You stare at the white screen counting cursor blinks. Nothing is coming to you…fourteen, fifteen, sixteen blinks. The blank page taunts you - questioning your abilities as storyteller…eighty-eight, eighty-nine, ninety blinks. You’ve sketched out the characters, the animations are under way, but you need the spellbinding story to bring them to life. You let your imagination run wild – you have to start writing. “Once upon a time…” That’s too cliché. Delete – delete – delete. The blank page is just the beginning to your internship in the Cartoon Animation department.

Imagine - for a moment - your students getting the chance to be the creator, director, and producer of their own cartoon animation.

Why Teach Cartoon Animation
Your students have grown up in a visual culture. Cartoon animation provides them the opportunity to tell their story, share their ideas, and create their vision using the latest in digital storytelling software – Macromedia Flash. Your students will learn what it takes to design, animate, and develop a story that will capture the hearts and minds of their audience. Cartoon animation gives students skills that easily translate into a variety of fields and industries.

Some Key Concepts and Outcomes

• Apply the skills of visual story telling to communicate common themes and emotions
• Understand and demonstrate the use of storyboarding, sketching, and the use of color
• Explain how motion, symbolism, and visual composition affect the storytelling process
• Understand and demonstrate the value of visual representation and symbolism
• Prepare an informational or persuasive oral presentation
• Explain the process of reducing complex situations and themes into universal thought

Curriculum Length
The curriculum has been designed for flexibility with two separate projects. The length of the curriculum is controlled by the educator and can run from 20 to 45 hours.

How We Teach
To make the curriculum easy to implement, all the necessary knowledge and skills of cartoon animation are delivered through totally interactive software. Through text, pictures, animations, and digital videos, students are led through the exciting world of cartoon animation. Due to the highly interactive and self-directed nature of our curriculum, students are allowed to find their own pace. Regardless of the learner’s motivation or learning style, students will find a new level of success with our curriculum.

This curriculum was designed to support state assessments by addressing national math, language, science, and art standards.

Skills for Life
Good life skills are made relevant through situations that have students examine their actions. Through interactions with their boss, co-workers, and customers, students learn what it takes to be successful in the real world. They discover the long-term benefits of making the choice to take pride in what they do.

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
Employers want people who solve problems. Our projects lead students through analyzing, brainstorming, and creating solutions using the design process.

Computer Requirements:
For PC: 800 MHz Intel Pentium III processor (or equivalent) and later; Windows® XP; 256 MB RAM; 1024 x 768, 16-bit display (32-bit recommended); 2 GB available disk space; headphones

For MAC: 600 MHz PowerPC G3 and later; Mac OS X 10.3, 10.4; 256 MB RAM 1024 x 768, thousands of colors display (millions of colors recommended); 2 GB available disk space; headphones