You Matter Stop Motion

In our project we decided to create a stop motion animation of spreading kindness from one person to another and then putting a twist at the end to add a little humor. Before starting the kindness project, we originally had another idea about overcoming your fears, but sadly we ran into difficulties of missing materials and not enough time. After that idea was unable to be done we quickly came up with the kindness idea by looking at a note card and remembering a troubling week of trying to show others kindness.

 We began to make a storyboard and then writing inspiring quotes on notecards to use during filming. During our filming we first began with live action video of a girl texting one of her friends. After discovering her friend is feeling unimportant, she decides to send him an encouraging message. The message is a note card representing the "text" and as it is being "sent" the video turns into stop motion. The camera follows the note card as it travels out of the classroom and to the staircase where the sad friend is sitting. As he receives the text he becomes happy and decides to send his own inspirational message to someone he believes needs it, this is where it becomes more toward the humor side of the video. After filming the main parts, due to time we decided to use what we have currently. The editing of the video is still being done at this time.

What I learned during this project is to know the due date in more advanced time and think of projects that can be great but also very simple. Our original project would have been great when done, but it required more time to make. Next time, we as a team will have to come up with a more simple project so we would not have to deal with time issues or material problems. What I think we can do the same next time is the "team meetings" we had. I enjoyed being able to discuss more with the team members and becoming closer and getting to know one another better. Knowing the whole team better will result in a more affective environment to complete a project.

Here are the storyboards for the 2nd idea for our stop motion project. Like said earlier, this project idea was about a girl sending a message to her depressed friend to try to cheer him up and make him feel important like he really is.

View the final animation here.

For my next project I will make sure to manage my time better during the project. Making sure I have enough time to get the project done before the due date as well as finishing it the way I originally intended to.

I hope to create more group projects later on in animation, I find it to be very fun and great for allowing students to learn to be more social with one another, especially with people who share the same interests as them.

Chloe Kraus - Our leading Director and Project Manager. Chloe helped bring the group together and provided a camera and some materials needed for both projects. She is a natural born leader and was supportive throughout the project.

Kelsie Wilt - Our assistant Director, assistant Project Manager, and Lead Editor. Provided sheets for the first project idea and then notecards for the second project idea. Drew out storyboards for both projects, test animation for first project, and rough edited films of both projects.

Mike Webster - Technical Producer. Mike provided a lot of support to the project ideas created and was able to add in a lot of unique and great ideas to the projects. He helped move/create the sheets used during the first project and then moved the cards on the floor during the second project.

Hasset Habte - Behind the scenes artist and support. Hasset wasn't able to have much involvement during the filming or post production of both projects, but she provided a lot of support and great ideas during the idea development of both projects. Hasset was able to contribute different ideas to make both projects more unique and great on its own with her creative mindset.