The Animation club is planning to put out three stop-motion short films and a small animated series to launch on YouTube this year. The club is a way to learn new skills and have fun.
Meeting in room 105 on Thursdays after school from 2:40-3:30, the Animation club is a go to for fun, friends and animation. The purpose is to teach students basic stop motion and animation skills.
Animation club sponsor Betheny Petr said, “Animation is so special as it doesn’t follow any rules of the world and there is no restrictions on what you can do.”
The second year president, junior Nashita Bhuiyan agrees. “Animation is visually very different to what we encounter every day in the real world. This allows audiences to be more willing to engage in the suspension of disbelief,” Bhuiyan said.
The club encourages students to socialize and share their ideas to a focused group. They can build off of each other to make their work more interesting and developed. Member junior Hannah Shapiro enjoys the club for a similar reason. “Since the time I joined in my sophomore year, I really enjoyed how I am able to express my own ideas, share them with others and collaborate with others to create animations of our own,” Shapiro said.
Animation can also help create job and career opportunities. There are plenty of colleges that offer degrees in animation. Good animators may get paid up to $3,000 for a 90-second video, so animation can make someone a comfortable living.
In the past the club has made it so anyone can join even if they have no experience and this year will be the same. When Bhuiyan first created the club she envisioned it as a “miniature film studio.” All though that didn’t happen last year, they are focused on getting to that point this year. “This year we will focus on the journey not the destination,” Bhuiyan said.
Although only Petr’s first year of being the sponsor, she looks forward to being able to spread her love of animation to others. She also seems excited about their plans as a club this year, as they are supposed to start with stop motion then move onto more complicated animations. Her favorite part of the club is “getting to talk to students outside of class,” Petr said.
Bhuyian says that animation helped teach her numerous skills such as teamwork, accountability and time management. These are skills that someone can take with them after high school even if they don’t pursue a career in animation.
Although not the most popular or talked about club at the school, it seems that the general consensus among students associated with the club is that it is a great opportunity to strengthen a college application, learn a new skill, make new friends and learn life lessons along the way.
