STEAM Ahead with Learner-Generated Animations
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Animate It offers Minecraft-like 3D animation with many characters to select from,
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Animation Desk is good if you want to draw your animation. It has many brush tools, you can add audio, and it even allows you to add video and draw over it (a technique called rotoscoping),
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FlipaClip also allows rotoscoping, and lets you add text,
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Stop Motion Studio is a handy app for taking photos of your objects and putting your frames together.
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Pencil 2D allows you to make very basic 2D drawings; it is good if you want to keep things simple.
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Krita also allows you to make 2D drawings. However, it has a very robust set of art tools; an excellent tutorial can be seen here)
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Blender is mainly for computer-3D, and is by far the most complicated tool presented here. It also can be used to animate in 2D using its “grease pencil” feature, and in combination with Krita)
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All of these suggestions have built-in features for making, editing, and rearranging your frames. If you want to export your animation to video editing software (to add audio, for example), YouTube has many tutorials on how to do so.
Learner-Generated Stop-Motion Animations in YOUR Class!
Before You Begin: choose the concept(s) in your that would benefit from an engaging, creative activity. The topic(s) should be self-contained, dynamic in nature (such as a process or change), and not too difficult to represent.
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What You Will Need: To make a stop-motion-animation, you will need something to...
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take photos (such as a phone, iPad, or camera),
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hold your camera device steady (be it a tripod, picture frame, or play-dough)
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animate with (play-dough, paper, action figures, vegetable peels, etc.)
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Stage 1: Teach & Inquire
- Teach the lessons and/or have your students practice inquiry and do the research themselves!
- Your students need to know enough about the concept that they can represent it in their animations.
Stage 2: Storyboard & Analysis
- As with all animations, it is very important to prepare a storyboard! This acts as a roadmap of what needs to happen in the animation, and when. They look a lot like a comic-strip.
- Have your students break the concept down into its key ideas and make a storyboard. Aim for 4-6 major scenes.
- Students should also write their narration alongside their storyboard, so that the two work well with one another.
- As a teacher, now is a good time to check in with your students have them explain some of the science (or whatever your subject) that is happening.
- Note: the example-storyboard on the right is more detailed than you should expect of your students. It informed the production of a 3D animation, which can be viewed here.
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Stage 3: Construction!
- Now your students get to build their models and take their photos!
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Stage 4: REconstruction!
- Uploading, Editing, and Narrating.
- How your students bring it all together depends on the technology you are using. Either upload the photos to a computer, or, if you are using mobile devices, use a free app specifically for assembling stop motion animations. Naration can be similarly recorded.
Time to Share!
- You can have students share in small groups if they are uncomfortable presenting to the class.
- Having an opportunity to exchange peer feedback is an excellent way of catching errors and misunderstandings.
- Follow-up by giving students time to make edits and corrections.
Additional Tips & Suggestions
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Use YouTube. There will be a beginners’ tutorial for any software you chose.
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Keep it Simple! Creative and perfectionist students will be inclined to make the process more complex all on their own, so keep the topics short and specific.
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Frames-per-Second (fps): The animation will be smoother with more frames, but it will be too fast unless more frames are made! If your app lets you set your fps, 24 or 12 is recommended.
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Take Chances. Experiment. Animations can do things live-action never could. Play with where you can situate the Point of View and the (e)motions of your characters and their environment.
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Make Mistakes. The best animators did not get there by being great the moment they picked up a pencil. Reflect on what went wrong, and fail forward.
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Get Messy! Throw perfectionism out the window. You’re just learning, and no one will notice if that circle isn’t quite a circle for the millisecond they see it.