Fuzzwich

Project Description: "Create an animation using the Fuzzwich. You must have at least 2 characters with appropriate actions, faces, and speech bubbles."

Overview: I liked this project a lot. It gave me a chance to play with animation......and I love animation. Fuzzwich was great for introducing the concept of path animation. It also gave me yet another chance to interject humor into my course work, which is important to me, because laughter unites people and is a great way to teach.

The Fuzzwich software takes some getting used to, but overall, is pretty easy to use. It comes with many background "stages" for your anime, or you can import your own, which is what I did. It also comes with many different characters to choose from, each with their own quirky personality, and you can even cut/paste your own face (or someone else's) over a character's face.

Fuzzwich is great software to use as a teaching tool. I teach in a computer lab, and this is the type of software that is appropriate for my ninth grade students. First of all, it is free, and that is a price range that any teacher can work into their budget. Secondly, it is so entertaining, that my students will be focused on the “fun” aspect of the application. This way, they can learn media principals without the tedium of reading through text books and working drill and practice problems. As I said before, humor is very important to learning, because laughter stimulates the brain. Because this software is so entertaining and includes so many different scenarios, action and dialogue, not only can I use it in class to teach the basics of animations, but I can also create other instructional videos, messages or even commercials to help lessons stand out in my students’ minds.

Fuzzwich does have a learning curve. By this, I mean it is important to practice with it and plan your animation ahead before attempting to publish something. To that extent, and can be a little time consuming. But once you get the hang of it, it can also be addictive. Also, while this software has its benefits, it is certainly only an introduction to path animation and definitely has limits, as to be expected with free software. I plan on using this in my classroom, both to teach Fuzzwich itself and to incorporate funny animations into other lessons to keep my students interested.