Art @ PSC

Collaborative Critter Project

In 2024, Pakenham Secondary College received a grant from Creative Victoria. Our application was one of many submitted by schools throughout Victoria, and we were fortunate to be one of only 20 schools awarded this substantial grant.

The grant was given for our proposal of a cross-curricular project between our Year 7.1 English Enhancement Class and our Years 9 and 10 Digital Art Classes - the "Collaborative Critter Character Project."

Renowned artist Tara Kingston, alongside our wonderful Miss Rhodes-Anderson, mentored students through a studio-based process of exploration, development and design of Claymation 'critters' for a stop-motion film.

Our Year 7.1 English Class, under the guidance of their English teacher Mr Kelly, provided detailed descriptions and ideas for their critter characters to the Year 10 Digital Art Class.

Our Year 10 Digital Art students, with expert direction from Miss Rhodes-Anderson and mentor, Tara Kingston, worked their magic to bring the Year 7 students' critters and characters to life. The Year 10s used their creative skills to craft polished and vibrant renderings that captured the essence of these imaginative characters.

The two classes collaborated closely, with the Year 7 students acting as 'clients' and providing feedback to the Year 10 students on the artistic designs of their written creations. Collaborative learning has been shown to not only develop higher-level thinking skills but also to boost self-esteem and confidence. Students learned how to work with different types of learners and developed their leadership skills.

The next step in the process involved the Year 10 Digital Art students providing 2D vector designs of the characters to the Year 9 Digital Art students, who then created 3D Clay characters. The students built sets, planned scenes and applied claymation techniques to bring the critters to life on screen.

The culmination of this project was a series of six stop-motion films, which were shared with our community on Tuesday, 25th March, during a special film screening. Thank you to Zoe, Tarik and Josie for your presentations at this outstanding screening.

Over 80 students, parents, carers and staff attended this fantastic showcase, where all of the work was displayed, along with some sticker mementos created by the students. Attendees enjoyed a popcorn viewing of the process in pictures, followed by the screening of the six animated films. The level of creativity and imagination shown by all students involved in this project was exceptional.

Awards were presented by our teachers to Ebony, Kenndrick (Year 7), Josie, Christine, Eleni, Mitchell (Year 9), Maysam and Emily (Year 10),  for their outstanding work. Each attendee at the screening was also given a voting slip to choose awards for Outstanding Animation, Most Engaging Storyline, Best Set Design and Most Creative Sound Effects. These awards are currently being tallied by our Digital Art team.

We would like to thank Creative Victoria for their generous grant, as well as Ms Kingston for her mentorship of our students. We also extend our gratitude to Ms Schinzig, Mr Kelly, Mr Bhandari and Ms Purcell for their efforts in bringing this project to life. A massive thank you to Miss Rhodes-Anderson for her incredible vision and exceptional management of the entire project.

Here are some comments by our 2024 Year 7 students about this Collaborative Critter Project.

I think my team captured what I wrote about - Kenndrick

I'm really looking forward to the film screening - Alyse

My character was a little bit different to the one that I wrote about. It will be really good to see what they do with the final stop-motion film - Logan.

Being part of the project has been fun. My claymation character wasn't that different to how I imagined them to be. I'm happy with how they created them - Nurelham.

Collaborative Critter Project Screening

Below is the exceptional screening produced by Ms Rhodes-Anderson and presented on Tuesday, 25th March.