Another use for Animation.

[tonydusko]

As a fifth grade teacher, I use TVPaint to create simple animations to help liven up my daily lessons. However, last month my superintendent asked me to create a presentation to show other teachers how I incorporate technology in my class room. So instead of making a PowerPoint presentation like everyone else, I used TVPaint. Although I wrote it for adults, kids seem to like it as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rtPhSb9 ... annel_page

[ZigOtto]

excellent !
Tony the PowerPoint Killer !

[Elodie]

it's so sweet and so cute ^^

I really like it ! (above all the moment with the cow and the arrow "just kidding" )

[slowtiger]

Just to use another meaning of the thread title:

I successfully used TVP for bulk production of graphics for webdesign. Task was to create hundreds of different combinations from a given set of images. After staring at Photoshop for a moment, I decided that all it needed was one layer in TVP, duplicate it, stretch one, set the other to repeat, and export. 5 minutes work instead of a whole afternoon.

[toonsisters]

Wonderfully charming with the essential touch of humor.
thank you also for the notebook babies, I detected at your youtube account. (I love the "un tomate cologne for men")

have you already applied for festival competitions like the educational films section in annecy festival?
i hope your films will spread out, sold to many countries, dubed and then my children are able to watch them in german!

thank you for sharing
Vera

[tonydusko]

Thanks for the comments everyone. I have done well at a few competitions, however, I was rejected from Sundance and Ottawa this past year (not this film). Many of my animations are a bit random and silly and thus work well in the classroom but perhaps are not well suited for festivals. But I think you have a good point in that I should try to submitt to educational/children's catagories. I did not realize that Annecy had one of these. And of course, I am still developing my skills and trying to make better films which each new one I create.

[Paul Fierlinger]

Years ago I had my Teeny Little Super Guy series in Annecy and Ottawa where it not only got no award but was jeered, particularly at Ottawa. Many other festivals, such as the most prestigious Children's TV festival in Chicago, outright rejected it for viewing, even outside of competition. When I showed it at the ASIFA festival in New York, my fellow animators booed and yelled at the projectionist to turn it off.

This series runs on kid-vid TV to this day (after over 20 years) and I get fan mail almost every week from parents who watched it when they were kids and are grateful that their kids now enjoy it as much. The series did extremely well when focus group tested by Sesame Street. It was named the most successful series for audience response (letters) by the Children's TV Workshop -- but it never ever did well at festivals, even in the eyes of my peers.

Your series is of the same ilk; it serves an extremely important purpose in the development of kids. I have seen responses of our peers on YouTube which are akin to the ones I used to get for Teeny Little Super Guy. Festivals are pure business and viewers are heathens. Festivals are self-serving events to make enough money for the few individuals at the top (like a Ponzi family) to last them a year, until the next festival is held. Their focus is thus on three aspects: to sell ALL the theater seats out to the local populace, and by that token to create lucrative sponsorship by local political organizations and corporations for advertising.

The festival organizers traditionally have a tendency to treat all applying filmmakers like dirt but once they get in, treat them like royalty so that all filmmakers will consider being treated like dirt worth their efforts to get in the following years. Festival awards have very little to do with the real appeal of films to the filmmaker's targeted audiences but everything to do with everything I wrote above.

[Sierra Rose]

Tony, I just love it too. All of your films in fact.

So funny and instructive and interesting. I had a fifth grade teacher who invited our imaginations and curiosity to increase as much as possible. To this day, I credit him with the fact that I have developed into a adult with a wide range of interests, that I have never lost my sense of wonder. He was the most important adult in all my years of growing up. Your kids are sooo lucky to have you.

[toonsisters]

The festival organizers traditionally have a tendency to treat all applying filmmakers like dirt but once they get in, treat them like royalty so that all filmmakers will consider being treated like dirt worth their efforts to get in the following years. Festival awards have very little to do with the real appeal of films to the filmmaker's targeted audiences but everything to do with everything I wrote above.

Dear Paul, there you have touched a sore point of festivals we all have to admit.
Sometimes we'd better take the "business" not too serious.
But it is easier to show this kind of serenity on the base of your experience of life.
Anyway festivals are wonderfull places for making contacts - with or without awards. (especially in early warm June in such a lovely atmosphere like in annecy!)

[Paul Fierlinger]

I agree with you, sisters and I do not take festivals at all seriously anymore. I take them so lightly as not to enter them much at all. There are cases though, when it is important for the producer to enter them, win, and thus have a ticket to raise more money for the next project, which just happens to also be my next project. For the producer winning is everything that a festival means to him and his winning is tomorrow's paid bills for me.

There was a time when I was both filmmaker and producer, thus winning meant a lot to me as well. This is where Tony is now and he needs to win some festivals to expect anyone to invest in his series. I know Tony well; we live close to each other, we are close friends and I know his plans. So it's nice to be serene about festivals and enjoy the weather but if your ambitions go beyond that, let's say into the entrepreneurial sphere, you just don't give a damn about the weather as much as you do on following the beaten path of what society has determined to count as success, and we live in times and places where success can be survival.

[tonydusko]

Years ago I had my Teeny Little Super Guy series in Annecy and Ottawa where it not only got no award but was jeered, particularly at Ottawa. Many other festivals, such as the most prestigious Children's TV festival in Chicago, outright rejected it for viewing, even outside of competition. When I showed it at the ASIFA festival in New York, my fellow animators booed and yelled at the projectionist to turn it off.

One of the best parts of having Paul as a mentor and friend is whenever I get down about a rejection or set back, he always has a worse story to tell and then I feel much better.

[Julian wigley]

Hi Tony,
Refreshing.
All the best with teaching and sparking curiosity in kids.

[Svengali]

Hi Tony,

Thanks for sharing that.

I'm going to show this video (and some of your others) to my wife who is a fifth grade ESL teacher here in NYC - your ideal audience I think. She is currently designing a unit for exploring with microscopes (The school has provided five for the class). I wonder if you have posted any details for implementing your low cost solution for displaying the microscope views to the computer screen? If possible I'd like to try to set her up with something similar... she has 4 macs in her classroom.

Sven

[tonydusko]

Hey Sven,

Here is the exact product that I bought:

http://www.hometrainingtools.com/produc ... piece-pack

And actually it is now $40 cheaper than what I paid for it. The only thing is that it is not compatible for Mac. Does she have access to even one PC? If not, I will check some other resources I have.

[Svengali]

Hi Tony,

Well that looks neat! Each teacher is also issued a ThinkPad laptop (XP installed) so that should work well. I'll talk to her about ordering the kit and we can try it out when she brings one of the microscopes home. Thanks! I'll let you know how it goes.

Sven