well (being right handed:p ) and I have sold one (1) painting for $300.00, however I don’t know what the person saw in it. Really I don’t.
With all that behind me.. with having never stopped in my art efforts sence 4th grade… I don’t have the actual talent to put what I see down, in any medium to my satisfaction.

I still love trying though.

Having had the high stress, high pay jobs, and having owned and sold 3 businesses. (2 at profit) I decided to ‘retire’ as it where and raise a family. Hence, I moved to Wyoming and landed a low stress job with my name on my shirt. I am happy.

Now to the jest of it…

The local after school efforts have a wide range of activities. The High School just started an animation club. OK in it self I thought, so I dropped by to see how it was being approached. Well, with two teachers using really basic software and no animation skills between them, I was surprised that they do have some interested kids.

The kids asked how to start and where told to animate their names, a kind of a signature instead of credits at the end. The animation was crude and at 10 frames on 1s (I already said crude?) many kids had not finished their names after 3 weeks. Some because they where making a movie of it and others because they kept changing there minds on what to do. The teachers where and have been busy learning the software (this being only a club thing, they could only work on it during the 2 hours a week the club meets and the documentation is lacking) Some kids dropped out soonest and are lost, but others still peek-in at times.

OK so this was not going smoothly at all. I decided to try and help out with the up coming event.

The AnimationClub, having not died a quick death, the powers that be decided to host a full day event !! On a Saturday, with pizza for lunch!! We got over 30 kids from all over the school district to drop by and break into teams. Each team was to make a 30sec cartoon for NOT USING CHEWING TOBACCO.

We had guest speakers and information packets on the harm tobacco can do. We then had the kids brainstorm short skits. Then story board, and work out character designs, then timing on the scenes and after lunch they started the drawings. (I did say this was crude?)

OMG.. These kids, in 5 groups put out six 30sec Public Service Announcements. :eek:

Have you seen the terrible ones running on MTV? Ours where not that good. But every one had fun.

As it turns out, because of my knowledge (cough) and my skill with the kids, I was asked to start a club at the Junior High. I accepted, starting next year.

This really is Just a club, not a class. However, I want to do this right. I do not kid myself; I will not be responsible for producing any great animation myself. If I can however, I would like very much to know I started even just one kid on the right track for themselves.

What I intend to do…. (And this is a plan in the works, most malleable)
(Remember this is a Junior High club.)

Immersion First.
Animated name? but only the name looking good and only 5 frames. This I can cycle 3 times for 1.5sec of playtime. I want all the kids names in the computer with in 30 min so we can play them over a background on the projector screen by the end of the first day.

I will be working with the High School art teacher to make a 3 foot long, on glass background. I will shoot it in 1/8th inch steps (30sec is the max of the software). We are deciding on the look now. I want it to show stages of drawing and different types of art as well. Realistic, to comic book, to animai and Saturday morning cartoon. I AM avoiding computer art at this time. (more on that later)

With this one showing of their work, over quality work, I hope to get them to come back and learn if this is something they want to look into. Not trying to start a career just a club at this stage.

With the rest of the time between the Names and the closing show, I will be showing my work (I have all summer to get it right.:rolleyes: ) Bouncing ball, open and closing hand (left hand as mentioned above) and anything else I can accomplish before hand. I will also be talking about charter ‘packs’ I think is the word, and story boarding.(and just what is a dope sheet?) Timing of shots, and the need to draw.

I HAVE seen the back and forth on the need of drawing skills. The tools I have to work with do not include the use of 3D anything. Just paper pen and a dig camera to load into a sequencing software. So yes I will be emphasizing hand drawn art.

In fact, I intend to have the kids do at least 5 pieces of art each week. “No more the 3 min spent on any one piece” Like draw the dog sleeping on you back porch – 30 sec, or the house across the street – 3 min. Just get them to do more then squiggles in the class books!!

Well, that the first weeks intent anyway….at this point.

Any thoughts? :confused:

I will be working with the High School teachers in Art, Cinematography and English at a minimum. Also if this works out I will be working to improve the equipment and meens of our efforts both at the Jurnior and High Schools, including books and films, camera, computer and maybe even speakers to come in, field trips to art shows, I might do clay-stop motion at the Junior High too.….who knows.
Also at the High School level they will be looking into Flash and other animation.

Call me an idiot, point out the obvious flaws, laugh in my face….I will welcome all feed back.

To each, there own. I'll take understanding. :D