Tool Factory Releases Beginning and Advanced Animation Kits for Educators

Nov. 14, 2011 - PRLog -- Tool Factory announced today that it is now offering Claymation Educator Kits that contain all the tools teachers need to integrate stop motion animation projects across the curriculum. Each kit comes complete with Stop Motion Pro, the same stop motion animation software that was used to shoot Aardman Animation's Wallace & Gromit films, as well as a webcam, armature, clay, animation book and more.    

Tool Factory Claymation Educator Kits are equipped to assist educators in creating any type of stop motion animation projects, and the Beginning and Advanced options provide a variety of solutions for elementary, secondary and post-secondary educational settings.

Using a webcam, a Windows PC and Stop Motion Pro, learners create digital stories and animated projects by capturing one frame of their character or subject, making a small change, and then capturing another frame to build the illusion of movement. The frames are stored on the computer, and easy-to-use tools allow for simple integration of special effects to create studio quality animation projects. "Our students and summer campers have mastered this user-friendly software program, creating some truly awesome animations, many of which have been broadcast on national TV!" Ronnie Scullion, Artech Studios.  

Stop motion animation is an ideal tool for digital storytelling, and it affords learners endless opportunities to engage in student-centered collaborative learning, as well as to exercise their creative thinking and problem solving skills. From storyboarding to set design and shooting their films, students become actively engaged in the learning process and are able to demonstrate their subject-specific knowledge in a way that is both fun and relevant.  

“Stop motion animation is perfect for classroom projects across the curriculum,” said Kendra Ericson, Tool Factory’s Director of Educational Services. “It's not only enjoyable and engaging for students, but it can also help learners to improve their writing and critical thinking skills. In addition, because students must convey their content to the audience in a way that the audience can understand, the students effectively become teachers, taking charge of the material and learning it to the degree necessary to convey it to others.”

Tool Factory's Beginning Claymation Educator Kit includes Stop Motion Pro Action! and a Microsoft webcam, which allows users to capture and edit their frames with ease, a wire armature kit and three packs of clay to help bring their characters to life, and the Beginner's Guide to Animation book.

Tool Factory's Advanced Claymation Educator Kit includes Stop Motion Pro Studio HD, Lip Sync Pro, a Microsoft HD webcam, Professional Humanoid Armature Kit, Gorillapod Magnetic Tripod, Lip Sync Mouth Shape Kit, the Beginner's Guide to Animation book and three packs of clay.

For more information on Tool Factory Educator Kits, visit the Tool Factory website at http://www.toolfactory.com/.