What the Gami?

Here is something you can use in your classroom for many different things!  The app is called Tellagami.  It only works on a mobile device (iPad, iPod, iPhone or android) - but the great thing is that you do not need an account, so you can share your device with students.  What it Tellagami you ask!  Well, it is an app that allows students to create a 30 second animation (very easily).  Students control the background, character and dialogue.  One of the best things is that they do not need to type everything on the device - they can  just use their own voice for the animation!


Take a look at mine (only lasts 20 seconds - and only took 3 minutes to make):

The only negative I have found with this app is how you share the "Gami" (that is what your animation is called) once you have finished.  Students have the option to save their Gami to the device, send it to Facebook or Twitter, send a text message or email a link to someone.  If they are on their own device they can easily just email the link to you.  If they are on a school (or your personal) device they can copy and paste the link of their Gami in to a Google Form or Google Site that you have created for the class.  If students have a blog site they could use the embed code to post their Gami there (just like I did!).  Or if you are using a social networking site with your class like Edmodo, My Big Campus or Moodle - or using a back channel site like todaysmeet.com - they could post the link to these sites.

I know you can find many different ways to use this in your classroom!  If you come up with some great ideas let me know - just paste the link to your (or your student's Gami) in the comments below.  I'd give you more details about the app...but honestly, you should just check it out for yourself - it is that easy!

Stop Motion Video

I have always loved video - from planning to shooting to editing - I love taking an idea and putting it all together to tell a story on film (though who uses film anymore?).  This year I am flipping my classroom and in the process I have found reasons to use some stop motion photography in my videos.  In reality, I have been trying to find reasons and ways to use stop motion so I can practice some more :)

Here is an example of something I just finished (be sure to watch the end):
Just so you know - there are 850 photos over 70 minutes (1 pic every 5 seconds)

So if you want to give it a try...

Equipment:

• Canon T2i (any digital DSLR will work)
• Timelapse Timer Remote - here is mine
• Memory card with lots of space - I have 16gigs
• Tripod (any will do)

Set up:

• Be sure your subject is well lit...no reason to take the time to do all of this if shadows ruin it all
• Place the camera on the tripod (the camera should never change position) and focus the scene (I press the button half way down in Auto mode to get the best focus...I figure it knows better than I do!)
• Attach the timer remote to the camera
• Put the camera to the "M" setting
• Check the lens and turn off the autofocus (you don't have to change anything since you used autofocus in the beginning - your welcome!)
• Turn off red-eye
• Keep your ISO between 100-400 (lower is better)
• Change your white balance to what type of setting you are in (daylight, tungsten, cloudy, etc.)
• Use SRGB for the color space
• Be sure auto power off is not turned on
• Keep file numbering to continuous 
• Set your timer remote to how often you want to take pictures (I set mine for every 5 seconds)

Extra tips:

• Shoot a few extra shots (add more time) in the beginning and end to help you when editing your video
• 10 frames a second is a good rule of thumb - think out how long your event will take and multiply that by 10...that is the number of frames you need to animate

After shooting:

• Download all the pictures to your computer (they should be in numerical order)
• Open your favorite video editing software - iMovie, FCP, Adobe Premiere, Movie Maker - I used Sony Vegas 9 Studio
• Find the where you can change the duration of images in your timeline - it is typically defaulted to 3 seconds...you want to change this to 0.1 seconds
• Import all of your photos (I had 850 for 70 minutes of shooting)
• Add a title at the beginning if you wish
• Drag all the photos in to the timeline 
• Add an ending title if you wish
• Add music (this is important - getting the right music for your video is the hardest part I think!)
• Render and save your video

That should be it!  You should have a fun stop motion video if all works out well.  Beware of motion and lighting - both will affect your scene and you may need to change the manual settings on your camera.  I suggest picking something simple like I did - something that does not move and the lighting only changed very minimally.

Good luck and let me know how you do with your stop motion videos!  Post them to YouTube or Vimeo and send me a link...I'd love to see them!