Word Problem Animation :: 5 in 10
My boyfriend and I collaborated on a project this summer where we created animated solutions to SAT prep questions. We created two different animations, a word problem and a math problem. These two prototype animations were pitched to several different educational establishments.
We started off with a traditional SAT sentence correction problem that can be seen
here.
After much brainstorming we drafted up a written narrative and storyboard that we felt would creatively explain the correct answer.
“The essential knowledge required for the solution of this verbal problem is to make comparisons one must compare two like objects. To visually represent this concept a scale is animated as either balanced or unbalanced. The animation begins with the image of a scale both sides empty and thusly, in perfect balance. A raven then flies onto the screen and places several of Shakespeare’s seminal works on one side of the scale (ie. Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, etc. all titles will be visible to the viewer). As the scale becomes unbalanced it adjusts appropriately. To demonstrate the inequity between the individual Edgar Allen Poe and the literary works of William Shakespeare the raven then flies off screen and returns with an actual animation of Edgar Allen Poe. The raven places the animated Poe on the opposite side of the scale and the inequity is animated as the scale adjusts rapidly due to the increased weight on the previously empty side. Clearly, the man Edgar Allen Poe is not comparable to the literary works of William Shakespeare. At this point the raven returns and removes Poe from the scale, the scale tips again to the side of Shakespeare’s plays as the opposite side is now empty. When the raven returns it is holding the stories of Poe and places them on the scale. The equitable comparison between plays and stories is animated as the scale comes into balance. “
After many hours battling with how to make the scales balance appropriately and recording a dozen takes for the voice over, I am pretty happy with the final product.
