Written by Hamida Khatri
The workshop invited students to join in a socially engaged collaborative effort in depicting a happy representation of the future with stories of hope, resilience, and inspiration during the COVID-19 pandemic. The current situation around the world has shattered many dreams and aspirations. By demonstrating a reciprocal relationship between artistic production and social and political mechanisms, the participatory nature of narrative storytelling, empathy, and direct dialog has become essential in bringing those discussions to the forefront. This workshop utilized the stop-motion animation technique to highlight the importance of mental health and well-being and demonstrated how socially engaged art can act as a communal vehicle for advocacy, intervention, and healing. The duration of the workshop was four weeks, with the first week focusing on idea generation, sketching the puppet, constructing the armature of the puppet, and creating the body mass.
The second week concentrated on sculpting the face with Sculpey.
The third week centered around embellishing the puppet by sewing the attire and other accessories, hairstyling, defining facial features, etc.
The fourth week concentrated on creating stop-motion walk-cycles for each of the puppets using DragonFrame.
I had a lot of fun teaching students to design stop-motion animation puppets using everyday materials such as wood, wire, screws, nuts, and bolts, and sparking their creativity in a different way. The studio has been equipped with the latest technological tools for capturing high-resolution frames for the animation using DragonFrame. Dr. Veras has been supportive in designing this workshop and getting the supplies for students to use for that purpose. Phillip Martin Carl (Building Services Coordinator) was super helpful in carving the wood pieces for the students and having them ready to be used. The goal was to introduce the technique of stop-motion animation to the students and have them explore the medium in the experimenta.L animation lab in the Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication department at the University of Texas at Dallas.