Digital Characters

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Digital Characters Lesson Plan Kirk
Palayan Computer Animation Class
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Culminating Task and Student Outcomes Students
will be able to develop characters on the
computer. The characters are based on the
stories they wrote using the writing process.
Students will rely on stories, model sheets and
the storyboards they developed for the creation
of the digital characters. These characters
will be used in the cartoons they will animate.
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Materials Students third draft of stories,
model sheets, storyboards, computers and Adobe
Photoshop/ Macromedia Fireworks computer
programs.
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Motivator Students are required to complete the
class project cartoon. This will require that
students learn to use the Adobe
Photoshop/Macromedia Fireworks program, to
create their characters for the cartoon.
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Introduction and Background Information For the
past month, all students have been involved in
the pre-production process of cartoon production.
Each student has developed a story using the
writing process-(Brainstorming, 1st Draft,
Revising, Editing, Final Draft). They have also
developed the style and design of their cartoons
by creating model sheets and a storyboard.
These steps have led up to each student being
able to develop digital elements of their
stories for the cartoon.
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Process After showing a video excerpt of
animators behind the scenes of a cartoon, the
class will again discuss the importance of
planning for a cartoon. After this
discussion occurs, students will be taught and
then questioned about the steps and
specifications for using the Adobe
Photoshop/ Macromedia Fireworks programs. These
programs will be used to develop characters and
backgrounds for the cartoons. Students will be
asked to have the model sheets and the
storyboards of their stories out during the
character development process, as reference.
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Assessment / Evaluation Students will be
required to create all the characters and the
settings (backgrounds) for the cartoon by next
week. Throughout the week each group will be
monitored for the creation of the characters and
backgrounds. The digital images will be graded
on how accurately each student was able to
develop the characters and the backgrounds by
following all of the references they had
developed for the cartoon.
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Enrichment / Extension Students will develop
computer skills in animation along with
reviewing the step by step process of creating a
cartoon that is the intended end goal. My
Computer Animation Class was featured in the
California Educator, a magazine For educators.
You can view the article here- http//www.cta.org/
californiaeducator/v8i3/Feature_1.htm