Red Kite Animation are an Edinburgh studio who mostly make children's cartoons. We also teach animated film making to kids and adults throughout Scotland (and occasionally England!)

“The animation DVD has worked really well with the new intake of pupils. We used it in classes to generate a discussion forum for the new S1 to comment on their expectations of High School etc. The staff and the pupils have both appreciated the skill and commitment which was put into its production. It's a resource which we will be able to use for a good few years I should expect”. Jim Maxwell - Principal Teacher of English at North Berwick High School

"I think this is the best thing I ever done and it was great fun". Pupil from Pollokshields Primary School

Workshops vary greatly in length, from short 2 hour introductions, to long 1 or 2 week projects. Animation can of course take a long time, but we try to teach faster techniques so that the participants can develop in other areas also.

Making a short animated film can involve many creative processes. Here’s a simple example of the process:

• Brainstorming and discussing ideas for a story

• Designing characters and backgrounds

• Write the speech

• Storyboard (drawing a quick comic of the main events in the film)

• Build characters and other artwork (drawn or model)

• Light the scene and set up the camera

• Animate the movement, frame by frame

• Edit any mistakes and add pauses and repeats (looping)

• Record speech, sound effects and music

• Edit it all together and arrange a show

• Be very happy and definitely make another one!

Most of our workshops are filmed using our own cameras and laptops with animation software. Pictures are filmed through a DV camcorder and stored on the laptops where they are joined as sequences and played back instantly. Dialogue and sound effects can be recorded onto minidisk and added to the animation straight away or later. Longer workshops are put onto DVD and can be used for public screenings or even entered for film festivals.

There's usually something for everyone and you don't need to be able to draw to make great films.