Beach Art Center hosts 3D animation summer camp

Beach Art Center hosts 3D animation summer camp

With a small camera, a little bit of clay and paper, and a lot of imagination, kids at the Beach Art Center's 3D animation summer camp are learning about movie magic. Photojournalist Barry Wong reports.

INDIAN ROCKS BEACH, Fla. - With a small camera, a little bit of clay and paper, and a lot of imagination, kids at the Beach Art Center's 3D animation summer camp are learning about movie magic. 

"It's really amazing, because I think it's so like crazy," camper Bianca Alvarez said. "It's the way that it makes it look like it's coming to life, and we just get to pick what it does."

The 11-year-old built a character named Priscilla out of non-hardening modeling clay, supported by a wooden skeleton. Alvarez and her team are working on a movie about aliens abducting animals. In this case, the animals are an emu and a lobster. 

"I didn't like the camps where you have to do everything just like they told you, so there's really some freedom that I really like, and we just all collaborated and made this nice story," Alvarez said. 

Dig deeper:

The other half of the campers worked on a movie about a missing giraffe. Teacher Deborah Vest has been running the camp for nearly a decade. She's helped by teenage volunteers, many of whom are former center campers. 

"They're learning about the magic behind a lot of the cartoons they like to watch on TV," Vest said. 

To make their films, kids move their clay characters or backgrounds slightly in between photos taken by Vest. Those photos are stitched together to create a short movie. The movies are showcased on the final day of camp and uploaded online. 

"I do hope they feel successful, like they've accomplished something," Vest said. 

What's next:

3D animation is one of six summer camps that the Beach Center offers this summer.