Storyboarding a dragon animation

Ask: “Who has watched a cartoon? How do you think the pictures move?” Take 2 or 3 ideas.

Say: “Here is a secret. The pictures in a cartoon do not really move. An animation is lots of still pictures, shown one after another, very, very fast. Each picture is called a frame. Each frame is only a tiny bit different from the one before. Our eyes and brain join them up, so it looks like moving.”

Show: your notebook. Show the 4 stick people one at a time, slowly. Ask: “What is different on each page?” (the arms go up, then it jumps) Do: now hold the pages and flick them fast with your thumb, so the stick person seems to wave and jump. Do it 2 or 3 times.

Say: “That is an animation. Cartoons work like this, and so does stop-motion. In stop-motion, people move a model a tiny bit, take a photo, move it again, take another photo, again and again. The first Fireman Sam films were made like this, with little models.”

Do (optional, if you have sticky notes): each pupil sticks 2 notes on top of each other. Draw a circle face on the bottom note. Draw the same face on the top note, but with the mouth open. Roll the top note round a pencil and move the pencil up and down fast. The mouth opens and shuts.

Say: “Look at Task 1. This is a pretend animation app, like one on a tablet. Along the bottom is the frame strip. When you press the play button, the app shows the frames from left to right, very fast.”

Say: “Oh no! Someone has mixed up the frames of a dragon egg hatching. If we press play now, the egg will jump about. Let’s put them in order.”

Ask: “Which frame comes first? Look for the egg with no cracks at all.” (frame C) Say: “Write 1 in the box under it.” Ask: “What happens next?” (a small crack, frame E, write 2)

Say: “Now finish the order by yourself, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Look at the cracks and the baby dragon. Each frame is a tiny bit more hatched.” Walk round. If a pupil is stuck, ask: “Can you see the dragon yet? Can you see its eyes or its whole head?”

Answers: A 3, B 6, C 1, D 5, E 2, F 4. In order: C (whole egg), E (small crack), A (big crack all the way round), F (the top lifts and 2 eyes peep out), D (the head pops out wearing a bit of shell), B (the baby dragon stands next to the shell).

Say: “In a good animation, the dragon moves only a little bit in each frame. If one frame jumps too far, the animation looks jerky, like a hiccup.”

Say: “In Task 2 the dragon is flying to the castle. Put your finger on the dragon in frame 1, then frame 2, then 3, then 4. Which frame jumps too far? Draw a circle round it.”

Ask: “Why is it jumpy?” (In frame 3 the dragon is suddenly right next to the castle, then in frame 4 it is back again.) Answer: frame 3.

Say: “Before people make an animation, they draw a plan called a storyboard. It shows the main frames, in order, in boxes.”

Say: “Your storyboard is: the dragon flies over the castle. Or you can choose your own idea. Here is a top tip. Draw the castle first, in the same place, in all 4 frames. Then draw the dragon. Move the dragon only a little bit each time: low, then higher, then over the castle, then past it.”

Do: on the board, draw 4 boxes with a castle in each, and a small dragon moving across, to show the idea. Leave the lines under the frames empty for now.

Walk round. Ask: “Is your dragon only a little bit different in each frame? Would it look jumpy?”

Say: “A caption is a sentence that tells what is happening. Now write a caption on the lines under each of your 4 frames.”

Do: write on the board: the dragon flies up. Ask: “What is missing?” Fix it together: a capital T at the start and a full stop at the end. Write The dragon flies up. Point to the gaps. Say: “Leave a finger space between each word.”

Say: “In one of your captions, use an exclamation mark or a question mark instead of a full stop. Use ! for something surprising or loud, like Look at the dragon! Use ? for a question, like Can you see me?”

Say: “The word bank in Task 4 has words to help you. When you finish, tick the checklist.” I will read the word bank aloud: dragon, castle, flies, up, down, sky, hello, Look.

Say: “The animation app wrote 3 captions for the egg, but it forgot the capital letters and the punctuation. Can you fix them?”

Read each caption aloud: “the egg cracks” · “out pops a baby dragon” · “can it fly”. Say: “Use each mark once: one full stop, one exclamation mark, one question mark. Write each caption again on the line, with a capital letter at the start.”

Ask: “Which one is a question?” (can it fly) “Which one is a big surprise?” (out pops a baby dragon)

Answers: The egg cracks. · Out pops a baby dragon! · Can it fly?

Pupils work in pairs. One pupil is the “app” and points to the frames 1, 2, 3, 4 quickly. The partner reads the captions aloud, with a surprised voice for ! and a question voice for ?. Then swap.

Ask: “What is a frame?” · “Why should each frame be only a tiny bit different?” · “Where did you use a ! or a ?” Say: “Da iawn, everyone! (Well done!)”