Video program puts a focus on learning
Troy-- The Ark's after-school class uses interdisciplinary skills to create an animated video

By ERIKA GROFF, Special to the Times Union
First published: Friday, May 14, 2004

The sign on the wall reads:

"Frame Thief Remember:

1. Don't move camera!

2. Move a little each time!

3. Check red button three times!

4. Mark your character's place!"

Stacy Lora, 9, wearing a pink smiley face sticker on her left cheek, was the "frame thief" one day earlier this week. She directed her peers from behind a video camera linked to a nearby computer.

"In!" Lora shouted. Five fellow students from The Ark -school program hurried to the blackboard to paint greens and yellows and reds that later became a monster, sun and computer.

"Out!" she called, and the others rushed from the camera's frame.

Lora pressed the red button on the computer to capture the still frames through the video camera.

"In," she called again, and her classmates returned to draw a second arm, a longer stroke, another letter. In the end, the video showed no children, only pictures magically appearing and evolving, creating the illusion of a moving image.

"I'm inspired by what they're able to create and think up," teacher Naomi Ture said.

The students were learning stop-motion animation, the predecessor of modern animation. Ture explained the process as "the perception of movement created with a series of still frames."

The class, which is part of The Ark after-school program at Taylor Apartments, began meeting in January. It concludes next month with a presentation for parents and other guests.

The program exemplifies Ture's -- and, by extension, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's -- commitment to integrating technology and the arts in education, said Branda Miller, one of Ture's professors in the integrated electronic arts program at RPI.

"There's a strict, purist notion of art as divorced from the real world," Miller said.

Miller said classes like Ture's reinforce interdisciplinary skills such as reading, writing, following instructions and leadership.

For Ture, who receives her master of fine arts degree from RPI on Saturday, the class is not only a learning and teaching opportunity but also an inspiration.

"My community work with children is very much related to my own artwork as an artist," she said. "I feel I can become more carefree and imaginative by being around children."

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