Assignment 2/3: Stop Motion Animation

 

I made this stop-animation project with Qing Tian. I appreciate her artistic talent in our teamwork, making our project alive. I spent several hours in the studio preparing materials and shooting. We roughly take the following steps to complete it. 

1. Determine the theme

The theme of our project is the representation of the life cycle, from birth to death. One generation is followed by another generation.

2. Characters and scene

We decided to use chicken as the main character in our project and set up a scene with clouds, the sun, and the moon. The changing of the sun and the moon represent the change of time.

3. Prepare materials 

Qing drew all the materials using pen and colored paper and I cut them off the papers.

4. Shooting

Shooting is the most tricky part of the process. We need to be mindful of the environmental lights. Otherwise, the color of the background will keep changing. And, we have to pay attention to putting our hands out of the scene. Otherwise, the consistency of the animation may be destroyed. 

Takeaways from the reading 

"The maker movement may represent our best hope for reigniting progressive education. As you embark on a personal adventure to bring making, tinkering, and engineering into your classroom, know that you are not alone. You stand on the shoulders of giants and there is a rapidly growing community of makers available to help. "

Maker movement enjoys great popularity among educators in recent years, especially in the field of STEM education. It is aligned with the learning theory of constructivism, which proposes the construction of knowledge by interaction with the world. I prefer learning by doing over learning by lectures since learning by doing can help me connect theoretical knowledge with real-world practices. In this way, I can familiarize myself with the community and the culture of practices and practitioners. 

"Create something shareable" is a concept that I resonate with. I think, it concords with the nature of knowledge, which should not be confined to a limited amount of people. Sharable pieces can conducive to expanding the community and make more people access to it.