**Note: If you are using a different animation software, the instructions on how to complete the final product will need to be modified.
The word is out: Ingenia’s Serenity Studios is having a competition to produce a new Public Service Announcement as a commercial.
Script: Hello everyone, We are going to continue working on our PSA animations today. First, you will learn about an important tool that Animators use, a Storyboard. Animators use a storyboard to plan out their animations before starting to animate. This helps them think through all of the details and play with ideas before spending the time to create the animation.
A storyboard is a blueprint showing key scenes like the settings, dialogue, action, etc. through images and illustrations. It helps in guiding and presenting a visual idea of how a concept will look. We are going to watch a quick video about drawing out your images on a storyboard before actually creating the animation on a software.
Watch Flipbook Tutorial under Unit 3: Flipbook-ish and Storyboarding
Script: As you saw in the video, there were different images drawn out on different cards or squares which helps in playing around with different ideas before creating the animation. We are going to be storyboarding for your PSA using a storyboarding template. This will allow you to play around with different ideas before you animate it.
Distribute Storyboarding Templates and have students sketch out their ideas that would go along with their PSA.
Script: In the different squares, sketch your characters and ideas where each square is a frame. Draw out all of your frames. Your PSA animation has to be at least 10 frames so make sure you have at least 10 squares filled out when you are storyboarding. Once they have had a chance to do some storyboarding, give the class a design challenge to help them learn about how to design emotions into their animation.
Split the class into 6 groups and assign each one of the following emotions:
Instruct students to write their emotion word in bubble letters on a blank page. The objective for each group is to decorate the word, demonstrating its meaning through design. Prompt students to consider color, patterns, and textures in their design choices.
When finished, each group should present their work to the class. Facilitate a discussion about identifiable moments of color psychology or the study of how color affects our minds and mood. For example, you might consider asking:
Consider showing this video on Color Psychology (www.youtube.com/@InteriorDezign) to secure understanding. You can also provide examples of color psychology in action in this video on Disney’s color psychology. (www.youtube.com/@MashableNews)
Script: Now that you have learned a little about color theory and how colors can affect the way you feel, go ahead and add to your story board. This time decide what color you will use throughout your PSA. If you have a person wearing a shirt, what color will the shirt be? If you have words in your storyboard, what color will the word be?
Watch FableVision Learning’s Video: Wordimations to introduce the next activity. Pause after each animated word to discuss how the designer utilized animation to illustrate the word’s meaning. For example, the word ‘Bloom’ is designed to look like the Os are blooming into flowers.
Pick an emotion from the previous activity and demonstrate how one might animate that word in the program. Allow the class to offer suggestions for your example design as you work.
Ask students to think of words that bring about strong senses of emotion for them. Students are welcome to animate an emotion word if they would prefer, but you can also open up the assignment to allow for more creative freedom. Students might feel inspired to design and animate words related to their own lives such as ‘friendship,’ ‘soccer,’ or ‘summer.’ No matter what the word, the objective is to design an animation that defines the word in some way.
Colory Theory: explains how humans perceive color; and the visual effects of how colors mix, match or contrast with each other.
Storyboard: A “blueprint” showing key scenes (settings, dialogue, action, etc.) through images and illustrations. Helps in aiding and presenting a visual idea of how a concept will look.
Invite and encourage students to finish their storyboards so they are ready to animate it tomorrow.
