Animation Software
Sunday, December 18, 2005 at 8:31PM 
The above animation is by Richard, a student in Jason Jaffe's sixth grade class at Mill Creek Elementary School in Warrington, Pennsylvania. Richard used NoviiAnimator to create his amazing cartoon. Novii sponsored a Christmas Drawing contest, and Richard's was picked as the winner. Mr. Jaffe's class is starting to dabble in podcasting so you can listen to a minute-long interview with Richard, recorded on a Palm Zire 72. View or download all of the animations entered into the contest from NoviiAnimator's Gallery page.
NoviiAnimator is a great alternative to GoKnow's Sketchy. It is packed with features and you can try it for free. Right now it's on sale for $13.95 per handheld. I'd suggest contacting Novii and asking for a classroom quote. There's a Windows program that will convert the animation into GIFs that can be used on web sites and slide shows. To get an idea of how NoviiAnimator works, check out the tutorial. Sorry Windows Mobile users, NoviiAnimator is only for the Palm OS 3.5 and above (and, unfortunately, cannot be installed with a Macintosh computer).
For Pocket PC users, there's a Windows Mobile version of Sketchy. There's also Pocket FlipBook ($19.95) and Flip It! ($4.99). I could not find any free animation programs for Pocket PC, but you can demo each of these programs at no cost.
For Palm users, there are free alternatives to NoviiAnimator and Sketchy. Schools are using AnimateMe! and Animator. However, these free applications do not have nearly as many features as the commercial programs (and tend to crash on newer handhelds).
Whichever software you choose to use, animation applications allow students to express themselves and the curriculum in fun and creative ways!
Reader Comments (1)
I purchased Novii animator a year and a half ago and I love it.
One of the really cool things you can do with Novii is import .bmp and .jpg images from your computer into the application. In order to avoid distortion the image size needs to be 160x118.
The trial version version only allows you to create 5 frame animations, but there are things you can do within that limit. I've created a clock face and then the children draw in the hands for the requested time.
I've also converted the D'nealian and cursive alphabets into worksheets for the handheld that my daughters can use if they choose to use them.
Dale