Over the last couple of months I’ve been given a chance to tinker with the private beta of the video game making software Atmosphir. Wow! This software is so powerful and so easy! Check out the video to get an idea of what it can do and sign up to wait for the beta to go public on the Atmosphir Waiting List.

I introduced the software to a group of kids a while back and they were very impressed. In fact the woman who hired me thanked me for getting her ‘a few brownie points’ with her own kids because they loved it so much.

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Love, Death, Rhetoric & Half Life – A Blog Post in Two Parts.

1. Why do it?

- …because we can and because it is very, very EASY!
- Exposing students to ‘real’ 3d animation is cost prohibitive and rather complex. This is cheap and readily available.
- So much of schooling is ‘about’ stuff. Kids are required to write about, ‘the explorers’, about ‘the planets’ & about ‘what they did in the holidays’. Where do we encourage them to create new stuff? Where do we encourage them to produce stuff that has never been produced before?
- In my experience, ‘I can’t draw’ gets in the way of adults and children cartooning so this form of digital story telling eliminates the excuse.

2. To Foster Creativity

- How might you adapt it to make your own creative product?
- What might this sort of experimentation lead to if this type of thinking and experimentation is encouraged and celebrated?
- Do new with the new and encourage our students to do the same.
- Think and Question -  Compare the lines from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead with the Half Life context. How are they alike and different?
- Hypothsize the events before and after this graphic.
- Substitute other famous quotes for the dialogue in this comic. What new meanings can be created? eg ‘It is a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done before. It is a far, far better rest…’

So how did I come up with this idea? Bits of SCAMPER.

Combine – Half Life 2 screen shots, with Comic Life with a quote from a Tom Stoppard play.

Eliminate – I had heaps of other alternatives that I eliminated as they didn’t have the impact this idea had.

- So where does the thought to combine famous quotes come from? In my mind I seem to run very quickly through a heaps of possibilities and then I eliminate the ones of lesser worth or impact as I go. It is sort of like brainstorming without the butchers’ paper

For the people who aren’t into gaming or don’t know how to do screenshots I’ve put together a collection of images you can use for your own creative digital storytelling.

Enjoy

Adrian

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Spore has a video capture function built into it so we just grabbed a heap of video shots of one of the characters and put them together in Movie Maker with his current favourite joke. Too easy!!!

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Another of the things I love about machinima is the irreverent humour. Feel free to make humourous suggestions for the dialogue of this comic

Plus, I think I mentioned it before, I love leaving these sorts of things on display in classes for a week and having the students think about what should be added to the language bubbles. Mulling it over for a while tends to produce great results.

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Over the last few years I have found myself more and more in tune with the concept of  ’slow knowing’. I tend to take a long time to make up my mind about some things. I find I might experiment with an idea for a week and then think about it on and off for a few months and in some cases, even years.

Machinima (machine cinema) is one of those concepts. When @mizminh I were working together in Byron Bay five years ago we started our initial experiments with the genre. We started discussing and exploring the emerging artform with the kids. We also started looking into some of the tools that were around at the time but found our hardware sadly lacking the power to use the software effectively.

In the last month or so I’ve discovered Fraps99. It’s a piece of software that allows you to take screenshots and video captures from within video games. Fraps is free to download and use but if you want added features you can upgrade for a fee. So far I’m very happy with the free version.

So now when Mr 10 and I are playing our latest favourite RTS game we take captures while gaming. When we are finished the game we crop the images in Paint.Net and then drop them into Photostory 3 or Comic Life to see what creative storytelling options we can come up with.

Over lunch yesterday a second year uni student asked me why I’d want to do this ’stuff’ with students. Instantly a heap of half formed ideas came flooding forth…

1. Attitude development – It is worthwhile to tinker. It is worthwhile to experiment with using things in new and different ways. How do we celebrate creativity, innovation and alternate forms of thinking?

2. Forced Creativity – by supplying alternative stimulus different narratives will be created i.e. moving beyond ponies, rainbows and what I did on the weekend

3. Demonstrating how to rise above the defaults of software?

4. Educational outcomes are the floor not the ceiling. Do we really need to continue being apologist when it comes to exploring the possibilities of ICTs?

5. Teaching organisational strategies and problem solving – How can we get more captures to work with? Where can we store these captures so everyone can access them? Many real problems will need to be solved and this is worthwhile.

6. ICTs can be integrated but often the rigid insistence on integration is stifling on so many levels. Insistence on integration often eliminates the possibilities of celebrating advances in technologies.

7. The tools for making the stories are free (or cheap) and the students already have the games at home.

8. Transference of skills – cliche I know, but the software people will use in five years doesn’t exist yet. Activities such as this teach how to view software in new ways & celebrate innovation.

9. Get the students to narrate a video trailer with the voice of that guy that does the cinema previews. They know the guy and they love it. Use a very deep voice and pause in all the wrong places to make the trailer sound like you must see this film.

10. I like the notion of irreverent humour that is often added to machinima films eg narrate the above film from the point of view of forgetting to put out the bin or spacesuits that do not have adequate zippers

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Before a teacher can implement QA in their classrooms they have to participate in 4 professional development sessions. I’ve signed up for the training and installed the software. The training takes place via Skype and starts Tuesday night.

I’ll let you know how it goes. I’ve heard that it is heaps of fun. Maybe you could sign up & join in.

Cheers

Adrian

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The video game making industry is one of the fastest growing on the planet and it’s really easy to get kids involved in creating their own games.

Here is some of the ‘entry level’ software that I’ve used with kids over the years to make video games. On each page I’ve included a Youtube video that gives you a bit of an idea on what can be achived with each title & I’ve also included some links to tutorials.

Here is my ’suggested order’ for exploring this software.

1. Future Pinball – make virtual pinball machines.
2. Klik n Play – simple platformers
3. Game Maker - getting a little more complex now.
4. Adventure Maker – easy, but a fair bit of planning has to go into your games.
5. Reality Factory – for senior students to make First Person Shooters (FPS)

I’ve also included a game making assignment that I taught to a Year Nine class a while back. Modify it to meet the needs of your students.

Enjoy

Adrian

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Whenever I run workshop, Anim8or (a free 3d program) is often the most popular piece. It allows you to manipulate 3d shapes to create your own environments and if you wish to get a little more techo you can make small snippets of animated film.

Here is a little character my 8 year old son knocked up with the program.

Today I’ve added a very rough ‘Anim8or – QUICK START GUIDE‘ to my website to help you on your way to making the next Shrek, Happy Feet etc.

cheers

Adrian

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On my 3d animation page I’ve just added a link to a piece of fantastic free piece of Computer Aided Design software called Google Sketchup. This software enables everyone to produce 3d models of houses, gardens, rooms and objects simply. This is a great tool to support Science and Technology lessons as well as Design and Technology and could also be integrated in creative ways to Art, English and Maths.

Once you get the hang of creating models you can animate them and even upload them to Google Earth or to a 3d warehouse for others to view and download.

Google Sketchup has been a great hit with my students and I’m sure yours will enjoy it as well.

cheers

Adrian B

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