Unit 2 - Year 3 Lessons

Overview

Students will complete Unit 2 Year 3 activities using digital art workflows.

Target skills:

• Visual Communication
• Digital Illustration
• Creative Problem Solving

Tools:

• Pixilart

Outputs:

• Student-created digital artifact(s) saved to class folder.

Week 1 - Intro to Parallax (Pixilart)

Lesson 1 - Build a 3-Layer Scene

Goal: Use layers and the Parallax tool in Pixilart to animate the midground while keeping foreground and background stable.

1. Introduce Parallax
   Ask: “Have you seen games where the background and foreground move differently-”
   Explain: Objects closer to the viewer move faster than objects far away.

2. Create a New Drawing

• File > New
• Canvas: 128 × 64 px
• Click Create

3. Set Up 3 Layers

• Bottom Layer: Road + Sky + Grass
• Square Tool > turn Fill on (top bar).
• Draw a thin rectangle across the canvas for the road.
• Use Move tool to position if needed.
• Bucket fill: green below for grass, blue above for sky.
• This layer does not move.
• Middle Layer: Tree (Stamp Tool)
• Click + to add a new layer.
• In Stamps search, type "tree".
• Choose a premade tree and resize to sit beside the road.
• This layer will move.
• Top Layer: Car (Stamp Tool)
• Find a car stamp, size it, and place it just on top of the road.
• This layer does not move.

4. Turn On Parallax Mode

• Select the Move tool (arrow icon).
• In the top bar, toggle Parallax = On.
• This makes the moving object loop and reappear on the other side.

5. Add Frames & Move the Tree

• Click + Copy Frame in the timeline.
• On each new frame, shift the tree slightly left with the Move tool.
• Tip: Don’t move it too far per frame or it will jump.
• Repeat for ~7 frames so the tree scrolls across and loops.
• Pro tip: On the last frame, position the tree so it appears behind the first-frame tree for a clean loop.

6. Preview & Export

• Press Play (or Spacebar) to preview.
• Adjust the speed slider for a natural scroll.
• Download > Export as GIF > Save to Google Drive > Students > NAME > ParallaxTree.gif

Lesson 2 - Iterate

• Replace the tree with a different moving midground (e.g., signs, buildings, bushes).
• Keep the car and road fixed; only the midground moves.
• Export a second loop GIF.

Week 2 - Expanded Parallax Scene

Lesson 1 - Multi-Element Loop

Goal: Add multiple midground elements and a gentle background drift for deeper parallax.

Suggested steps:

• Duplicate last week’s file.
• Add two or more midground objects (trees, signs, fences) and stagger their positions.
• Give the background clouds a very slow movement (one pixel every few frames).
• Keep the car fixed; optionally animate small wheel or exhaust details on a separate layer.

Lesson 2 - Polish and Presentation

• Add speed-limit sign, road markings, or day/night color shifts.
• Ensure seamless looping (first and last frames align).
• Export final GIF and share in a class gallery.