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Family Fun

Apr
20
2020
 Stop Motion Fun

Creating a Stop Motion animation is fun and easy with free online tools. Your child can make their own movie in minutes with Stop Motion. Stop Motion offers your child ownership in the film-making process, encouraging creativity, and problem solving. This fun activity involves plenty of learning, including STEM.

Stop motion is a film making technique that makes inanimate objects appear to move on their own. Examples of Stop Motion films that your kids may recognize includes Wallace and Gromit, Coraline, and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Kids will love seeing their favorite toys come to life too!

Stop Motion Challenge Contest

Kids and teens are invited to participate in our Stop Motion Challenge Contest starting on April 26, 2020 on our Facebook page. Check back on Sunday to enter but get your ideas and cameras rolling now!

Upload your Stop Motion animation and invite friends and family to VOTE on your video by liking it. The entry with the most votes wins a $25 Acme Cash Prize!

Enter between Sunday, April 26, 2020 – Wednesday, April 29, 2020 11:59pm

Basics of Stop Motion

The basics of Stop Motion is to set your inanimate object in front of the camera and take a picture, move the object in tiny increments and continue to take pictures with each move. When your pictures are played back, the rapid sequence will make the object appear to move on its own.

Materials You Need:

  • Smartphone or tablet
  • Stop Motion software
  • Toys or objects you wish to film
  • Tripod for phone or tablet

Instructions:

  1. Grab your smartphone or tablet and download a free Stop Motion software for Android or Apple.
  2. Gather toys and objects to film. Small toys like LEGO characters, action figures, and dolls with moveable and poseable legs and arms work best.
  3. Set up a filming location – inside or outside – with or without a solid background.
  4. To make a fluid and stable animation, we recommend a tripod to keep the camera steady. If you don’t have a tripod, you can set your phone or tablet against anything steady to keep the camera in place.
  5. Keep it simple. Have your kids start by moving only one item instead of trying to keep track of moving several. As your child progresses, they can make it more complex.

Stop Motion STEM

The Science of Stop Motion revolves around making the abstract tangible. Creating an animation requires kids to break down their story into component pieces (small moves) to determine the steps they need to take to reach their final desired outcome.


Stop Motion puts kids in the driver’s seat of creating their own animation. They are learning how to use their smartphone or tablet in a new way, learning new software, and a new skill.


As your child builds their animation, they will need to make adjustments, edits, and retakes. This puts engineering into action as they build and improve their animations.


Stop Motion requires a lot of logical thinking, sequencing, and math.