Your children have been at home for many weeks now, and you may be running short on ideas to keep them engaged in learning. Here’s an idea for you: have them take a stab at movie making! We have digital cameras or smart phones with cameras, so this is a fun and doable project. By taking a series of photographs and stringing them together, your child can create a stop motion animated film. If you’ve ever made or played with flip books when you were younger, then you know how this works. Using photography as the main tool and creating the storyline, sets, and characters, your child has a hands-on way of creating the animation.
Here’s what you need to do:
1 – Determine the camera, tripod or stand to use. A tripod or stand will make shooting easier.
2 – Determine if your computer already has a video editing software program. If it does, make a slideshow and set it to advance every 0.002 seconds. This will give you smooth transitions through the pictures. If you don’t have these available, there are software options online that will help to turn the photos into an animation.
For Windows, you can string the photos together using downloads from these sites:
https://handyavi.en.lo4d.com/windows or
https://www.nimisis.com/projects/flix.php
If you are using a Mac:
http://gawker.sourceforge.net/Download.html
Stop motion software for tablets is also very popular. Here are 3 popular apps available through Apple's App Store or Google's Play Store:
Stop Motion Studio
Stop Motion Builder
Lapse It
3 – Write the story. Who are the characters? What kind of adventure are they going to have? While working this out, add as much detail as possible because planning it out ahead of time will make the creation part of this project go smoothly.
4 – Determine what type of animation method you will be using. A 2D animation using a series of drawings? A 3D version using clay models, Lego bricks, or other figures? Either way will work fine. Here is a fun example:
https://youtu.be/8vq6wIFbi5g
5 – Design the set and make the background. You and your child can paint, draw, make something from clay, or use the setting around you in the home or backyard.
6 – Position the characters and ACTION! After taking the first shot, move the models very slightly and take another photo. Repeat this action, slowly moving through the story and taking a photo of each small movement. The smaller the movement the smoother the final motion in the movie will be. Expect to take several hundred photos or more. More is better!
7 – Use the software you picked to upload the photos and finalize the movie, and enjoy!
Need another fun idea for how your children can learn while at home? Here’s a link to our past article on Using Cooking To Teach Math And Science. It’s a yummy lesson too!
