Visualiser and animation solution for the classroom

The first stop on our guided tour of BETT was stand M59 in the National Hall, Hue Animation, to look at their visualiser/web camera that optionally also comes with animation software.

There are a number of things that made the Hue visualiser stand out, not least its quirky looks. A gadget that comes in a variety of sweet shop colours, with a long flexible neck that can be easily bent into a wide range of positions, it’s more reminiscent of a technological pet than a visualiser or web camera. And it’s nicely packaged (I’m a sucker for a pretty box). But the bits we really liked about the Hue Visualiser were its price tag, £29.95 (the show price), RRP £34.95 (VAT incl) and its versatility. For a modest increase in cost you can upgrade and purchase Hue Animation Studio which includes the visualiser and animation software providing a one stop motion animation solution.

I confess I’m not entirely convinced about the merits or educational value of stop motion animation but if it’s what you want this was the cutest and simplest way to achieve it that I found at BETT. I’ve never tried stop motion using a computer so it is pleasing to find that as I write this, my highlighter pen is walking across my desk, well it did until it fell over! Take look if you don’t believe me, ‘My Pen Fell Down’!

Ok I’ll win no awards but it is nice to know that the animation software that comes supplied as part of the package is easy to use and almost as easy to use as the demonstrator made it look at the show. So to sum up, the Hue visualiser offers a cheap visualiser solution for the classroom but for few pounds more you could put together a set of resources that would enable you to carry out stop motion animation projects in the classroom.

The Hue visualiser with Hue Animation Studio software looked brilliant and seemed to be a fairly simple and straight forward resource for the children to use. I would definitely like to have a go myself before purchasing the whole kit though. We use Elmo visualisers at school which have been great and feel slightly more robust. However, they are not quite as flexible as the Hue visualisers and perhaps less straight forward to use.

Peter Brodie, ICT Subject Leader, St Joseph’s RC Primary School, Camden

Let’s consider how you might resource an animation project in school. Assuming the children are going to work in groups, for a class you’d probably want six visualisers at £34.95 each. This would provide one visualiser per group of six children and one for the teacher use. You’d then need the animation software, the cost of which varies depending on the licencing (1 licence £34.95, 5 licences £140, 10 licences £240, a site licence £420, prices include VAT). Assuming you want a bit of flexibility and the ability to create your animations on any computer in the school then your stop motion animation solution would cost you roughly £630.00. If you want to save a little then you could opt for the slightly cheaper 10 licences option which would reduce the cost slightly to approx £450 but does limit the number of computers you can install the software on.

In summary, the Hue visualiser and Hue Animation Studio, a great solution at a great price.

For more information visit:
www.huehd.com
www.hueanimation.com

A little bit about stop motion

Stop motion is an animation technique used to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The movement is achieved by taking a sequence of snapshots, after each shot or frame the object is moved slightly and a new snapshot is taken. When a series of frames that capture these individual movements are replayed like a filmstrip the object will appear to move on its own. Clay models are frequently used in stop motion animations because of the ease with which clay can be manipulated and repositioned one small step at a time.