Online+resources

Paper critters
Paper critters is an online tool that allows you to design and create a basic 3D character. You can then print off a paper template of your character to be cut out and constructed. These make cheap and original animation figures that can be used for stop motion animation. I have used these for activities where children need to design specific looking characters for fairy tales they are retelling through animation.

Xtranormal
Basically if you can type you can animate with xtranormal. Be aware that some of the movies are inappropriate and children shouldn't have a free reign through the whole site. This online animation tool allows you to create a 3D cartoon with two interacting characters. You can use a variety of camera angles and character actions to create you animation. I used this during a persuasive writing project. The children had to take one of their persuasive writing pieces and create short movie where one character had to try and persuade the other character to their point of view.



Voki
Voki allows you to create an interactive character that can be embedded as a widget in blogs or wikis. My children use this to create characters that explain parts of our class blog. Check our class blog by clicking on the picture link.



Goanimate
Similar to Xtranormal but my children found this easier to use plus they could create a short animation in about five minutes. Great way to show basic 2D computer animation.

DOINK
Simple vector flash based animation which can be posted on Youtube and downloaded to your computer.

Wikipedia
I used this as the main source for further research of animation. I had my class reading groups research one type of animation check any links