Episode 7 Nine Minute Ninja

Time to get my ninja on. Got my clothes.

BIRDS TWEETING

Atchoo!

The thing about being an art ninja is you're always moving.

They're doing drum practice next door. It's really annoying.

Oh.

But it's making me move.

Oh, I can't control it.

It's triggered something inside of me.

Yeah! Oh, now I'm dad dancing!

That's not dad dancing. This is dad dancing.

Oh, he's so embarrassing!

-Hey.

-Hi.

Wahey.

Cool dance moves.

What's that?

I've heard of dancing on the ceiling but that's ridiculous.

To make this laid-back animation, you'll need...

a tablet or smartphone with animation app...

some interesting terrain...

and a friend! I'm cheating a little here.

This is my friend Claire and she's a contemporary dancer.

And you can put it together in just three ninja moves.

Ninja move number one.

It's time to look at our world a little differently

cos we aren't going to be animating on our usual plane.

Look for interesting areas on the ground.

Things that don't seem exciting from this perspective

might be great to animate on.

And remember, you don't need to worry about gravity, cos

your character can jump really high, or even fly,

cos they're not really in the air.

Ninja move number two.

Now you've got interesting places to animate,

it's time to start thinking about your choreography.

Work with your animation model to work out what you can do.

This is where my model really comes into her own.

Ninja move number three...

It's time to start shooting.

So what I've done is I've attached my smartphone with animation app

to this fun little rig here.

Now, if you don't have fancy rigs like me,

you can simply use a selfie stick.

-OK. We've danced around the park...

-Mm-hmm.

..we've shot all our frames

and I've added some cool sound effects.

So, I think it's time to take a look at our mini masterpiece.

I think you've got some ninja dance moves.

Here's a quick art tip of how to drop a character jumping.

Got a diving board in place already.

He's going to be springing off of that. I'll start with his head.

Needs to be lent back a little bit cos he's jumping through the air.

Eyes looking forward.

Needs to be pretty pleased with himself.

That's not important for jumping, but I like him to be happy.

His hair's going to be blown back.

Cos he's jumping through the wind. Now his body.

I'm going to put his arms up diagonally,

coming out from his shoulders.

He's throwing his weight up in the air.

And some shorts.

And I want his front foot facing up, and his back foot facing down.

He's just sprung away from it.

Put a couple of wobble lines around him, to show the action,

and then some speed lines coming away from his back, showing

the direction that he's jumping in.

There we go. Quick art tip.

Come on. Jump to it, and have a go yourself.

The art ninja zoetrope.

Every film or TV show you've ever watched

is made up of individual pictures speeding by in quick succession.

A zoetrope is just an early version of that.

So, take your paper plate.

Now, I've painted mine black.

And, with a bit of modelling clay to protect the table,

poke a hole through the centre with a pencil.

With a pair of scissors, just cut a simple little X.

Now, that's going to work as a cradle for a marble.

It's going to help the zoetrope spin.

And I'm going to hold that in place with some sticky tape.

Cool.

Now, take a long sheet of black card,

long enough to fit around the outside of your plate.

Now, I'm going to cut 12 slot into it, equal distances apart.

And I'm going to mark out where I'm going to make the cuts.

I think they're going to be eight centimetres deep,

and they're going to be about five millimetres in width.

With some scissors, carefully cut those slots out.

Now go back along and just cut-off all the waste bits you left behind.

Now these slots are going to be what I watch the animation through.

They're little viewfinders.

Now I just stick that round the outside of the paper plate

with a little bit of double sided sticky tape.

You can use glue or normal sticky tape.

Just run that among the bottom.

And I'm going to put a little bit on the edge here as well,

to stick it together where it overlaps.

Just going to prepare my plate by rolling over the sides,

so I've got a nice surface to stick the double-sided sticky tape to.

Right, peel off the backing of my double-sided sticky tape.

Just going to roll the plate along and anywhere where it needs a

little more stick, I'm going to use some sticky tape to hold it down.

Just where it overlaps. There you go.

So, the zoetrope is a bit like a drum,

and when you place a sequence of photographs or images on the inside

and spin it, they animate in smooth motion.

So I need to draw my sequence of images.

I'm going to grab a long piece of white card with a little bit

of overlap so it fits nicely on the inside of the drum.

Right. So now I need to draw my 12 pictures.

Equal distances apart,

so they line-up with the slots on the zoetrope.

I'm going to drop someone dancing!

As you can see, I draw my figure in a different position each time

so it animates nicely.

But so it flows, I need to return it to the starting position.

The word "zoetrope" derives from the Greek word meaning

"life turning".

There we are. My last frame is nearly at my starting position.

That should animate well.

So I've got my 12 pictures, and my 12 slots on the zoetrope.

And I'm going to pop them in and make them dance.

Now, give it a spin

and watch that tiny dancer spin across the dance floor.

MUSIC: Tiny Dancer (Hold Me Closer) by Ironik ft Chipmunk and Elton John

It's better than my dancing.

But not nearly as good as Dad's!

You don't have to do a dancer.

You can make your figure do whatever you like.

This one's jumping!

Or a dog going for walkies.

Now go to the website

and get your ninja on.

Art ninja!