Panther Zoetropes

On the last day of physical animation before we dived into the virtual realm, we explored zoetropes. Lots of "cool!"'s and "WOW!"'s with this activity, so enjoy.

Zoetropes

Big Idea: Being the third in the 3 part lesson plan which explores the concepts of animation, this activity portrays another way animation can trick the mind into believing it percieves motion. It also gives the teens a unique opportunity to create a cartoon themselves, so at the end of the day their accomplishment is tangible and entertaining.

Dates: Monday, November 21st

Groups Participating: Panther Boys and Girls Club DesignIT Teens

Attendance: Gabe, myself, and 5 teens

Software: None

Hardware: None

Materials:
For Zoetrope: a paper or cardboard cylander, painted black, that is roughly the size of a popcorn bucket (about 9 inches tall and has at least an 9 inch diameter, both ends having the same diameter), an exacto-knife, an easily spinable turntable, a desklamp with at least a 60 watt bulb, hot glue gun and hot glue
For Activity: twenty or so strips of paper (at least 2 per student) that are 3 inches tall and their length should equal the circumference of the inside of the cylander, various colors of regular, thick-tipped sharpies, pencils, clear one-sided tape,

Directions:
To biuld a Zoetrope: (See photo) Paint the cylander black. At what will be the top of the cylander, about an inch from the edge, cut 3 inch slits into the side, lenthwise, that are about half an inch wide. Space the slits 3 inches apart for eachother. Depending on the cicumference of the cylander will depend on how many slits to cut. For a popcorn size bucket, it should be about nine. There should be about four inches to spare at the bottom of your cylander. Hot glue the cyclander to the center of the easily rotatable turntable. Place lamp facing into the cylander.
To run a Zoetrope: Take a strip of the paper. With a nearly invisable line from a pencil divide the strip into as many evenly spaced sections as holes in your cylander. Let's say there are 9 slits, than make 8 evenly-spaced lines. In each space draw a character for your cartoon that starts in one position in the first square, moves, then returns to the same position in the last square. What works best for this activity is drawing a character that rises and falls once, so long as it starts and ends in the same place. To get the teens motivated, simply ask them to name some things that rise and fall. Some of thier cartoons included a horse on a merry-go-round, a basketball going up and down once, a flag on a flagpole, a plane rising and falling, a skateboarder jumping once, ect. When finished, tape the strip of paper inside at the bottom of the cylander so as to not block any slits at the top. Have the drawings facing inwards towards eachother, so that when peering through one slit from the opposite side, only one image can be seen. Finally turn the lamp on, step back and spin. When peering through the rotating slits, your cartton will appear.

Associated Concepts: Not only are they gaining knowledge about another way animation can trick the eye, but the cartoon is so simply made but so convincing, they can walk away proud of thier creation.

Best Part: Definatley the moment of the spin under the light. After all the preparation and build up, the final product is quite gradifying for all. I loved when after completing one, they would jump right into drawing another.

Worst Part: Discovering when a cartoon didn't work got frustrating for some, but ultimately taught them what needed to be done to fix it. For instance Lianthia animated a ball bouncing, however, she first drew it so it bounced up then down in every frame, which when animated, its too fast for the mind to percieve anything. So she discovered she needed to raise it up then down once gradually to animate it successfully.

Improvements: We were using actual popcorn buckets, which, because the diameter of the top was more than the the diameter of the bottom, made it difficult to tape our animations to the inside without tearing them. So next time we definately need to find cylanders with even diameters on both ends. Also, when writting this, I discovered there is alot of geometric terminology involved in its desciption, and math involved in its contructing. These concepts should definately be addressed when teaching this activity.

Next we're onto virtual animation in Microworlds which I will be blogging tommorrow. Hope all is well with all.

Myles