Category: Symmetry

Green Screen Workshop with D15

11/22/2018

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Click to view my Smore flyer with resources for my Green Screen Lessons

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Op Art Painting and Falling Animation

10/7/2018

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My third graders are going to explore the primary & secondary colors, complementary colors, patterns, rotational symmetry, while learning the geometry of a circle in these color wheel paintings. Then they will be compared to op art as students rotate and digitally fall into them using Do Ink drawing and animation app on the iPad.

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Custom Holograms

10/25/2017

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Haunted Hologram made with Do Ink Animation and Drawing app

Custom Animated Hologram
with Do Ink Drawing and Animation App

make a flipbook style animation

Make this looping animation into a hologram

Click image to download template

pyramid hologram viewer

A year ago I learned about using a smartphone to view holograms. The idea definitely interested me but it needed to be tweaked to work for my art room.
First, I needed the idea to work on iPads since that is what students have access to. Secondly, I wanted my students to be makers, not just consumers, so I needed a way for them to make their own hologram videos in the style of these examples.
Today, I finally got around to working on solving these problems. I looked to an old favorite app Do Ink Animation and Drawing app and remembered how easily you can copy and paste layers, rotate animations, and work over a black background: all things needed for this effect.
I downloaded the template (on left) and traced it onto a piece of transparency, folded it and made a pyramid viewer. Then, I made a video tutorial showing how to make one flipbook style animated ghost became four in a rotationally symmetrical design so that you can view it as a hologram through the pyramid.
Next, I want to see if I can make this effect work with video using the Green Screen app by Do Ink. It will take some more steps because it only allows 3 layers at a time and one of those would have to be the black background. Hmmm...sounds like another post. (Update: look below...)

Haunted Hologram from Tricia Fuglestad on Vimeo.

Student work:

I wanted this experience to be a one day pre-halloween event. So I had students work with a partner while we played the tutorial and followed along. I had 6 viewers made and passed one out per table so they could see their results.

Viewing our Holograms from Tricia Fuglestad on Vimeo.

Other Haunted resources

I printed this handout to help them see ideas for drawing ghosts with closed shapes

We had enough time in our class period to watch a spooky story too.

Other Haunted Art Room Lesson:

If you're looking for a way to use the ghost theme (not hologram idea) I have a post that explains how students can make their semi-transparent ghost animation travel over a photo to look like it is haunting your class room. See this post for all the details.

Other themes for your class holograms:

Alien invasion holograms

See my post about the alien animation above.

Superhero holograms

See my post about making custom flipbook styled superheroes or winged sprites.

Custom Video Hologram
with Do Ink Green Screen App

Custom Video Hologram as scene in viewer above iPad

Green screen video that loops nicely

2 layers "flattened" opposite each other with matched size

WHOA! I hoped it was possible, and now that I've experimented, I know it is....
Custom Video Holograms!
To make these I used the Green Screen app by Do Ink and went through a few steps.
First: I took green screen video of a student doing a movement that would loop nicely.
Second: I imported it into the top two layers of the green screen app. I made them small (the same size) by pinching and rotated one until it was a reflection. Since I will need the video four times, I exported this video of just two to "flatten" it.
Third: I imported the "flattened" two image video on the bottom level then rotated the other two levels to make the four videos into a radial design.
Fourth: After checking that the images were matched in size and well placed, I exported the video to the camera roll.

View from the Green Screen app by Do ink of all 4 videos (bottom layer is the flattened layer)

4 video images ready to make into a hologram with the viewer

Unlike the Do Ink animation app, the Green Screen app doesn't loop videos when you hit play. So, there are a few more steps before you can view the hologram.
Fifth: Export the movie TWICE. The slideshow feature in photos on the iPad doesn't work with only one image or video. You have to have two copies of it.
Sixth: Make an album in photos and select the two copies of your hologram video.
Seventh: Click on the album and choose slideshow, click on the options to make it repeat. I couldn't figure out a way to keep the album name from NOT showing (until JLee wrote solution in the comments below-thanks!). Delete name, add a space. DONE! Put on the viewer and enjoy!

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Magic Carpet Ride

10/12/2017

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Digital Carpet Painting:

Magic Carpet Template made in Do Ink Drawing app

This digital magic carpet painting project is a great opportunity to explore color, line, and shape patterns, layers, and symmetry.
I began by downloading my magic carpet template into Brushes Redux app. I added a layer BELOW the template to begin painting.

Normally I would have students use Sketchbook Express and it's symmetry tool to draw only half the carpet while the other half magically fills in with the mirror image. However, the app is not going to be supported any longer, so I'm working on another solution.

Aladdin's Magic Carpet

I began coloring base colors and added line/shape pattern above on only 1/2 carpet

I duplicated the painting layer and used the horizontal flip button to create symmetry

The finished carpet is a symmetrical rectangle-not ready for flying yet.

Adding Perspective:

Before you can go on a magic carpet ride like Aladdin, you need your digital carpet painting in perspective so that you can view it from the side so you can climb aboard. I added my painting into the superimpose app over a plain color background. I found the tool mode for the foreground layer and chose perspective (the default). The configuration needed could be pulled and stretched by grabbing the handles on the image or you can chose a pre-created configuration at the bottom of the screen. I chose the one all the way on the right. Then, chose the checkmark to apply.

Superimpose App has a tool mode that allows you to add perspective with a simple button

Save the carpet in perspective with "save mask as png" to keep the transparent background

Fly on carpet (using still images)

This simple method will get your students up and flying without animating a background. They could pose as if they are riding their magic carpet paintings, use the superimpose app to layer their photo onto the carpet, and take it for a ride using the Do Ink Animation app over a background photo (like clouds). This would also create a fun still image for students' Artsonia gallery.

Moving Background Video:

To help create the illusion of flying, the background video needs to show movement. Below is a very simple composition created in the Do Ink animation app made by duplicating and resizing one cloud drawing and making multiple paths in the same direction.

Clouds moving fast to show flying-created in Do Ink Animation App

One really fun way to extend this lesson into geographic/cultural studies is to have each student draw a landmark that they could fly over: Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, Statue of Liberty, Mt. Rushmore, The Pyramids, Great Wall of China, Stonehenge Grand Canyon, Red Woods, Golden Gate Bridge, Taj Mahal, Hohenzollern Castle, The Leaning Tower of Pisa, etc. See this list of 15o famous landmarks.

Film the Green Screen:

Students need to film a few seconds of flying on and before green screen. I usually have students pose one at a time while I film them on my iPad on the tripod. I upload the videos to dropbox so students can access them.

Do Ink Green Screen App 1. background video 2.carpet in perspective 3. Green Screen Video

I like to do the green screen effect with my students in post production so students can each have the experience of layering, resizing, and setting up effects. The app does allow you to create effects in real time, but when you work with a full class, you can get much more done with nicer results this way. Before we export the effect as a video, I like to go around and check their work. Showing this magic carpet ride clip from Aladdin will keep them engaged.

Aladdin and Jasmine on Magic Carpet

Flying on a magic carpet

Paper Cut Version:

BACKGROUND: This version of the magic carpet ride lesson includes a paper cut landscape that shows foreground, middle ground, background in paper pieces. These will be animated traveling across the field of view through stop motion animation. It would be a great opportunity for students to show an understanding of foreground, middle ground, and background in the pieces they create and how they animate the scene.

Pieces needed for a paper cut animation of flying over the Hollywood sign

Hills in the foreground, sign in the middle ground, and sky in the background

I took 40 pictures in the iMotion App at 10 fps to make a 4 sec video

GROUP ANIMATION: I'm thinking that the background animation would be a group project. Each group would work on designing, drawing, cutting, and animating their landmark landscape. Each student would make their own magic carpet video of themselves flying over their group landmark landscape. Therefore, the class compilation video will only have six backgrounds but 24 videos.

MAGIC CARPET MADE FROM PAPER: A digital magic carpet wouldn't look right with a paper cut background. So, they would need to make a paper carpet in perspective. This is a great opportunity to teach students about a vanishing point, converging lines, and how pattern would be small in the back and large in the front (relative size).

Digital picture of the paper cut carpet. I erased the background in Superimpose app

Since you are not going to use stop motion for the carpet, I just took a digital picture of the paper drawing and erased the background in the Superimpose app. It needs to be digital for the green screen effect where a student rides the carpet.

GREEN SCREEN VIDEO:
I am more conscious now that I've practiced this lesson, that the student looks more convincing if they are facing right since the world moves from right to left below them in the final video. So now I have all the pieces: animated background, carpet saved with a transparent background, and green screen video. Magic time!

Paper Cut Magic Carpet Ride with Stop Motion Animation and Green Screen FX

Students Working

Student Results: view the paintings on Artsonia

Test Ride our Magic Carpets from Tricia Fuglestad on Vimeo.

Finished: Riding over Landmarks

3-1 MAGIC CARPETS from Tricia Fuglestad on Vimeo.

3-2 MAGIC CARPETS from Tricia Fuglestad on Vimeo.

3-3 MAGIC CARPETS from Tricia Fuglestad on Vimeo.

3-4 MAGIC CARPETS from Tricia Fuglestad on Vimeo.

Resources:

This link takes you to a travel website featuring 150 famous landmarks. Every student can feature a different landmark in the background video/animation. This would make the class video even more exciting as they fly over scenes from around the world.

View this safeshare.TV link of the "Whole New World" scene from Aladdin.

Update: SchoolArts Magazine Article

I wrote up this lesson for the March 2019 Edition of School Arts Magazine. View it here.

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Rotational Symmetry with Legos

1/13/2017

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A few years back my students collaboratively made rotationally symmetrical lego designs. They filled our newly installed lego wall.
Last year my third graders made falling animations over a rotating optical illusion.
This year I hope to combine both ideas in a new way by having students make design again in legos then dynamically demonstrating rotation through animation.

Click image to read our article in School Arts

Our original lego wall. Click to enlarge

Using the DoInk Animation app to digitally rotate the lego designs not only extends the lesson digitally, it serves as an assessment to determine if the designs are rotationally symmetrical.

Students can add their own photo over the rotating design using a size change to indicate falling. The 2nd tutorial below shows the steps for creating this project. It would also help you just rotate the masked lego design (like above) if you skip adding the figure.

Animated Rotation of Rotationally Symmetrical Lego Design

The lego design is masked into a circle and saved as a png using the superimpose app. The student pose and design are animated using DoInk Animation app. All the steps are shown in the tutorial below or here.

Tutorials:

Rotational Symmetry with Legos from Tricia Fuglestad on Vimeo.

Lego Rotation Falling Animation Tutorial from Tricia Fuglestad on Vimeo.

View my interview with Corey Engstrom of Teacher Tech Trials about this project below.

Students working:

Our Rotational Symmetry Lego Wall

-made completely by second graders using our collaborative method of taking a turn

Made physically & assessed digitally

After students made their lego plates, they used a digital image of it to do a test for rotational symmetry. They masked it into a circle using the Superimpose app then put it in the Do Ink animation app to make it rotate. See the video below to view the process and their results.

Rotationally symmetrical lego designs made physically and assessed digitally

This is the movie made from students' digital animations of their lego plates.

Rotational Symmetry with Lego from Tricia Fuglestad on Vimeo.

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Symmetrical Butterflies with iPads

5/31/2016

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Original Symmetrical Butterfly Project

Inspiring image from Shutterfly

When I first started teaching I would do an introductory lesson with my kindergartners that involved mixing the primary colors and symmetry by squirting paint on paper, folding it, and turning it into a butterfly. See how this is done from Theresa Gillespie's post here. She calls the lesson an oldie but a goodie and I agree. My interest in this lesson revived after running across a photo collage image in a Shutterfly ad (on right below). I started to rethink this lesson. Here are my new plans for two ways of creating this lesson.

Digital art and photo collage:

1. I purchased novelty headbands (click for link) for students to wear as they pose in front of green screen

2. Create butterfly wings using Sketchbook Express (turn on symmetry function) on iPads

3. Photograph students before green screen (pretend she is wearing the headband)

4. Combine the images in the iPad with DoInk's green screen app or Superimpose

Click the image to view 2nd grade students' results on Artsonia

Animated Butterflies by 2-3 from Tricia Fuglestad on Vimeo.

Physical art and photo collage:

1. Headbands for the photos=fun + less self-conscious + better for making butterflies

2. Teach the symmetrical butterfly paint lesson and photograph the results

3. Photograph students (wearing the headband) before green screen

4. Using superimpose app to eliminate the mask the green, resize, and position

3. Photograph students (wearing the other kind of headband) before green screen

4. Layer quickly in the Green Screen app by DoInk if your photo is centered & sized

See this post of Kindergarten butterflies

P.S. If you include the whole body in the photo then these images can be used for a flying animation.

Resources:

Butterfly handout
Video tutorial showing how to layer images in Superimpose app
Video tutorial showing how to use the symmetry function in Sketchbook express

Butterfly with student silhouette

I explored an alternate way of creating these butterflies by using bilateral symmetry in Amaziograph app and adding a silhouette using superimpose app. I have a tutorial for silhouettes in this post: http://drydenart.weebly.com/fugleblog/silhouettes-with-superimpose-app

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Lovely AppSmash

1/31/2016

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Step. 1 LOVE template in the style of Robert Indiana's LOVE image. Click to enlarge then save to the camera roll.

Here is an idea for an appsmash that introduces first graders to:

Symmetry
Shape
Variety of Sizes
Color Fill
Emojis
Masking
Transforming
Blend Mode
Positive
Negative Space
Size Constraints
LOVE image by Robert Indiana

Step 2. Students use the symmetry button in sketchbook express to draw and fill hearts. Hint: Each shape must be closed to be able to fill. Use a variety of sizes. Save to camera roll.

Step 3. Students import their heart drawing into Word Foto app and fill it with emoji faces and or hearts. Then save it to the camera roll.

Lovely Appsmash from Tricia Fuglestad on Vimeo.

Step 4. Combine the LOVE template and the emoji filled heart picture in the Superimpose app using the square size constraints, masking, and blend mode. Watch my tutorial to see how it is done.

EXTRA CREDIT: Save one image or as many variations as you like. Arrange your different versions in a collage app

Click to view the student gallery of finished art

https://t.co/GopKixkZeT
— Tricia Fuglestad (@fuglefun) January 31, 2016

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Rotational Symmetry: Playing Cards

6/2/2015

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Sketch a plan for head, shoulders, and center

Use observational drawing skills from resources

Personalize your design, add detail, erase the sketch

This lesson was definitely rewarding for my students though it did require doing the same drawing twice as they spun the paper and repeated their ideas. They painted with tempera paints and metallics then outlined in black and metallic markers. When they were finished I photographed and printed their paintings small enough to look like a real playing card. Though the lesson teaches symmetry, it is really a test of observational drawing skills. These 5th graders really wowed me with their skill & attention to detail.

I printed out symbols for students to apply to their cards after the art was painted, trimmed, and glued to a piece of tag board.

I put the whole lesson with resources and print outs together in one ppt that you can download from TpT here.

Lesson extension:

The DoInk animation app allows for many many different techniques that can reinforce rotational symmetry. Here is an idea for creating an animated rotationally symmetrical playing card. The animation is created over (blank) photo downloaded from photofunia.

A video posted by Tricia Fuglestad (@fuglefun) on May 5, 2015 at 5:53pm PDT

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Our Lego Wall was Installed!

11/15/2013

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One year ago our Lego Wall was just a dream. I wrote and submitted a grant for it to our ABC/25 district grant foundation and was waiting to hear back. View my grant here. I received word that it was granted in December. When I went to make the purchase I realized that LEGO doesn't do purchase orders for schools. So, the foundation president kindly agreed to purchase everything from her credit card. After the parent volunteers and their pre-schools helped color sort the lego brick, I introduced my 1st-5th graders to a collaborative rotational symmetry challenge. I wrote about how we did this in November's School Arts Magazine. View my post about this here.
Towards the end of the school year, before every student had a chance to participate in the Lego Wall designs, I realized I had underestimated the number of bricks I needed to complete our wall. That's when I learned about a crowd funding startup called Edbacker. We posted a campaign and quickly raised the money to complete the project. The very last brick was entered on the very last plate on the very last day of school! The plates went up on display this week after the district ordered and installed our display board. This is a reusable installation. I'm looking forward to seeing how our artist do on our next challenge!

Our Lego Wall was made possible because of so many people working together. It was a collaborative project in every way. Thank you!

Look=newly installed @drydenschool #lego wall-Just in time 4R article in @schoolarts @ahsd25 http://t.co/h6gQBpPPNc pic.twitter.com/uQT1hiblXp
— Tricia Fuglestad (@fuglefun) November 13, 2013

Taking a Turn

This video explains how to make a rotationally symmetrical with legos collaboratively using a method that is a simple as taking a turn.

Rotational Symmetry with Legos from Tricia Fuglestad on Vimeo.

I wrote up this lesson for School Arts Magazine published Nov. 2013. View it here.

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Face/Vase Illusion in SketchbookX

9/16/2013

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The symmetry button in the Sketchbook Express app for the iPad is a wonderful tool for an art teacher. Just think of how many times symmetry is a part of your art lessons. Here is one art lesson idea that Sketchbook Express is perfect for: the Face/Vase Figure-Ground Illusion. I would have students take turns photographing each other with their iPads in a profile pose to begin. They would then add these images as a layer in SketchbookX, trace it with the symmetry button, finish off the vase. I made a demo movie below showing all the steps I would go through. If you want to try along with me, use this image to get started.