Crazy Talk

Students working in Computer Club have been experimenting with the facial animation software Crazy Talk. They have added images of themselves into the software and created animation points on their faces so that the tool can animate in a realistic fashion.

They have then added speech to their models and synchronised the sound and the movement together. One student has even added his speech in French.

Crazy Talk is an extremely sophisticated, but simple to use piece of software that could be used across the curriculum, especially in Literacy, Humanities and MFL. Hopefully we will have the chance to use it in wider applications during the forthcoming year.

Now that they have mastered the basic techniques, Computer Club will be revisiting Crazy Talk throughout the year.

Visiting Artist

Yesterday saw the first visit of Beulah van Rensburg to Kellett to begin our Art/ICT project. She spoke to Year 7 students showing examples of her work, referring to her inspirations as well as the Surrealist movement in general.

We also had chance to ask some of the technical 'how to' questions that will help us to produce our finished artwork.

Beulah is pictured below with one of her images, entitled "Bellybuttons".




Beulah also works with the Chameleon Workshop. They have an exhibition entitled Day Dreams from April 11th. Full details can be found here.

Art and Animation Project

We had an exciting meeting yesterday with Hong Kong based Australian artist Beulah van Rensburg, planning a project that we're likely to run in Years 5 & 7 next term. Beulah bases some of her fascinating artwork on found objects, such as old toys and household items.

The project will be a joint effort between the Art and ICT departments and will include construction and animation of models as well as a study of photographic techniques for students at Year 7. It sounds like a really exciting initiative and I'm already looking forward to it!

Start looking out for suitable items as soon as possible. We need old or broken toys, household objects such as teapots, crockery, and maybe even an iron or two!!