Animation Desk has helped children and education programs bring out the creativity within their students for years. Many programs have implemented animation projects for their students to help them become more familiar with different forms of art and expression. Using art as a learning tool can provide students with the ability to bring their imagination to life and create the world that they want. This is exactly what Associazione Avisco has been able to do for the children in their hospitals.
Source: cartonianimatiincorsia.org
Associazione Avisco is a non-profit education program that runs traditional animation workshops at Children Hospitals in Brescia, Italy. Since 2012, Associazione Avisco has helped over 800 children and assisted them in creating 69 animated movies. With the goal of giving positive opportunities to children that are currently fighting life-threatening diseases, this program has been able to grow year after year to expand its resources and have a greater impact on the lives of children. By using a wide variety of audio and visual tools, including Animation Desk, they have been able to help strengthen and improve the learning process. They explain that using a versatile art form, such as animation, is perfect for their program because it is a simple yet effective tool that is easy to learn while still challenging their creativity.
Encouraging children to animate stimulates their imagination, which can improve brain function and development. Irene Tedeschi, General Coordinator and Animator for Associazone Avisco, helped paint a picture of what their program is like on a day-to-day basis, the purpose of this program, and how they help their children bring their imagination to life. The children have expressed that using Animation Desk is one of their favorite parts of the day, as it gives each of them a view into the great and powerful world of their imagination.
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Peek Into The World Of Animated Cartoons In The Wards
We sat down to ask Irene Tedeschi, General Coordinator and Animator for Associazione Avisco, to ask a few questions about their program.
How did your program begin?
“Cartoni animati in corsia (Animated cartoons in the wards) began in 2012 and began as a short activity. We noticed the popularity of this program and began to grow it. Since then we have grown the project year over year. We have created 69 films and worked with more than 800 children from 4 to 18 years old, in various departments of the Children’s Hospital in Brescia (Lombardy, Italy) (which has a focus in Oncology, Neuropsychiatry, Orthopedics, Surgery, and Pediatrics). We collaborate with both the School teachers in the hospital and the hospital staff, to best meet the needs of our ‘young patient animators.'”
What is the goal of your program?
“The main goal of our program is to give the opportunity to hospitalized children to empower their own most vital, creative and transformative energy, which for some can be threatened due to their illness and hospitalization.
Moreover, creating animation really helps patients express themselves, get in touch with themselves, socialize with others, and overall just feel at ease. When the former lives of these children no longer exist, and their self-determination is drastically reduced, being able to make a film even without getting out of bed helps to give these young people the opportunity to feel motivated, to be able to decide, to give shape to fantasy, and the ability to participate in culture and art production.
Source: cartonianimatiincorsia.org
The Convention on the Rights of the Child declares that every child has the right to rest, relax, play, and take part in cultural and creative activities. Adults and the Government must do all they can to make sure that every child in his/her country can enjoy all the rights of this Convention. So, we do our best to help follow this.”
How do you use Animation Desk to help the children at your hospital?
“Before the pandemic, our workshops used to be face to face with the children. This allowed us to do stop-motion animation with cut-out paper or plastic. In February 2020, we had to stop that kind of activity. Animation Desk allowed us to start over with an experimental workshop in streaming, which involved a small group of teenagers in the Neuropsychiatry department.
Animation Desk is a very intuitive application. In just 5 minutes, the kids understood how it works and could achieve satisfactory results using the basic tools. Then, step by step, they discovered the most advanced functions and became more and more competent. We work closely with our patients as their difficulty level has a wide range, so having an app that is versatile is a very important feature for us.
Source: cartonianimatiincorsia.org
Animation Desk allows everyone to use the application according to their current skill level, while still maintaining the feeling of competence and self-determination. Now, thinking about the future, we imagine a project in which children and young people can use both techniques: stop-motion and traditional animation.
For instance, Animation Desk will possibly allow us to extend our program to children in isolation in the Oncology ward, with whom we have never been able to work with stop-motion.”
What is the importance of art and animation to the children in your program?
“Animation is the art of giving life to inanimate objects or drawings, with no limits to imagination. Our young animators strongly need to connect themselves to hope, future, freedom, and life because they are stuck in a situation that deals with fear, pain, and death. Animation is a magical super-power that allows them to escape with their imagination and go beyond the limits of the disease.”
How Children’s Programs From All Over The World Are Adopting Animation
In recent years, we are seeing more and more children’s programs introducing animation to teach basic art and movie-making skills to young learners. Whether it be at schools, hospitals, or even programs where kids can do it at their home. Even some art programs that used to focus on traditional art styles such as, drawing, painting, and ceramics, have begun taking on more modern styles of art, including animation because it gives children access to build skills in multiple variables. By creating one animation, children will not only have to think about the drawing and color schemes, but they will also have to focus on filming, editing, and sound application.
While having to focus on these different parts all at once may be a bit daunting in the beginning, the children will quickly realize that it is a very doable task if you just take the steps one-by-one. By taking each step one at a time, the children will gain confidence in their abilities and continue to move along in the animation process. That way, in the end, one animation project can be the full package as it uses multiple forms of media to create.
Since most kids are exposed to cartoons and animated TV shows/movies from a very young age, making the connection from what they see on their screen to what they are able to create themselves can be very inspiring. They already understand the basics of what an animation should look like just from being exposed to these shows for so long. Which is why giving children access to tap into their imagination during this time in their life can open doors for new possibilities.
Children have a natural ability to tap into their imagination to create, which is why there are many animation programs that have focused on giving children the best tools to make their ideas come to life on the screen.
If you would like to support Associazione Avisco or learn more about their program, you can visit their website for more information.
Start Your Animation Journey With Us!
Whether you are a student that wants to begin animating, a teacher that wants to implement animation into your program, or someone who thinks animation can help your creativity, Animation Desk is the best place for you to begin on your journey. For any questions on how you can implement Animation Desk into your program send us a message on our Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram pages. With a very simple layout, multiple animation tools, and various tutorials to guide you along the way, Animation Desk provides you with everything you need to bring your imagination to life.
If you haven’t used the latest version, download Animation Desk today!