Monday 23 April 2007

Make you own animated movies

D- film is a really useful website that has been around for a few years now. The site makes it very easy to create short animated movies with colourful characters and cartoon style dialogue in bubbles. (Be careful though, some of the characters may be unsuitable for younger learners less mature students.)

The site is really easy to use and you just click your way through various screens selecting backgrounds, characters, scenarios, soundtrack and credits. You also type in your own short dialogues. Then when you are ready a single click turns the whole thing into a Flash movie.

You can make short single screen animated movies or longer ones by adding more scenes. You can then email the link to your movie either to yourself or to your students etc.

How do I create movies?
  • If you watch this tutorial you can see just how easy it is to make a film.
    Tutorial movie
    (458k flash)
  • Here’s an example of a film that took about 2 minutes to produce.
    Example movie
  • This link takes you straight to the movie maker page.
    Movie maker

How do you use this in the classroom?
You can use it for a number of things:
  • To demonstrate language points
    Example movie
  • To give examples of social English
    Example movie
  • To tell jokes
    Example movie
  • I once got my students to create their own movies based around concepts (fear, happiness, boredom, etc) and we had our own miniature animation festival.
  • You could try setting up a competition in the school to see who can create the best film.
If you think of any great ways of using this little tool or you or your students create some nice films, by all means add a link to them in the comments below.

11 comments:

angelesb said...

Congratulations !!!

thank you for sharing with us. i found these links so interesting.

I'm an EFL teacher trying to use web2.0 tools so your blog will be helpful

Thanks again :-)

Anonymous said...

I have just made two films for my own kids and my EFL students in Argentina. This is fantastic!!! Congratulations and thank you for sharing your ideas with us. I would like to be kept updated at gabymadera@ciudad.com.ar
Thank you!!!!

Anonymous said...

Hi Nicky,

This is fantastic. You have inspired me to get on and start my own movy of my ESO learners instead of thinking about it.

Many thanks!!!!!!!!!!!

Dennis said...

Hi, Nik.

I've seen a number of fun and interesting examples of student-created work using D-film in blogs and websites managed by Webheads colleagues in South America.

I hope some of my colleagues will post links to these materials.

Best wishes--

D. Oliver
(Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.A.)

rddietrich said...

Hi Nik,

This is a great tool. You can have a lot of fun in class (and out) while still learning. Thanks a bunch.

Carla Raguseo said...

Hi, Nik!
Amazing site! Thanks!
As Dennis said last year we carried out an EFL Cartoon Festival with a group of LWC members from Brazil and Argentina.
Have a look: www.lwcfilmfestival.blogspot.com
On this blog you'll also find information about two other sites: Zimmer Twins and Digital Films.

Enjoy!

Carla Raguseo
Argentina

Anonymous said...

Hi Nik,

Congratulations on your work! It looks great. I'm pleased I came across it. As I'm working on project for a website for teachers using videos from YouTube it was great to find out that someone else is already working on it and using it for teaching purposes. I'd love to exchange some ideas with you, especially as I have some questions about copyright and other matters. Would you send me your email so that we could exchange some ideas. My Skype name is arizioandshane, which would be another option for a chat.

Regards,

Arizio Sweeting

Anonymous said...

I'm a new English teacher. It's my pleasure to come across your blog for educational technology to day. I'm really interested in the article about using D-film to make movies. I believe that I can use this website to create a lot of useful movies for my class. I tried making one for my own and I want to download it to my PC to add to my Powerpoint lesson. Could you tell me how to download my movies? I'm looking forward to hearing from you.
Thanks a lot for your work. I really appreciate it.

Anonymous said...

Hi Nik!
I'm very excited to find this site. New to blogging and fairly new to teaching (in my 3rd year), I can use all the help I can get. My question is, "What are your suggestions to incorporate technology in my English classroom when there is no resources available?" We only have a DVD/TV combo and one computer lab to share with K-10. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks
Dawn

Nik Peachey said...

Hi Dawn

Try my Daily Activities blog at: http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/2008/08/sitemap.html There are over 120 activties there that students can use as self access materials.

Best

Nik

Unknown said...

Thanks, Nik
I find everything very useful.
PerĂº

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