Animation as therapy?

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Could animation be used as a kind of social story therapy?

Not only by viewing animations, but by actively producing an animated film?

Could the power of the story be used to illustrate character intentions and complex motives?

What if this storytelling and self expression could be used to explore complex social issues?


Maybe character animation could be used to supplement social cues learning from real people/photographs?

Maybe real people could be filmed acting out a social scenario and this could be turned into cartoon animation?

Character animation is a technical process:
-Lip-syncing techniques
-Posture
-Proximity
-Layering

What if some premade characters could be manipulated using a computer package like Flash. Maybe something as basic as using symbol swap to change the facial expression. It could be just a set of limited 2D animation templates. It wouldn't have to be fancy and expensive 3D.

Maybe a program could be made where premade characters are dragged onto the "Stage" and used to tell stories. Sort of like computerised puppets.

There's the potential to learn:
-Story script writing
-IT skills
-Patience
-Social Pragmatics
-Humour
-Emotions

The cartoon creation could be used as a fun vehicle to learn and play around with social situations. It could be used to supplement real life social interaction and could be used as a discussion point.

Actually, I don't really like the word "therapy".
I think that lots of people could benefit from this, not just those seeking therapy.
"Animation work experience" or "Animation club" sound less patronising.

The only obstacles would be funding, keeping class sizes small and finding experienced mentors.

Makes a lot of sense. Animators are actors themselves. I'll assume you've watched behind-the-scenes Pixar footage, and they record themselves going through all kinds of actions, and all animators have mirrors at their desks to help them understand just the right facial expressions for the scenes.

Actually, one of my interests is animation and animating. I never took a class or anything like that. I just read about techniques and try them out. I would love to get some real animation software, but till then it's hand drawn, stop motion or rotoscoping.

Aslo, the animating over live action is called rotoscoping, and there is some pretty awesome examples from the Betty Boop days.

I don't know about therapy though. It can get tedious and extremely frustrating at times. I don't know how someone without a real interest in it could do it. But then, I don't really know that much about what other people think. Ah, empathy.

I love making animation, and I have also wondered about its usefulness as therapy for autism.

Has anyone here read the book The Illusion of Life? Two Disney animators explain how the art of animation developed and how it was done at Disney from Snow White through The Rescuers. I think some of the principles of animation they discuss might be useful for people with autism who want to be able to present themselves more successfully to NT people. There are things like anticipation and moving in arcs that I think are almost directly translatable into social interactions.

I work for Toon Boom which is the worldwide leader in animation software solutions. Among our esteemed customers, we had the honor to feature the following ones who have austim, Asperger or Down Syndrome.

Their parents shared how amazing it was to connect with their children via animation and how it could serve as an outlet to communicate.

Stories are published in our web site but the forum does not allow me to give you the links.
If you are interested, please email me at karina at toonboom dot com.

Thanks,
Karina

Hi All

How wonderful to hear that you are discussing using animation to aid with ASD. I have used Animation for over 20 years in this area with great success and I am documenting it all as part of my Phd now.

If anyone is interested further then please contact me.

Would love to hear from some more budding animators

I've made a couple of stop motion animated movies out of Lego. I don't think mine really would appeal to a general audience, because my sense of humor is kind of strange, and I made them for my own enjoyment (not for an "audience").

But when I was working on them, doing the animating gave me a feel for what it must be like to act. Even though Lego people are stiff, and have static facial expressions, I found that it's possible to give them a certain amount of body language.

I'm not autistic, and I don't have any particular difficulties with body language, but I did enjoy the challenge of moving my characters in just the right way. I remember being aware of how my character was supposed to be feeling, and trying to give him appropriate body language, by tilting his body ever so slightly in certain ways. I like to think I was fairly successful, but it's hard to know for sure. I can see how working on something like this might be helpful for someone to gain a better understanding of body language. Lego probably isn't the ideal medium, but it's what I know.

You really do have to love it, though, like someone else said. It can take an entire hour to animate and capture ten seconds of footage, depending on what you're doing. It can be tempting to rush through it, but that shows in your results. It can also be frustrating when you spend a whole bunch of time on a scene, and then accidentally knock the webcam, and can't get it back in the exact position as before, so you end up with an ugly jump. And you've got to remember to stay properly fed and watered, or whatever it takes to avoid meltdowns.

Here's a link to my blog with a few of my movies, in case anyone is interested. Actually, I think there are only two movies on it ("Lemon Zing" and "Lego Harbor"), but I'm hoping to make more at some point. They are both very weird, so don't say I didn't warn you. www.elderwanda.blogspot.com

Look at the forums at -

www.stopmotionanimation.com
www.animateclay.com

This guy is doing some neat stuff with stop motion and is showing how he is doing it.
http://www.rogerevans.tv/jq.html

Heres some how to videos from youtube -

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgipvcyFnDY&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W7gCMNr5k0&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDJ71O2rUc4&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BkTaEBEfOs&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22X04a6bw6A&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TH1tUfOTQE&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbF6m3BeGUQ&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5vckBvmGfE&feature=related[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK1tAh_kCZE&feature=related[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHTek_NQEXw&feature=related[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZGGD9V97WU&feature=related[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biQZTD3Mexg&feature=related[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEfa3RQCk20&feature=related[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqnIEys-9dI&feature=related[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEH6y90smJQ[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1WsgasZBg0[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBp85mJZHOg[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/user/PatrickBoivin#p/c/22201739CD623706/0/94KO4UHOyk4[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agJP-P68EsQ[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqsYyEHJv2M[/youtube]

I have my own type of therapy. It's music.

Heres some 2D hand drawn animation

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dli27nJsSM[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQccYA47jZk&feature=relmfu[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAy0RvmWkDY&feature=related[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFsSIVzB0PE&feature=related[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODpPuGYQYOg&feature=related[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY4OthEt8cs&feature=related[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwZj3XpMMVs&feature=relmfu[/youtube]

I find the repetative action of stopmotion animation very relaxing to the point my higher than average blood pressure goes down. Right now I am slowly amassing the gear I need to start doing it again.