Think about all the different types of animation you have enjoyed seeing at the cinema or on TV. Have you ever wondered how they were made? Or wanted to have a go at making one? There are a lot of people who work on animations for products like adverts, video games and websites.

In this unit, you will learn about what you need to consider when making an animation, such as the audience and purpose.

You will also find out how to plan and develop ideas, characters, backgrounds and sounds to create an animation. Animation is a time-consuming process so you will need patience and you might have to overcome problems to meet deadlines. You will also need to display a positive and flexible attitude to help make sure your animation is fit for purpose.

The transferable and sector skills you develop in this unit can enable you to progress to further learning. They will also support you in completing the core skills units in Group A of the qualification.

Learning aims In this unit you will:

A Plan an animation and solve problems

B Produce an animation, demonstrating self-management.

Purpose: narrative (to tell a story), to inform/educate (e.g. public information), music video, advertisement, ident, title sequence, animated sequence in a computer game.

Speaking:Speak to communicate clearly and purposefully; structure and sustain talk, adapting it to different situations and audiences; use Standard English and a variety of techniques as appropriate

Writing: Write to communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively, using and adapting forms and selecting vocabulary appropriate to task and purpose in ways that engage the reader

Just a Minute - At the end of the lesson teachers ask learners to summarise their learning. The comparison of these summaries against learning objectives informs planning.

Learning aim A: Plan an animation and solve problems

A.P1 Produce an outline plan for an animation, suggesting solutions to simple potential problems.

Time: Reading clocks and calendars, using timetables, organising appointments, conversions, dates

• Style: comedy, fantasy, anime, realistic, informative.

• Audience: adult, teen, children.

Planning is important to all things we do.

if you fail to plan, you plan to fail!

Open Excel and create a list of tasks that you did this morning to get to college/school. Try to list them in order of you doing them. Once you have listed them add a row at the top of your spreadsheet with appropriate time intervals (5 mins or 15 mins)  now fill in the cells under the times that indicate how long it took you to do the task.
 

Listening: Listen and respond to speakers ideas and perspectives, and how they construct and express meanings

sentences with different forms: statement, question, exclamation, command

Learning Capture - Teachers allocate time at the end of the session for the group to write down what they think they have learned. The information shared helps the teacher to see which content he may need to revisit and so shapes future planning.

Learning aim A: Plan an animation and solve problems

A.P1 Produce an outline plan for an animation, suggesting solutions to simple potential problems.

Time: Reading clocks and calendars, using timetables, organising appointments, conversions, dates

Using numbers: Written or mental methods, using a calculator, rounding and estimating, problem solving

Objects to be animated: character types, props, text.

• Suspension of disbelief, i.e. characters in animation are able to do things that are impossible in the real world

Interactive Speaking : Interact with others, shaping meanings through suggestions, comments and questions and drawing ideas together.

Organising Information: Organise information and ideas into structured and sequenced sentences, paragraphs and whole texts, using a variety of linguistic and structural features to support cohesion and overall coherence.

Question and Answer - Verbal discussion with learners to quantify understanding

Learning aim A: Plan an animation and solve problems

A.P1 Produce an outline plan for an animation, suggesting solutions to simple potential problems.

Time: Reading clocks and calendars, using timetables, organising appointments, conversions, dates

Using Numbers: Counting, Place value, adding and subtracting, multiplying and dividing.

Choice of technique, e.g. stop frame animation, digital animation, thaumatrope.

• Platform.

• Technical considerations.

Writing: Write to communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively, using and adapting forms and selecting vocabulary appropriate to task and purpose in ways that engage the reader

Product Evidence - Learners to create product evidence to demonstrate understanding

Question and Answer - Verbal discussion with learners to quantify understanding

Length, weight, capacity, temperature: Measuring, using scales, ruler, tape measure, thermometer Recording and comparing results, converting, Choosing appropriate units and measuring instruments, estimating.

Planning an animated sequence

• Ideas generation: storyline ideas, sketches, initial character designs, set designs.

• Sourcing or creating assets for animation. • Writing skills.

Reading: Read and understand texts, selecting material appropriate to purpose, collating from different sources and making comparisons and cross-references as appropriate.

Writing: Write to communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively, using and adapting forms and selecting vocabulary appropriate to task and purpose in ways that engage the reader

GOs for Formative Teacher Assessment - Teachers give feedback to learners telling them specifically how to improve their visual demonstration of their understanding.

Time: Reading clocks and calendars, using timetables, organising appointments, conversions, dates

Using Numbers: Counting, Place value, adding and subtracting, multiplying and dividing.

Producing an animated sequence

• Production of the visual animated sequence. (NB For assessment, learners may produce the sequence by conventional or digital techniques, however before assessment, learners should have opportunities to experiment with a range of different techniques, which may include digital, as appropriate to the centres’ and learners’ resources.

Listening: Listen and respond to speakers ideas and perspectives, and how they construct and express meanings

Voice: Opportunities within lesson to develop their own reflective writing as well as develop technical writing skills within the production of their treatment.

Product Evidence - Learners to create product evidence to demonstrate understanding

Question and Answer - Verbal discussion with learners to quantify understanding

• Lighting and filming the animation.

• Animating sprites digitally using keyframes or tweening

Listening: Listen and respond to speakers ideas and perspectives, and how they construct and express meanings

Speaking: Speak to communicate clearly and purposefully; structure and sustain talk, adapting it to different situations and audiences; use Standard English and a variety of techniques as appropriate

Question and Answer - Verbal discussion with learners to quantify understanding

Product Evidence - Learners to create product evidence to demonstrate understanding

Time: Reading clocks and calendars, using timetables, organising appointments, conversions, dates

Using Numbers: Counting, Place value, adding and subtracting, multiplying and dividing.

• Recording audio as appropriate.

• Setting up a sequence/timeline to import assets or edit the animation.

• Managing assets using appropriate file names and folders.

Speaking: Speak to communicate clearly and purposefully; structure and sustain talk, adapting it to different situations and audiences; use Standard English and a variety of techniques as appropriate

Question and Answer - Verbal discussion with learners to quantify understanding

Product Evidence - Learners to create product evidence to demonstrate understanding

Analysis of information: Interpreting Results, Drawing conclusions from data, Comparing data

Time: Reading clocks and calendars, using timetables, organising appointments, conversions, dates

• Post production: combining animation with other assets during editing, e.g. adding sound, titles.

• Exporting the finished sequence in an appropriate resolution and format.

Reading: Read and understand texts, selecting material appropriate to purpose, collating from different sources and making comparisons and cross-references as appropriate.

Anonymous Assessment - Learners assess an anonymous piece of work containing deliberate mistakes against given success criteria.

Learning aim B: Produce an animation, demonstrating self-management

B.P2 Create a complete animated sequence, demonstrating a positive attitude.

Time: Reading clocks and calendars, using timetables, organising appointments, conversions, dates