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A 'claymation' piece about the spreading of the flu virus.

Eagle Eye 3

Duration: 1:06
Views: 679

Related Experiments

Spreading Flu

One member of this group was particularly interested in finding out how the flu virus spreads. They decided they would try to make a ‘Wallace and Gromit’ type animation to show the Flu spreading.

If you try this make sure that the students have a clear idea of what they want to say in their film (I recommend recording the speech first and fitting the animation to the talking). My kids wanted to change their script… after they had filmed the animation! The still camera required each member of the group have an awful lot of patience (not something 11 year olds possess in abundance) as 25 pics a second are needed ideally. It does allow you to let them all have a go, though!

Also, when filming its not a good idea to record while the rest of the school is out playing in the playground. Although we did sample the sounds and loop them in the background of the animation for authenticity.

OK, first thing: I love love love the pan from the three film-makers across to the little animation set they’ve made. Lovely touch.

As the film-makers themselves suggest, the best way to do this sort of thing is decide on the script first, working out exactly what you’re going to say and — just as importantly — what your viewer is going to be looking at for each line of the script. Sketches of those shots are called ‘storyboards,’ and with animation you’ll be locked into your decisions very early on: once the script’s recorded, that’s it!

Then comes the challenge of making the animation itself. You’ll need huge patience, but if you have lots of people it can help to get something of a production-line going. The team making the Mitosis film, for example, pressed anyone who visited the set into making plasticine letters for them.

The joy of animation is that the end result is uniquely satisfying. Also, as in this film, making it all yourself forces you to think about what you want to see, and hence you tend to end up with a very clear film.

Great effort!

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