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Stop-Motion Animation

Activity 1: What is Stop-Motion Animation?

(15 minutes)

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What do you think stop-motion animation is? (If you are working with others, share your thoughts. If you are working independently, jot down a few notes.) Do you know any examples? Do a search for stop-motion videos and watch a few examples. What do the examples have in common? And how are they different? What materials were used in creating the examples you saw? What questions do you have about how stop-motion is created?

 

Watch this video about Stop Motion Animation: https://vimeo.com/40950441


Some of the stop motion animation films you saw were probably Claymation. If you want your stop motion animation to be a Claymation movie, start with the “Intro to Claymation” module and then come back to this module.

Activity 2: Take Tons of Photos

(30-45 minutes)

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If you’ve already done the Claymation Module, skip to Activity 3.

 

What medium do you want to use for stop motion? Some animators use Clay, but others use toys, drawings, paper, puppets, or people! If you want to draw your Stop Motion story, using a whiteboard will be easier than a pen and paper since you can erase tiny parts of the drawing and change them between photos. Stop motion animations made with Legos are called “Brickfilms.”

 

What do you want to do in your video? Remember, it can be as simple, and cool, as making a sock look like it is alive as it inches across the floor. Keep your idea short! It takes A LOT of photos for video that is several seconds long.

 

Check out this Brickfilm made by a club member:

 

Here’s an example of a 12 second stop-motion animation. How many photos do you think were taken to make this video?

 

Believe it or not, that was 36 photos. Each second of video showed 3 photos (so the animation was 3 frames per second).​

Activity 3: Produce Your Movie

(30-45 minutes)

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Put all your photos on your computer.

 

Load all of your media (photos) into the editing software. Select all your photos (try to keep them in order!) into the video builder.

To make the photos look like continuous motion, adjust the length of time that each photo plays. When each photo shows for a long time, it looks like a slide show, but a quick series of photos looks like an animation. Professional animators might use 24 photos per second of video, but you can also make a cool animation using 2 photos per second. (That means each photo should only last for 1/2 a second)

 

Once your photos are playing fast enough to look like an animation, you could add music or a voice-over. You might also add a title page, credits, or other graphics.


If you have questions about specific parts of the process, you could search online for more Stop Motion support or other video tutorials.

Activity 4: Share Your Movie

(15 minutes) 

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When you’ve completed your movie, you’ll need to export it so that you can share it. To export your movie from iMovie, follow these instructions. To export your movie from Movie Maker, follow these instructions.  In WeVideo, you could save your video as an MP4 or upload it to Vimeo or YouTube.

 

To share your video with friends over email, social media, or the My.Future platform, you might want to upload your movie to Vimeo or YouTube. Learn how to upload a movie to vimeo here.

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To share your video online, you could upload it to Vimeo with the following information:


Share your finished movie and ask for ideas for future stop-motion movies. Don’t stop here. Keep creating! If you find an art you enjoy doing, keep at it. 

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Email the digital media you created to BGCAmediamaking@gmail.com or send it through instagram to @BGCAmediamaking 

Still Interested? Take a look at these resources: 

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Video: LEGO® Movie Maker app: Animation Tips and Tricks

Book excerpt: 'The Advanced Art of Stop-Motion Animation': History of Stop-Motion Feature Films: Part 1

Article: The Earliest Stop Motion Animations are Weirdly Wonderful

What You'll Need: 

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Produce a Movie with Photos

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Ready to Start the Show?

  • Place your camera on a tripod pointing toward a well-lit area. If you don’t have a tripod, try to make your camera as stable as possible.

  • Set up your props. Take a photo!

  • Move your props a TINY bit in the direction you want them to go. Take another photo!

  • Continue making tiny adjustments and taking photos until your props have “acted out” the entire story (like in the images below). The idea is to move bit by bit toward the final goal. You’re going to end up with a ton of photos. Take your time. Moving too quickly or shaking the camera are two of the most common mistakes in Stop Motion Animation.

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