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#1
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Need ideas for encouraging budding animator
My son, 12yo, is showing an interest in, and some talent for, computer
animation. Like a lot of kids, he enjoys comic strips and classic comics and also draws his own comics (his writing is better than his artwork). He's also familiar with a lot of styles of cartoons, from Rocky & Bullwinkle and Wallace & Gromit up to popular kids' cartoons (though we do limit TV watching). He astounded me recently by using PowerPoint (which happens to be loaded on his computer, a Win98 hand-me-down) to create a several-minute-long, reasonably complex animation. I know PowerPoint isn't the right tool for the job, but I don't know what is. I'd like to get him some software suitable for beginners that will introduce him to principles of animation and give him the tools to do some fun stuff. It would have to be something that's been around a few years, so it would work on his computer, but then I'd also be happy to get something used. I just don't know what to look for. Something designed to teach animation techniques would be perfect. It would be great if it were directed to kids, but I'm not looking for one of those branded software packages that let you insert, say, Disney characters into pre-designed backgrounds. I'd also be interested in recommendations on books or other resources for him. This is a field completely alien to me -- I have art/design training, but it was all before computers! I'd be willing to send him to a summer class if I can find a suitable one in this area, but summer's a long way off, and in any case he'd probably do better if he first has the chance to learn some of the basic programs/tools, whatever they are. Suggestions on how to encourage this interest are very welcome. --Robin |
#2
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Need ideas for encouraging budding animator
In article .com,
Robin wrote: My son, 12yo, is showing an interest in, and some talent for, computer animation. Like a lot of kids, he enjoys comic strips and classic comics and also draws his own comics (his writing is better than his artwork). He's also familiar with a lot of styles of cartoons, from Rocky & Bullwinkle and Wallace & Gromit up to popular kids' cartoons (though we do limit TV watching). He astounded me recently by using PowerPoint (which happens to be loaded on his computer, a Win98 hand-me-down) to create a several-minute-long, reasonably complex animation. I know PowerPoint isn't the right tool for the job, but I don't know what is. I'd like to get him some software suitable for beginners that will introduce him to principles of animation and give him the tools to do some fun stuff. It would have to be something that's been around a few years, so it would work on his computer, but then I'd also be happy to get something used. I just don't know what to look for. Something designed to teach animation techniques would be perfect. It would be great if it were directed to kids, but I'm not looking for one of those branded software packages that let you insert, say, Disney characters into pre-designed backgrounds. If he is doing animations with PowerPoint, you may want to skip over the idea of kid tools and just go with a regular tool. Macromedia Flash would be my recommendation in this regard, if you can find an older version around that will run on the Win98 box. Macromedia has trial downloads that you can use for 30 days, but I don't know if they provide earlier versions, and the most recent version is unlikely to work on Win98. But it at least gives you a starting point for a search. Flash isn't a program that will teach him how to draw, but it will allow him to create some nifty computer animations. Because a lot of webpage animation is done using Flash there are a lot of books and help tutorials around for it. If you can't find a version that will run on your computer, you might try and see if there is an organization that is willing to lend computer time in exchange for doing some web animation work. Many community groups would love to have a website with computer animation on it, and at 12 with some skills this is something that he could likely do quite well given your description of him. Carol Hulls |
#3
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Need ideas for encouraging budding animator
Robin wrote:
I'd be willing to send him to a summer class if I can find a suitable one in this area, but summer's a long way off, and in any case he'd probably do better if he first has the chance to learn some of the basic programs/tools, whatever they are. I don't have any suggestions for software or books, but googling for "computer camps" should bring up links for a variety of tech-oriented summer camps, many of them offered in a variety of urban areas around the country. The several I've explored offer both day-only and overnight options. In the sites I've checked out I've been most impressed by this one: http://www.internaldrive.com/ --Molly |
#4
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Need ideas for encouraging budding animator
On 2005-11-09, Carol Hulls wrote:
In article .com, Robin wrote: My son, 12yo, is showing an interest in, and some talent for, computer animation. ... If he is doing animations with PowerPoint, you may want to skip over the idea of kid tools and just go with a regular tool. Macromedia Flash would be my recommendation in this regard, if you can find an ... Flash animation seems to be the popular approach for many of the computer camps, so it is obviously easy enough to use for kids to do something interesting. ------------------------------------------------------------ Kevin Karplus http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus Professor of Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz Undergraduate and Graduate Director, Bioinformatics (Senior member, IEEE) (Board of Directors, ISCB) life member (LAB, Adventure Cycling, American Youth Hostels) Effective Cycling Instructor #218-ck (lapsed) Affiliations for identification only. |
#5
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Need ideas for encouraging budding animator
Carol Hulls wrote:
snip Flash isn't a program that will teach him how to draw, but it will allow him to create some nifty computer animations. Because a lot of webpage animation is done using Flash there are a lot of books and help tutorials around for it. Flash is a neat thing to play with, and definitely a reasonable stepping stone for a kid just getting into animation. However, other than as a neat toy, there is almost never a good reason to use flash on a web page. Flash in web pages is the kind of thing that good web design folks go on ten-page tirades about. (I'll spare you the actual tirade.) So, to the OP: if your son's interest is in web design, not just playing around with a cool toy, please make sure he knows that Flash is not the right tool for the job. If you can't find a version that will run on your computer, you might try and see if there is an organization that is willing to lend computer time in exchange for doing some web animation work. Many community groups would love to have a website with computer animation on it, and at 12 with some skills this is something that he could likely do quite well given your description of him. Carol Hulls If your son needs help finding software (or even hardware) contact your local Linux Users Group (most are listed at linux.org), or me... Free Software people *love* helping out young people who are passionate about any facet of computer technology. illecebra |
#6
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Need ideas for encouraging budding animator
Robin wrote:
My son, 12yo, is showing an interest in, and some talent for, computer animation. Like a lot of kids, he enjoys comic strips and classic comics and also draws his own comics (his writing is better than his artwork). He's also familiar with a lot of styles of cartoons, from Rocky & Bullwinkle and Wallace & Gromit up to popular kids' cartoons (though we do limit TV watching). He astounded me recently by using PowerPoint (which happens to be loaded on his computer, a Win98 hand-me-down) to create a several-minute-long, reasonably complex animation. I know PowerPoint isn't the right tool for the job, but I don't know what is. I'd like to get him some software suitable for beginners that will introduce him to principles of animation and give him the tools to do some fun stuff. It would have to be something that's been around a few years, so it would work on his computer, but then I'd also be happy to get something used. I just don't know what to look for. Something designed to teach animation techniques would be perfect. It would be great if it were directed to kids, but I'm not looking for one of those branded software packages that let you insert, say, Disney characters into pre-designed backgrounds. I'd also be interested in recommendations on books or other resources for him. This is a field completely alien to me -- I have art/design training, but it was all before computers! I'd be willing to send him to a summer class if I can find a suitable one in this area, but summer's a long way off, and in any case he'd probably do better if he first has the chance to learn some of the basic programs/tools, whatever they are. Suggestions on how to encourage this interest are very welcome. --Robin I cannot reccommend Blender enough! It has a pretty steep learning curve, but if your son is patient enough to read and try the tutorials (and, if you can afford to blow 39 Euros on it, Blender's excellent handbook), he will LOVE it. (It has even been used for a couple of movies, IIRC including Spiderman 2.) Blender is professional-grade 3d modeling and animation software that has been released under an Open Source Software license. It is available free of charge from http://www.blender3d.org for Linux, MS Windows, Mac OSX, and Solaris. There are a number of free tutorials and other resources on that site, and blender artists and developers hang out in #blender, a channel on freenode IRC (freenode.net). They are *very* welcoming to new artists, and a lot more knowledgeable than I am. I'm not sure how old your son's computer is, but Blender uses the computer's processor and RAM to render images, so he doesn't need the latest-greatest graphics card to use it. If he's more interested in still graphics, there is The GIMP at www.gimp.org (or its better-known non-free counterpart Photoshop). If you need *any* help please let me know. (I don't check my yahoo email much, so please give me a heads-up here if you've emailed me.) illecebra (yet another Free and Open Source Software geek) |
#7
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Need ideas for encouraging budding animator
illecebra wrote: Robin wrote: My son, 12yo, is showing an interest in, and some talent for, computer animation. Like a lot of kids, he enjoys comic strips and classic comics and also draws his own comics (his writing is better than his artwork). He's also familiar with a lot of styles of cartoons, from Rocky & Bullwinkle and Wallace & Gromit up to popular kids' cartoons (though we do limit TV watching). He astounded me recently by using PowerPoint (which happens to be loaded on his computer, a Win98 hand-me-down) to create a several-minute-long, reasonably complex animation. I know PowerPoint isn't the right tool for the job, but I don't know what is. I'd like to get him some software suitable for beginners that will introduce him to principles of animation and give him the tools to do some fun stuff. It would have to be something that's been around a few years, so it would work on his computer, but then I'd also be happy to get something used. I just don't know what to look for. Something designed to teach animation techniques would be perfect. It would be great if it were directed to kids, but I'm not looking for one of those branded software packages that let you insert, say, Disney characters into pre-designed backgrounds. I'd also be interested in recommendations on books or other resources for him. This is a field completely alien to me -- I have art/design training, but it was all before computers! I'd be willing to send him to a summer class if I can find a suitable one in this area, but summer's a long way off, and in any case he'd probably do better if he first has the chance to learn some of the basic programs/tools, whatever they are. Suggestions on how to encourage this interest are very welcome. --Robin I cannot reccommend Blender enough! It has a pretty steep learning curve, but if your son is patient enough to read and try the tutorials (and, if you can afford to blow 39 Euros on it, Blender's excellent handbook), he will LOVE it. (It has even been used for a couple of movies, IIRC including Spiderman 2.) Blender is professional-grade 3d modeling and animation software that has been released under an Open Source Software license. It is available free of charge from http://www.blender3d.org for Linux, MS Windows, Mac OSX, and Solaris. There are a number of free tutorials and other resources on that site, and blender artists and developers hang out in #blender, a channel on freenode IRC (freenode.net). They are *very* welcoming to new artists, and a lot more knowledgeable than I am. I'm not sure how old your son's computer is, but Blender uses the computer's processor and RAM to render images, so he doesn't need the latest-greatest graphics card to use it. If he's more interested in still graphics, there is The GIMP at www.gimp.org (or its better-known non-free counterpart Photoshop). If you need *any* help please let me know. (I don't check my yahoo email much, so please give me a heads-up here if you've emailed me.) illecebra (yet another Free and Open Source Software geek) Hey, thanks! I've been following this thread because my daughter is highly interested in Japanese manga...animation and comic books both...and would like to create her own. I wanted to be supportive but paying for Flash is a bit (*cough*) beyond us at this point. We'll look into the options you presented. beeswing |
#8
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Need ideas for encouraging budding animator
beeswing wrote: illecebra wrote: Robin wrote: My son, 12yo, is showing an interest in, and some talent for, computer animation. ... I'd like to get him some software suitable for beginners that will introduce him to principles of animation and give him the tools to do some fun stuff. Blender is professional-grade 3d modeling and animation software that has been released under an Open Source Software license. It is available free of charge from http://www.blender3d.org for Linux, MS Windows, Mac OSX, and Solaris. There are a number of free tutorials and other resources on that site, and blender artists and developers hang out in #blender, a channel on freenode IRC (freenode.net). They are *very* welcoming to new artists, and a lot more knowledgeable than I am. I'm not sure how old your son's computer is, but Blender uses the computer's processor and RAM to render images, so he doesn't need the latest-greatest graphics card to use it. If he's more interested in still graphics, there is The GIMP at www.gimp.org (or its better-known non-free counterpart Photoshop). Hey, thanks! I've been following this thread because my daughter is highly interested in Japanese manga...animation and comic books both...and would like to create her own. I wanted to be supportive but paying for Flash is a bit (*cough*) beyond us at this point. We'll look into the options you presented. I had the same sticker shock when I looked at Flash (even used, slightly outdated versions). "Free" is always a nice word when attached to software! I am wondering, though, if with Blender, he will be severely handicapped by not having Internet access. I can probably figure out how to hook his machine up to my Internet connection long enough to download the software, but engaging regularly on the message board is out. (Eventually -- say, in high school -- he'll get his own access, but for now, we have both technical and parental reasons not to hook up his room.) His computer is running Win98. GIMP sounds like something I can use! --Robin |
#9
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Need ideas for encouraging budding animator
Robin wrote:
snip I had the same sticker shock when I looked at Flash (even used, slightly outdated versions). "Free" is always a nice word when attached to software! I am wondering, though, if with Blender, he will be severely handicapped by not having Internet access. I can probably figure out how to hook his machine up to my Internet connection long enough to download the software, but engaging regularly on the message board is out. (Eventually -- say, in high school -- he'll get his own access, but for now, we have both technical and parental reasons not to hook up his room.) His computer is running Win98. GIMP sounds like something I can use! --Robin If you like, I will make a tarball** of the better Blender tutorials so that it would be easy to download them in one shot. (The best first tutorial IMHO is the one on how to make a gingerbread man walk around.) Just give me an idea of what your son's interests are like so I have an idea of which ones to choose. (This may not happen until around or after Thanksgiving... I'm already in full-steam holiday preperation.) illecebra **A tarball is a compressed archive, kind of like a .zip file. If you can't open tarballs (.tar.gz or .tar.bz2) let me know and I'll do .zip instead. |
#10
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Need ideas for encouraging budding animator
"illecebra" wrote in message ... If you like, I will make a tarball** of the better Blender tutorials so that it would be easy to download them in one shot. (The best first tutorial IMHO is the one on how to make a gingerbread man walk around.) Just give me an idea of what your son's interests are like so I have an idea of which ones to choose. (This may not happen until around or after Thanksgiving... I'm already in full-steam holiday preperation.) My 10yo son is quite talented at cartooning so I'm following this thread with interest. He was really psyched about discovering Blender but the learning curve, as you say, is steep. If you don't mind sending me a tarball, too, after Thanksgiving, that'd be greatly appreciated. DS takes classes at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco. It's one of only a handful of cartoon art museums around the world and definitely worth visiting if you're ever in the San Francisco Bay Area. http://www.cartoonart.org/ Noreen heavlin at astreet dot com |
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