This animation lesson plan by Miles Berry will help learners develop a wide range of essential ICT skills by creating their own animated cartoon.
Do your students like watching cartoons? Do they have a favourite character? This lesson provides an opportunity for students to put together their own animated cartoon, using characters they create themselves.
Earlier bitmap graphics work is reinforced as students use a simple paint tool to create characters and backgrounds.
They translate a storyboard idea for their animation into a series of scripted instructions for graphic objects on the computer.
Broad areas of ICT are covered, including planning, developing and evaluating your work, data handling and programming and modelling.
Animation lesson plan learning objectives
- Develop skills with bitmap editing software
- Gain familiarity with a simple scripting tool or language
- Experience some aspects of software development (such as fixing bugs, testing and iterative development)
- Develop collaborative skills through work with a partner
Starter activity
Using your smart board, show brief excerpts from several animated cartoons to the class. Ask students what makes a good animation. Record their suggestions on the IWB, moving these around to create a cluster of similar ideas.
Explore the idea of character; how is personality conveyed effectively? Discuss the purpose of a cartoon, such as a simple joke, an idea from a topic they are studying or some MFL work.
Working on paper and in pairs, students explore possible scenarios for their characters and create a storyboard for animation.
When they have an idea they like and can agree on, they should invite feedback from another pair, providing feedback to them in return, and adapting their storyboards accordingly.
Prompt students to consider how easy it would be to create their animation, and suggest that it’s better to start simple and then add more detail than to be too ambitious initially.
Miles Berry is a senior lecturer and the subject leader for Computing Education at the University of Roehampton.
