Students Create Whiteboard Animations

By Olivia Archiblad

As part of their creative writing projects in Dr. Olivia Archibald’s UNI 101 class this fall, students made  RSA animated-style videos in the O’Grady Library’s new multimedia center.  Dr. Belinda Hill, Associate Professor in the Education Department, directed the project.

Dr. Belinda Hill advises Sarah McCreary and Alexis Schupbach on their animation

RSA animations, also known as whiteboard animation and video scribing, involve an “artist” creating cartoon images on a whiteboard as a voice-over narrator explains a concept or, in the case of the UNI project, a personal narrative (we only see the artist’s hand and the whiteboard’s illustrations).

Brooks Ellingsen and Daniel Echtle work out their animation

In the UNI 101 project, students created whiteboard drawings that depicted creative nonfiction stories that they had written in an earlier UNI project.  Each student used an IPAD to create a stop-motion camera effect as the student drew the illustration representing events in the narrative, and then created a voice-over by developing a 1-2 minute telling of the story.

Gabriela Virgen and Emma work out their project

The project was one that, as with other assignments in the class, focused on creativity, imagination, and experimentation, while also encouraging Community as most of the students worked in pairs.

Shea Kelly and James Fielder prepare to start shooting their stories