Last week in the library we ran a themed week around the history of animation.

Students learned about the origins of animation, from the very first animated piece, early animation techniques and the origins of some of today’s most well known animation houses. Exploring the analogue methods of animation from the use of mirrors and stop-motion, we travelled through history to the foundations of technicolour, combining music and movement and eventually to the movement to computer generated images (CGI).

Our TY Library Committee were busy making posters on a selection of famous animated pieces including Song of the Sea and Cinderella. These posters were displayed around the library for the week and included facts about how each movie was made, some fun facts about it and how it was received in the box office.

Events for the weeks

Along with our display boards, we had lots of fun events and activities for students.

We had a visit from Boulder Media to our TY students to talk about working in animation. Students were shown the phases of animation from early concept art, background creation, rigging, colour and final animation pieces. Students thoroughly enjoyed this experience and asked lots of great questions. A huge thank you to Boulder Media for coming in to talk to us.

Our TY students, Neila and Sarah ran an animation workshop for first year students. Using an app called ‘Flipaclip’, Neila and Sarah showed the first years how to make a bouncing ball animation. Students each created unique drawings called frames which when combined and played in video showed a bouncing ball. The first years really enjoyed this time. Thank you to Neila and Sarah for running this workshop!

Over the week, we also ran Kahoot quizzes for class groups on the history of animation and had the opportunity to watch some classic examples of animated masterpieces like Nightmare before Christmas and Spirited Away.