The Teachers' Animation Toolkit

79
WORKSHEET: ANIMATION IN THE LANDSCAPE
Teachers’ note:
Working in small teams, invite students to make short animations, 
inspired by the immediate landscape surrounding the school. The 
theme can be either abstract, narrative based or kinaesthetic (i.e. 
exploring the aesthetics of choreographed movement).
They may explore any of the following techniques:
Timelapse
Stop-frame animation can be used to accelerate the perception of 
time passing, making clouds rush across the sky, spring fl owers 
open their petals or people dash their dogs around the park!
Pixilation
Found objects, plasticine characters, 2D art etc. can be brought to 
life, and interact with their surroundings using animation.
Choreography of the human form
Animated facial expressions, body gestures and movements can 
take on surreal, dramatic or humorous qualities. Think about working 
with props like hats, fancy dress, chairs etc.
Single frame montage
Kinetic textures and serial patterns can be generated by shooting 
sequences of stills, frame by frame. A brick wall can be transformed 
into a vibrating, abstracted sea of shape and colour, by fi lming four 
bricks per frame!
Materials:
Each team will need a video camera, tripod and laptop on which to 
capture images frame by frame. Teams should prepare storyboards 
or outlines of their idea and think about both the imagery and sound 
they will need.
Resources:
Video: Window Pane by Jenny McCormack. A pixilated self-portrait. 
http://www.videoart.net/home/Artists/VideoPage.cfm?Artist_
ID=1236&ArtWork_ID=1381&Player_ID=10

---

80
The Teachers’ Animation Toolkit
Singing The Horizon by Martin Sercombe and Sianed Jones
A landscape fi lm using time-lapse and other techniques.
The Listening Place by Martin Sercombe
A painterly vision of a working day in the life of Cambridge market, 
using time-lapse.
Both fi lms can be seen together here: 
http://blip.tv/shinyshabazz/singing-the-horizon-and-the-listening-
place-476092

---

Animation Styles