Xtranormal, if you can write you can make films

Xtranormal is a free tool for creating and sharing 3D animations, in a simple and attractive environment for creating short stories from text. Its slogan is “If you can write, you can make films”. Once the dialogue for the scene has been written you can make the camera move nearer to the main actor, make him or her smile or start a conversation with another character and move the camera nearer to catch the moment.

In the project European Cities: Past and Present, the students from IES Parque Lisboa and their teacher, María Jesús Campos, used Xtranormal as an enjoyable way to tell their Bulgarian partners about some of the typical places to be found in Madrid. Xtranormal, as well as being a very attractive tool, allows the pupils to practise their written expression in a foreign language as well as their oral comprehension, as once the film is made they can listen to the written text spoken by their characters.

As well as encouraging creativity, a film involves different tasks: setting out the story, writing the script, producing the storyboard…etc., which can be done by several students collaborating together, which is very motivating.