Kirtland youth produce clay animation short 'Fluffyland'

  • Published
  • By Joanne Perkins
  • Kirtland Public Affairs
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  Five Kirtland youth had a chance to get creative and work as a team to produce their own short animated film "Fluffyland: An Alternate Universe."

The students, taking part in a stop-motion animation class at the Kirtland Arts and Crafts Center, created clay characters and used art supplies and random objects to create an elaborate backdrop that served as the set for filming.

"Teamwork was critical, as there would be only one film, one plot and many characters that had to meld together to form one story," said Sarah Stearman, the programmer at the Kirtland Arts and Crafts Center. "With three girls and two boys, it was interesting to see how they worked together to create a plot that took everyone's ideas into consideration."

Evan Curtis, who provided the photography that turned the motionless objects into moving characters, said he was impressed by the creativity in the group.

"These kids were amazing and it was so rewarding working with them," he said. "They are very creative and full of great ideas."

Instruction was a tag-team effort, with Stearman taking the lead on teaching character development and set design, while Curtis worked with the kids on the actual movement of the characters and photography.

The plot had the characters throw a Frisbee into a portal to an alternate universe, which was filled with cotton-candy trees, clouds and other soft objects, according to Josh Goldstein, 13. The character he created was a ninja with no arms.

"It's hard to be a good ninja in that condition, so I had to work at ways to fit him into the story," he said. "We had to make sure that the objects in the real-life set were also in the Fluffyland set."

Goldstein has aspirations of working in the animation industry, and said this will help him in that goal.

"This was the best base activity I have ever done," he said. "I've always wanted to do animation for my career and this was such good practice. I'm really proud of our film.

Another student, Marcos Martinez, 9, said he was grateful for the way the teachers let the students take the lead.

"This story was our idea and they let us do our own thing, but if we got stuck, they would help us out," he said. "We all had such a fun time and learned so much and we can't wait to do it again," said Martinez.

Stearman said she wanted to offer a class that would be fun for the older kids at Kirtland.  She'd like to offer the class again if there is enough interest from the Kirtland community.

To see the video, go to www.facebook.com/NucleusNewspaper. For more on classes and events at Kirtland Arts and Crafts Center, call 853-3003.