Animation and Chroma Keying

Today I reconnected to my childhood love of playmobil! Getting a chance to use stop motion animation was fabulous. I really enjoyed the experience, and the possibilities it opened are really quite endless. In particular I was thinking about how stop motion animation could be used in the classroom. I was thinking about how little technology is actually needed- only a digital camera or webcam and some software. Students who didn't have access to a video camera, would be able to use stop motion technology and say, lego pieces, to create videos. This would also be a viable option for students who were not wanting to be on camera themselves. I was thinking about how interesting it would be to get students to use stop motion technology to do a "coles notes" type recreation of the most important events in a novel, play or short story.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to play around much with Chroma keying because of technical difficulties with the Wax 2.0 program that the class experienced, but what a cool idea. Being able to use green screen technology to provide homemade video and pictures with exotic backgrounds would also be great for recreating Shakespeare plays or scenes from novels, as the students could put themselves in scenery that they would not be able to otherwise.

Check out my animation by clicking on the link on the bar at the right!