Stop Motion Animation

The children will recognize stop-motion movies from various cartoons and videos.  I like to show them parts of the Claymation Christmas videos as inspiration.  The musician  Jeremy Fisher has created many of his music videos using stop-motion, including the one to Jolene.

One of the nicest things about creating these movies, is that they can be then shared via You Tube, copied on a flash drive to go home and they can also be burned onto a DVD so that people without a computer can still watch them.

After watching some videos from You Tube or past projects for inspiration, we get to work.  For the first three projects below, we need to take many photos.  The PP project is a little different, but still requires many pictures.

Once you have everything ready, you open up Windows Movie Maker and import your photos.  You will need to set the timing to 0.25, add titles and credits and then save.  As you are working on the movie, you can just save as you would save all documents (save project button).  However, once you are finished and wish to save your final project you need to save a little differently.

You will need to save movie, and then select how to save it.  I choose for computer as that lets me put the movies on flash drives, DVDs and anywhere else.


I have done four types of stop-motion animation with the children.

1. Using objects.  This is easyish to do.  I have the children use objects found in the class or from home.  The possibilities are endless - one group played a soccer game using shoes and balls.

2. Using people.  More difficult to do. I would recommend having a parent volunteer take the photos.

3. Using the white board.  The children draw a little at a time.  They really enjoy erasing a little at a time - makes for magic.

4. Using PowerPoint.  Again, easyish to do. Once you teach the technique, it just takes time to produce.