Usually, the Kids Ink workshop at the Festival of Words features a cool new writing or story building technique for young attendees, and this year’s rendition of the favourite event certainly stepped out of the box.
This year, Kids Ink ran a video tutorial from local animation filmmaker Haley Nicole on two easy forms of animation that anyone can try out at home: flipbook animation and stop motion animation.
Nicole shared a few tips and tricks to get started, including how to use the free mobile app Stop Motion Studio to really simplify the process of stop motion and claymation.
The virtual nature of this year’s Festival really lent itself to the topic, said organizers in a previous interview with the Moose Jaw Express, and they were excited to bring the brand new medium of animation to the kids creative series.
Nicole did a short question and answer period following the video tutorial, sharing that she first became interested in live action filmmaking at a young age and attended the University of Regina for filmmaking — which is when she discovered animation.
“I really love 2D computer animation, and I love the paper cut style, which is when you incorporate 2D computer animation with paper elements or hand-drawn elements and I really love that texture it adds,” said Nicole.
Nicole has recently been working with the Moose Jaw Public Library, creating other craft tutorial videos since the library moved to online programming earlier this spring.
The piece of advice that Nicole left young animators at the end of her session was very simple:
“Just always keep creating,” she said.
Nicole's tutorial workshop video will be available on the Festival of Words YouTube channel for those interested in re-watching her instruction.
The Festival of Words continues until July 19, with a full schedule of events available here.
Stay tuned for coverage of the festival as it progresses through the week.
