We have been putting on several courses throughout Halton funded by Halton Youth Provision, including a six week set of Animation sessions at The Studio Widnes.
This project has had a focus on helping young people with their wellbeing and mental health.
During this project our participants developed both creative and technological animation skills, exploring disciplines such as Stop-Motion Animation and Rotoscoping.
Week 1:ย
There was an excited frenzy as everyone rushed to pick up their box of bricks to begin Lego Stop-Motion Animation. The young peopleย got straight to creating their film sets; houses, streets, a galaxy far, far away and the lair of Jeff Besoz complete with robot fish!
They looked at the best ways to shoot their films; moving smoothly, stationary camera, the length of their frames and much more.
Week 2:
We further explored the Animate app functions and created a film to upload to the Mako Creators Youtube channel.
We had a look at adding titles and credits to our films, plus introduced music and sound effects.
Films were produced covering everything from a Star Wars spoof to yet another scene with robot fish!
Watch those videos HERE.
Week 3:ย
Session three was about trying other animation functions with the introduction of digitalised faces!
This time there were a range of weird and wonderful scenes including a Dojo fight with Deadpool, a prison scene and an Among Us spoof.ย
Watch their creations HERE.
Week 4:ย
Time for the final session working with Lego. We gave our participants a green screen so they could change the backgrounds of their films. We took away all green boards, lego blocks and figures so we didnโt have any invisible characters paying a visit!
This time the group had to set their films either in space/another world, under the sea or the desert. It was a resounding yes to space with all groups choosing planetary exploration.
Watch those videos HERE.
Week 5:ย
The fifth session was a chance to try 2D cartoon drawing animation.
The young people took photos of themselves and drew them to create fun halloween-themed animations.
The young people used a range of tools and techniques in their animations such as using the lasso tool to duplicate sections of their drawings to use on other frames.
Watch their animations HERE.
Week 6:ย
In our final session, we had a go at creating a rain drop animation. The young people drew out their backgrounds and then drew each stage of a raindrop falling; from droplet to puddle.
This really gave the group a chance to get creative with their drawings.ย
You can see their creations HERE.
Given the challenging times everyone has faced due to the Covid 19 pandemic; including instances of illness and social isolation, we agreed with our funders to centre our Halton Youth Provision projects in 2021 around health and wellbeing.
During this Animation course our staff encouraged our young people to talk openly about their physical and mental health and regularly checked up on how our participants were feeling, through both informal verbal checks and written feedback.
Overall our six week Animation project was a resounding success; lots of new friendships were made and many young people signed straight up to do more activities with us.
ย Check our Coming Up page to find out what we are next doing near you!
