We kicked off the Spring Semester of NTI with a two-week Stop Motion animation assignment in all Art 2, Art 3 and Art 4 classes. Students began the project by learning about the work of animation artist, Kirsten Lepore. We watched some of her short films using inanimate objects and claymation, and then listened as she described her production process. Next, we learned about artist Hugo Crosthwaite’s stop motion drawing animation entitled, A Portrait of Berenice Sarmiento Chávez. This powerful video is part of a series of works based on artist Hugo Crosthwaite’s interviews with people who are living in or are passing through Tijuana. The drawings in his video represent the collective memories and oral histories from that part of the Mexico-U.S. border. In studying this work, students learned about the power of animation to convey a visual narrative. Crosthwaite’s animation was first place winner in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery’s Annual Outwin Awards. Students learned in his interview that he had no prior experience with technology or animation, and this inspired some students to try his method of using drawing to animate their own project! Finally, we learned about other animation processes, easy animation apps to use at home…and students were challenged to create their own 8-10 second animation video. Students had to learn new technology and develop problem solving skills, work with limited at-home supplies, and they had to improvise without the benefit of one-on-one instruction. Keep in mind that this was a short assignment, with only a one week time frame to finish. A longer film could take a whole semester or more to complete. Please click on the link to view a compilation of everyone’s animations. I’m so proud of them and I’m very pleased with their projects!