“There are a number of students in the class who really do a good job coming up with an idea, rounding it out, and then creating it. They are enthusiastic, they grasp the concepts of the assigned projects, and they are persistent in the execution of the ideas they have. Obviously they need a bit of encouragement and help in condensing their ideas but they always come up with something. Usually it’s something I would not have thought of on my own.
The only problem is that to come up with a good idea takes time. Fleshing it out and distilling it takes time. Story-boarding their video takes time. Sculpting the clay into the characters and objects takes time. And finally, shooting the video itself takes a lot of time. Overall there is not quite enough time during the hour or so that is allotted to really complete a full and cohesive project. For most of the lessons so far we have ended up taking only a small part of their ideas and animating that. We haven’t quite been able to take the time to really explore their whole concept and make a high quality clay animation out of it.
I feel really badly about having to leave all of these wonderful ideas unexplored. I feel as though there is a whole lot more there to be discovered and I want to give the students a chance to do that. I want to reciprocate the effort that the students are putting into their projects by letting them see it through to the end.
It is certainly true that attention spans are limited and that available time overall is limited. However, the mentioned students certainly have demonstrated the ability to work for longer periods of time with concentration. Perhaps having a longer class with a brief break in the middle might be an option. I think we could really extend the scope of our projects and also increase their quality if some thing could be arranged.”