DIGITAL CREATION:SIrish animators have made a splash at the Oscars, and TY students are getting in on the act
FROM GRANNY O'Grimmto The Secret of Kells, Irish animation has never been more popular. This year, four graduates from the Ballyfermot College of Further Education's animation department were nominated for Academy Awards, with Richie Baneham walking away with the best visual effects Oscar for his work on Avatar. There's a real buzz around Irish animation, and it's filtering down to TY students.
Fine arts graduate Paula Barrett facilitates after-school projects in Dublin and around Ireland. Earlier this month, she spent a week working with the students of St Laurence’s College in Loughlinstown, Co Dublin to create three-minute animation projects. The training and work was conducted at the Grainstore, a youth facility in nearby Cabinteely.
“We showed the students some examples of animation, and helped them to storyboard and develop their ideas,” she says. “We helped them with drawing skills and techniques for animation and also showed them how to use editing programmes and the cameras.”
The TY students worked in three groups to create their animation shorts. Luke Banahan, 16, explains how it worked: “On the first day, we thought about what we wanted to do, planned it all out, and got the script on paper. We had to work it out frame by frame and make sure we synchronised the sounds with the characters’ mouth movements. It was an interesting challenge because I’d never been hugely into art at school.
“Our group decided to do a funny skit involving Chris Brown, Rihanna and Kanye West in Marioland. We cut out their heads from magazines and did a simple animation. That said, it’s quite a complicated procedure; we thought five days was a long time to make an animation short, but it took quite a while.”
Each group’s story was very different: one was comedic, another was a horror story about a girl attacked by graveyard zombies, while the third told a poignant tale of time and ageing.
Stacey Finn, 16, worked with her group on the latter animation. “I’ve always been interested in art, so I jumped at the chance to take on this project” she says. “This week has made me even more certain that I’d like a career in art. Animation requires a lot
of time and patience, so you have to work through the frustration. But you can’t just walk away, as you’ll let your entire team down, so it’s a good skill for anyone to learn.”
IN ALEXANDRACollege, south Co Dublin, the TY girls have also been dabbling in animation. Kirsten Levermore and her classmates have been taking part in the Digital Creator programme, a digital media course from the Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Dún Laoghaire that integrates creative skills including music- and film-making with digital media.
“Students learn how to create new music, upload their songs, make and edit films including animation, produce their own podcasts and upload and edit their digital photographs,” she explains. “Some of the modules, such as animation and audio, are taught in class, while others can be done at home in your own time.”
The students explored moving images, filming, framing and different camera movements, and whilst they found the animation course challenging, it was nonetheless enjoyable.
“Animation is really popular at the moment,” says Kirsten. “The Digital Creator programme touches on everything from music to photography, and it’s tapping into something students are really interested in.”
Animations from St Laurence’s College can be viewed at digitalmediacentre.ie
For more information on Digital Creator, see digitalcreator.ie
