The Teachers' Animation Toolkit

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WORKSHEET: TALKING OBJECTS
Teachers’ note:
Ask your students to devise a character from a selection of objects, 
or a single item such as an apple. They should decide if their 
character works best in 2D or 3D. An apple would need a table-top 
set, with the animation camera looking across to it. A dancing pair 
of scissors or ‘button man’ would animate in a 2D plane, with the 
camera set above, looking down.
Ask each animator to make the character perform a simple gesture, 
dance or change of expression. Two seconds of animation will 
suffi ce per gesture.
Next they should each imagine the sound the character is making. 
Ask the students to perform this sound live as they playback the 
animation on the computer screen. Use voice to improvise sound 
effects or use a musical instrument.
They can then record these sounds and edit them to the animations 
using any preferred software package.
Extension work:
Storyboard a 20-second animation involving the characters 
and ideas suggested by the previous activity. Use the standard 
storyboard template, and draw the story in six shots. Add narration, 
dialogue and/or effects.
Materials:
A 2D or 3D animation rostrum per student or small group, a 
collection of found objects such as fruit, mechanical objects, leaves, 
shells, feathers, buttons or scissors, musical instruments, sound 
recording equipment.
Resources:
Video:
 
the work of Jan Svankmajer, especially Dimensions of Dialogue: 
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5053516656925914770#

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82
The Teachers’ Animation Toolkit
WORKSHEET: METAMORPHOSIS
Teachers’ note:
Plasticine animation is a fi rm favourite with all ages for many 
reasons. It is an ideal medium for animation, because the models 
can be articulated easily in small incremental movements. 
Plasticine is also very malleable; so all kinds of transformations and 
metamorphoses are possible. It comes in a wide variety of colours, 
including ranges of fl esh tones. Most importantly, it is cheap if 
ordered from an educational supplier.
“It’s the beauty of plasticine animation that you can make 
(characters) very human by manipulating them frame by frame.” Nick 
Park.
Invite students to explain the meaning of the word metamorphosis. 
Talk about examples from the animal and botanical world, or help 
the pupils to develop their own imaginary ideas. Have each student 
form a plasticine ball. Talk about shapes and forms. Ask the pupils 
what the ball could change into. When they have decided on their 
transformation, ask them to plan how they will achieve this in several 
stages. Ask them to animate the transformations and play them 
back. Discuss the results.
Hints and tips:
Work the plasticine well to warm it up. It is often diffi cult to model 
straight out of the packet. Most models can be built from the basic 
shapes of the ball and sausage. Both can be easily rolled out with 
hands on a fl at surface. Cover tables with newspaper before work 
begins, as plasticine is hard to clean from table tops. Take care not 
to drop plasticine on carpets. It can be very diffi cult to remove!