Animation Webinar

Hey everyone --these tools look like loads of fun! Last fall I attended a attend a webinar about using free online software (Go!Animate, Blabberize, and Xtranormal) that was offered by ISTE/SIGMS. These are free, and as you know most everything ISTE offers has a big $$$ sign attached to it, so these are a great deal.



The presenter is Gwyneth Anne Bronwynne Jones, a teacher librarian, but lest you get the impression from her name that she's a prim and proper wallflower type --



-- her Animation Studios wiki looks crazy-dynamic!


The link for this event can be found in Classroom 2.0 at http://www.classroom20.com/forum/topics/animation-in-the-classroom.

If you're not a CR 2.0 member yet and can't bring up the webpage, here are the instructions:

1. heck that your computer is set up for Adobe Connect by visiting Adobe Connect Pro Connection Test (link -- http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/351/d83c3511.html)
2. Use this URL to enter the webinar room 10 - 15 minutes before starting time: http://Montgomery.na4.acrobat.com/SIGMS
3. Enter as a guest and type your first and last name.

If it's too cold or too hot for your kids to play outside and they're keen on animation, here's a free downloadable program called SqirlzMorph.


This is a little like the high tech version of what I used to see when my dad riffled through the pages of a "Big Little" book really fast and made the individual drawings on the corners of the pages dance for my little girl's eyes.


Here are two very different video examples of work done with this free program.

[Exo-Perfection] Reznic
Uploaded by Reznic.

There are loads of tutorial videos in YouTube, and I'm going to have to take this one into school on my laptop (we're not allowed to install at school) to let my students test drive it. I'm doing some experimenting with giving them visual ways to remember times tables. These a older kids who need to pass trade tests and we're working on creating dynamic visuals that will help them stop counting because they can see the images in their minds.

Squirlz also has tools you can use to animate water reflections, a Lite version.


Here's a page that can give you all sorts of interesting visual programs to play with: http://www.freebyte.com/graphicprograms/