Animate this...

Pivot Stickman Animator

This evening's SCC (Computer Club Lesson) was a great hit. Loads of fun and very interesting. It gave us an idea of just a fraction of the work involved in the great animation movies we see on the big screen nowadays.

But first the agenda:

• Take register
• SCC badges
• Welcome new members
• Easter Eggs
• Japan Disaster
• Lesson

SCC Badges
Almost all the members are now proudly wearing their new Sunridge Computer Club badges on their school uniforms and it has been the source of much envy from non-members.

Welcome new Members
The SCC is boasting 10 new members, they are: Michelle, Frans, Daniel, Jessica, Francois, Cameron, Minette, Chloé, Sebastian, and Alex. (In line with adopted internet safety policy, I have left our learners' last names out.) The Sunridge Computer Club welcomes you. I'm sure you will have a wonderful time, learning interesting things in a fun and relaxed environment.

Easter Eggs
With Easter around the corner, I thought it was a good idea to hand out some Easter eggs. Sorry mom, for spoiling your child's appetite.

Lesson
We had lots of fun with Pivot 2.2 (created by Peter Bone) tonight. This little application is - as far as I can tell - free to use and share. I made it available for the computer club members to download from the computer club's folder on one of our school's shared drives. You're given a stick man with pivot points on its joints, at the head, neck, elbows, hand, knees, and feet which you can use to move it's limbs and the entire man around. You then capture the frame before making small adjustments and capturing the next frame. If you do it right, you'll end up with a short animation of evenly flowing movements. This takes some skill. You need to plan ahead and anticipate how a person would move in order to imitate the movements in a realistic way.

Japan Disaster
I found this neat website which truly shows the devastation in Japan. We had a quick look at this and although it is not part of our lesson I thought that its worth a mention on here too. It shows numerous NASA photographs for specific areas in Japan with a slider which reveals the before and after pictures of that specific area. As you slide the slider from "before" to "after" you can actually imagine the wave reach in over the land. You may click here to view these revealing photographs.

Thank you
Thank you to all the computer club parents for dropping your children off on time and collecting them again afterwards. The computer club would not be as successful without your help and the dedication of your children.

Diary
Our next club meeting will be on Monday, 28 March 2011 at 17:15

Until next time...