This album was created by a member of the TPS Teachers Network, a professional social media network for educators, funded by a grant from the Library of Congress. For more information, visit tpsteachersnetwork.org.
Keep Your Teeth Clean - Animating Posters
Album Description
This album is updated with Excerpts From Animating History
https://books.apple.com/us/book/animating-history/id1461723537
Create a digital maker space that connects art and history. Start by researching free to use and reuse primary source posters from the Library of Congress or the plethora of copyright free art sources in the Library. Then drive inquiry, facilitate choice, prompt questions and foster design thinking as students analyze and animate the primary source. An important part of the learning lies in the analysis of the poster and the design process. Encourage subtle and meaningful animation to enhance and not detract from the message. The art is a window into the history of the time and the animation teaches communication and design skills.
For the fun of learning, try your hand (or device!) at animating a poster from the Library of Congress collections. The challenge from Poster House is the inspiration but without entering the contest students can learn about art and the WPA as they bring to life posters. You try it too and post your animated re-mixes (and tools used) here. Original post on this topic is here.
'Say it Today - WPA/Mask'
Teaching Notes
Re-purpose World War II Works Progress Administration Art Posters to create communication posters for today.
Reference note
https://www.loc.gov/item/98518067/
'Say it Today - WPA/Cough'
Teaching Notes
Re-purpose World War II Works Progress Administration Art Posters to create communication posters for today.
Reference note
https://www.loc.gov/item/98517955/
'Say it Today - WPA/Flag'
Teaching Notes
Re-purpose World War II Works Progress Administration Art Posters to create communication posters for today.
Reference note
https://www.loc.gov/item/98518287/
'Say it Today - WPA/Home'
Teaching Notes
Re-purpose World War II Works Progress Administration Art Posters to create communication posters for today.
Reference note
https://www.loc.gov/item/98516764/
'TWA San Francisco Poster - Library of Congress'
Teaching Notes
Use animation and 3D digital maps to explore Library of Congress primary source posters and then take a virtual visit to the destination. What questions do students have about the primary source? What geography can they learn from the 3D maps?
This animation was created in Keynote on the iPad. The instant alpha tool was used to isolate the plane. A transition build was used to move the plane. 3D Maps were used to "fly over" the location. The Keynote was then exported as a movie. Content + Digital Arts.
Reference note
Library of Congress historic poster https://www.loc.gov/item/2018646002/
'Don’t Kill Our Wild Life - WPA Poster'
Teaching Notes
This is another poster from the Works Progress Administration collection at the Library of Congress.
The poster was animated using iOS Keynote. Techniques included using Instant Alpha to take the deer out of the photo and make them a separate image, the drawing tool to add the light source, the Edit Mask tool to crop parts of the photo.
Animation was achieved by using animation builds so that the deer moved into the image and so that the lights flashed. Both these builds are standard in Keynote.
Sound was added from free to use sounds at BBC Sound effects.
The Keynote was then exported as a movie to Photos on an iPad and then uploaded to Vimeo to share.
As students work with animation they can also research more about the art of the New Deal and the messaging used to persuade.
Students might also enter the Poster House contest which is an animation competition utilizing the Library of Congress’s extensive poster archive.
https://posterhouse.org/poster-house-the-library-of-congress-challenge
Reference note
Animation created of a Works Progress Administration Poster
Music In Our Schools Month
Teaching Notes
This animation was created on iPad in Keynote. It combines the sheet music described in this Library of Congress blog: America’s Changemakers in Song: Celebrating Music In Our Schools Month with Library of Congress Primary Sources.
The sheet music was recorded by uploading a pdf of the sheet music to the iOS app Music Scanner. The Poster is from the WPA Poster collection: Amateur contest for children Final eliminations, Sept. 24, 1936.
Reference note
Connecting primary sources for Music Education Month
'Wish or Work?'
Teaching Notes
Another poster animated with Keynote (iPad). Use the Instant Alpha tool to remove the background. Use the drawing tool to "paint" over the upright figure. Move the figure to a sideways "fall". Use Magic Move transition to make the figure appear to fall. Add a sound of a fall. Export as a movie.
Reference note
Wish or Work? A poster from The Library of Congress, animated with Keynote.
'National Ski Association - Poster from the Library of Congress'
Teaching Notes
Animated with the app Plotaverse and added to Keynote for the citation. Exported as movie from Keynote.
Reference note
Animation of National Ski Association Poster
Vaccination - Federal Arts Project
Teaching Notes
Another simple animation using Keynote on an iPad. Students animate posters to update them to current events.
Library of Congress link to poster: https://www.loc.gov/item/98507705/
Reference note
Library of Congress primary source poster - health initiatives over time. Easy animation via iOS Keynote with builds, Instant Alpha, Export as Movie.
'July 4th animation - Library of Congress and Hometown'
Teaching Notes
Easy to do with builds and transitions in Keynote. The best part, students photograph their own hometown 4th of July street banners and compare with July 4 WPA poster - Orinda is very similar!
Sound from the BBC Sound Effects Library.
Reference note
https://www.loc.gov/item/98513489/
'Keep Your Teeth Clean'
Teaching Notes
This animation was made with Keynote on an iPad. Keynote has built in drawing tools and object builds which creates simple animations. Once the Keynote slides are created with a movement on each slide, the Keynote can be exported as a movie.
Reference note
WPA Poster Animation - https://www.loc.gov/resource/cph.3g02715/
Yellowstone National Park Poster
Teaching Notes
This poster was animated using an iPad app Plotaverse. The app is free but to remove the watermark you need to subscribe. This provides an easy way to provide movement in an image. Once the animation is added, you can save the image as a movie.
Reference note
Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/item/2007676133/
Braniff Airways
Teaching Notes
A wonderful blog post from Library of Congress Picture This A Century of Air Travel in Pictures inspired me to mix another poster for this album: Chicago, Braniff International Airways. I was thinking about holiday travel! This time a search of Apple Maps 3D provided the ground image.
The process included uploading the poster to a Keynote slide on an iPad, uploading a screen shot from maps in 3D of the Chicago area depicted in the poster to a second slide and removing the plane from the poster on the map slide with the Instant Alpha tool in Keynote. The sound of a plane was added to the Keynote soundtrack. Then the Keynote was exported as a movie and uploaded to Vimeo.
With very simple tools students can re-mix poster images as they learn about the message and context of the posters. A search of "Braniff" in the Library of Congress brings up many wonderful posters. What image would you like to re-mix?
Reference note
Animating Posters
Lest liberty perish from the face of the earth - buy bonds / Joseph Pennell, del. & c
Teaching Notes
This World War I poster is animated with the PLOTAVERSE app on an iPad and then exported to video. PLOTAVERSE is free but requires a subscription to remove the watermark.
Students can discuss the persuasive techniques in the poster and also analyze how the animation adds to or distracts from the art. How might the Statue of Liberty be depicted around some of today’s discussions about liberty?
- Design drawing for poster titled "That liberty shall not perish from the earth - buy Liberty Bonds" for the Fourth Liberty Loan during World War I. Drawing shows the Statue of Liberty in ruins with New York City in flames in the background.
Reference note
Buy War Bonds Poster - Animation
https://www.loc.gov/item/96514610/
WPA paintings by children under Federal Art Project, New York
Teaching Notes
Keynote iOS “Builds in/wipe” paints the horse. An Animated Action “pop” is used to add movement to the eye. Sound is added from the BBC sound library. Details on the “how to” coming soon in an ePub. :)
'WPA Poster Animation - Milk'
Teaching Notes
This poster was given a simple animation using Keynote on iPad. A Keynote slide was created, the poster from the Library of Congress Free to Use and Reuse set was downloaded and imported onto the Keynote slide. Then the Keynote "Edit Mask" and "Instant Alpha" tool was used to separate out parts of the image. The separate pieces were animated with Keynote builds and then the slide was exported as a movie and uploaded to Vimeo so it could be added to this network.
The challenge for students would be first to study the poster and determine what part of the message would be enhanced with animation prior to animating the poster.
Reference note
Library of Congress WPA Poster Animation - Milk
https://www.loc.gov/resource/cph.3f05653/
Animated Visit the Zoo Poster
Teaching Notes
There are some wonderful posters being shared in The Arts & Primary Sources group discussion A is for Everything: How Typography Shapes Our Language and Culture and throughout albums being created in that group.
A couple of the shared posters from that group were just naturals for animation so I’ve added them to this album. Perhaps for history teachers trying to focus on content - especially in high school - having student’s animate The Federal Art Project, WPA or other primary sources might be a stretch. But spending some quality digital art time with a primary source poster has benefits.
- Working with the poster is an good way to dig into the detail.
- Poster study lends itself to understanding the politics and culture of the times, leads to lots of questions on the part of students and helps with research skills.
- Animating a WPA Poster is a good start for thinking of what kinds of posters government or community groups should be creating today (and then having students create those posters!)
- The creative thinking that goes into any kind of art is beneficial to learning.
And Poster animation doesn’t require high end digital tools or software. These animations were done on Keynote on iPad. PowerPoint or even Google Slides will work for some simple and subtle animations. And students will have the same kind of engagement we are seeing in the Arts & Primary Sources Group as they select a poster to study and create with.
On the technical side, although you can add animated gifs to the TPS teachers Album, the size of this gif was over the upload size of 10mb, so I have linked to an upload in Google Drive. I hope to see more animated posters added here!
Here is the “still” poster from the Library of Congress:
WPA Federal Art Project Animation Posters ZOO
Animated Let Them Grow Poster
Teaching Notes
The Let Them Grow Animation combines two posters into an animation. See reference and images below.
I’m also repeating the information here that I included on the “Visit the Zoo” poster in case you land here first.
Information:
There are some wonderful posters being shared in The Arts & Primary Sources group discussion A is for Everything: How Typography Shapes Our Language and Culture and throughout albums being created in that group.
A couple of the shared posters from that group were just naturals for animation so I’ve added them to this album. Perhaps for history teachers trying to focus on content - especially in high school - having student’s animate The Federal Art Project, WPA or other primary sources might be a stretch. But spending some quality digital art time with a primary source poster has benefits.
- Working with the poster is an good way to dig into the detail.
- Poster study lends itself to understanding the politics and culture of the times, leads to lots of questions on the part of students and helps with research skills.
- Animating a WPA Poster is a good start for thinking of what kinds of posters government or community groups should be creating today (and then having students create those posters!)
- The creative thinking that goes into any kind of art is beneficial to learning.
And Poster animation doesn’t require high end digital tools or software. These animations were done on Keynote on iPad. PowerPoint or even Google Slides will work for some simple and subtle animations. And students will have the same kind of engagement we are seeing in the Arts & Primary Sources Group as they select a poster to study and create with.
On the technical side, although you can add animated gifs to the TPS teachers Album, the size of this gif was over the upload size of 10mb, so I have linked to an upload in Google Drive. I hope to see more animated posters added here!
Here are the “still” posters from the Library of Congress that are combined in the simple animation:
