Klibcke’s Weblog

I think that this course was very valuable to have taken while I am teaching now. I think that I was intimidated to use digital media

in the classroom before this class. It always required more work and seemed like I would have to do much more thinking to teach a

simple lesson. I see now that the extra time is well worth it. My students are always engaged, and if they aren’t then I switch it up

quickly.If they’re not happy, then I’m not happy. And vis a versa. They seem to have more fun, and it helps them with the tools that

they may be using in the future in their occupations.

I do think that the course should be broken up more however. It is ALOT to cover in a very few weeks. I think that if you are coming

into the course knowing nothing at all about digital media then it could be overwhelming. I have been using Photoshop for years and

there are still new things that I learn about it all the time. And every few years a new version comes out. I’m glad that we got to see

how each piece of software can be helpful, but maybe the class should be two required sections instead of one. I feel like this is an

important tool for teachers to have in their toolbox. So instead of rushing through it Corcoran should require teachers to intensively

learn more about it.

I started out my final project with the intent of making a claymation, or an animation that had clay elements.
I was going to make a smaller version of myself and have her explain how to make an animation. I was also going to

show the steps of how to make an armature claymation figure. So I filmed myself making the armature skeleton second by second

so that it would look like the armature was coming to life by itself. I then put the clay skin on the figure bit by bit and second by

second to also make it look like it was doing this by itself. I then constructed clothes, hair and a facial expression of her poking out

her lips. I was going to have her blow a kiss so that is the explanation behind the puckered lips. When I got to school I tried to import

my video for five hours. When it simply would not work, I decided to come up with a plan B. I had already done research on how to put

still images in Final Cut Pro so I decided to just make the entire animation with stills. In order to do this I took several pictures of myself

and the clay model that I had made. Because let me tell you, if I had just wasted all of that time making the model and did not use

it, I would have been pissed.

The first stills are of me with my mouth open and another with my mouth closed. This shown repeatedly with my eyes closed will

give the effect of me snoring. I also downloaded sound effects off of the internet for a touch of humor.

And now instead of using my video of the armature coming to life I had to draw it. So simply I made a spring look like it’s bouncing.

I drew two springs. The first was long and the second was shorter. Shown back to back it gives the illusion of it bouncing. I also gave it

a cartoon sound effect of a BOING sound. This gives the illusion that it actually is bouncing.

Long story short, I was able to start over and finish off the semester with an animation.