Animating in Keynote

I'm putting together a four week Keynote Challenge the library is going to sponsor next fall, working through the IT and Film classes.  I've blogged before about how awesome I think Keynote is, and how under utilized.  Mike Sammartano's Keynote Classroom  YouTube Channel has some great examples of what Keynote can do.

Once the challenge is fully together, I'll post about it. In the meantime, I spent time today (never mind how much!) putting together this quick animation to show how teachers can use Keynote to demonstrate, for example, scientific principles. I still have a few timing kinks to work out, but you get the gist! Though it occurs to me I should add a little jingle to it.



You can download the file here if you want to see how it went together.
If you want to see something that will knock your socks off, watch this.  Entire story done in Keynote.  So add it to your digital storytelling toolbag!

UPDATE:  That blogger widget never seems to work. I uploaded to Youtube instead.

Unlikely (Jonah Ch. 1) from Robert Murphy on Vimeo.

Move Over Pixar...

You might be interested in checking out this webinar at ISTE: Promoting your library with easy animations

It uses XtraNormal, a text to movie online app that's pretty interesting. I just discovered it a few weeks ago, but haven't had time to play with it yet, so I'm looking forward to the webinar for ideas on how to use it.

See you there!

Go Animate!

While not exactly a threat to Pixar, Go Animate is a fun online tool that allows students to create their own animated cartoons. It's not the most intuitive interface and the tutorials are virtually non-existent at this point, but it's easy to pick up the basics.

Here's a quick example I made in about 20 minutes.



They're still working out some kinks--it's hilarious that I tried to type "class" and it changed the "ass" part to #$!

It does allow you to record voice rather than text for speech.

For anyone seriously into digital storytelling, the obvious drawbacks of tools such as this and ToonDoo, are the limitations they impose regarding 'camera' angle and framing. You're pretty much stuck with eye level in a square box. I hope, as they evolve and improve, they can move beyond these limitations.