Dec
03

Are You Ready to Dance? …. the sequel …

Filed Under (Holidays) by on December 3, 2010 and tagged , , , , , , ,

breakdance_figureLast year, the Ripple Effect and Huzzah joined forces to dance our way into the holiday season. We’re all set to begin practicing our dancing moves once again and of course all of our readers are invited…

Now, we need to clarify this isn’t a competition. And if you’ve just turned to your friends and quietly ordered them to “Run. Run away fast.” because you think we’re asking you to dance, then just hold tight for a minute.  We are not going to be the ones dancing at all (although dancing in class is fun … I love when that happens).

This dance off involves Pivot Animation. Specifically, this means you will be creating a Christmas or Winter break dancing routine using this program. But why dancing you may ask? Well, we only have 2 weeks of school left before Winter Break, and we know schools in Australia and New Zealand are just about to finish their year. Doesn’t that make you feel like dancing?  C’mon readers time to “bust a move”!

To get a better idea of what we’re looking for, here’s Shania’s and Ryan’s dance routines from last year. I love that we have resident experts in the class!

The more dancing the better. I know Mrs. Thompson’s class already has their pivot animations underway. If you’d like to be a part of our 2010 Dance Off, here is the criteria that we’ll be following. Each video segment will include:

  • A stickman dancing sequence created using Pivot Stickfigure Animator (free to download)
  • A Christmas or seasonal background. For us, seasonal would be Winter because Christmas falls in this season for us, but we know this depends on where you live. (we’re uploading CC Flickr images to our Pivot files)
    • hint: the program defaults to look for bmp files. Change the drop down menu to .jpg file types
  • Pivot animations are imported into a movie program (We’re using Windows Movie Maker)
    • hint: save your pivot animation as a .gif file, not a .piv file
  • Titles, credits and music are added into the movie program to finish the dance video
    • Find a techno/electro CC song that has a strong beat (your teacher can help with this one)
  • Once the movies are made, we’re uploading them into our class Vimeo account so we can post them on our individual blogs (we chose Vimeo because many students can’t view You Tube at school).

When you post your video, please link back to this post. We’re looking forward to exploring everyone’s creative dance moves. Let the dancing begin!

image: 36/365: Danbo breakdances by Chris J. Bowley released under a CC Attribution – Noncommercial – No Derivative Works license



14 Responses to “Are You Ready to Dance? …. the sequel …”

  1.   Pam Cranford Says:

    What a fun and motivating activity! I have not experienced the creativity with Pivot Animation, but I am sure to introduce it to our students. Your videos are awesome. Keep collaborating.

    Reply

  2.   The Captain Says:

    Hi-I never saw Pivot Animation before. It was very fun to watch. I liked the videos from last year. Good luck with the videos for this year.

    John- King’s Ridge Christian School 5th

    Reply

  3.   Ashton Says:

    The videos were very good! I think that’s a fun thing to do in class! Hope you have a good Christmas break!

    Reply

  4.   Mrs. G Says:

    Love this idea. I could not get Pivot Animations on my Macs but I found Stykz to use. So my students will be working with this. I will send you our results to see what you think.
    Happy Holidays

    Reply

  5.   Justin Says:

    hey my name is Justin and i love to make videos using Pivot

    Reply

  6.   Layne M. Says:

    Hey! I have never heard of Pivot Animation before. It looks interesting. I might give it a try sometime!

    Reply

  7.   Ty Says:

    That is so cool. I have never seen a pivot animation dance contest like that before. I hope I can make one like that.

    Reply

  8.   Laserdog700 Says:

    One day I hope to make a pivot animation to post online. I have already used Micosoft Movie Maker in a technology camp I took last summer. I think pivot animation is awesome!!

    Reply

  9.   cheergirl318 Says:

    Hello I have never seen pivot animation dance before that is so cool! Hope I can one day make one.

    -Kendall

    Reply

  10.   cathryn Says:

    I love the videos. I think it is really cool that you show books.I have never heard of a pivot before but they are fun to watch.

    Reply

  11.   Michael Says:

    Ripple Effect,
    That’s a very interesting how the characters dance. I’ve never seen anything like it.
    -Michael

    Reply

  12.   Megan Says:

    Hello,
    My name is Megan. I attend St. Marys school in Owatonna MN. I think that it so cool that you can make dance videos. At my school we actually have dance parties that we video tape. Pivot Animation sounds really cool!! Keep making the movies they were very cool.
    -Megan

    Reply

  13.   Tim Says:

    Hello I really enjoyed looking at your blog. This post caought my eye though becasue of the creativity. Your videos were wonderful.How did you animate the stick people? I would really like to be able to do that! I hope you had a splendid holiday season happy blogging! :)

    Reply

  14.   Albert Says:

    I think that your blog is great and that those are really good videos. You did a good job.

    Reply

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