While lots of children enjoyed the first of our summer camps in the CRAFT Maker Space this week, we thought you might like to hear about how you can always encourage your child and do this STEAM camp in your own home.
Stop Motion Animation is an easy and accessible art form to help your child express their creativity in many different media as well as developing digital, logical and mathematical skills. As Stop Motion is more accessible than traditional animation styles, it can be easily done at home with little resources.
To replicate what we did in this camp, you’ll need a few basic supplies – an app or platform designed for stop motion (we used Stop Motion Studio), a video editor (we used InShot), sheets of coloured paper (blue fo sky, green for grass, etc. - paint sheets if you just have white!) and materials to make your animation with. This can be anything your child wishes – clay, plasticine (we used Jovi), paper, Lego, even your child’s favourite stuffed animal. Optionally, you can add a reading light to control the light and build your setting.
Ideally, Stop Motion should be made in a space with a blank surface and wall. This can also be a way for your child to express creativity as they build a background for their animation, or perhaps utilize the setting around them to fit their story. The device should be propped up rather than hand held to avoid inconsistencies in the frame. While setting up your device and filming, there are a few common traps to avoid – the corners of the background being visible and showing the room behind it or a hand being caught in the picture as they move the characters around.
Children have great ideas on what story their animation would like to tell, so getting them to draw out the story or write it, will really help the logical flow of the animation. Then it's time to take lots and lots of pictures using the Stop Motion app. Once enough pictures are taken to create a story, you can begin editing – for example, reducing or increasing the frames per second. Having many frames per second usually results in a smoother animation, but if you’re not careful, it may look rushed. We suggest to avoid going any lower than five frames per second, as it may begin to look less like an animation and more like a slideshow. Of course, adding sounds, music and voice overs, as well a title and end screen, are a great way to further bring the animation to life.
Especially if your child has never tried Stop Motion before, we recommend to start with an easy project, such as a rolling wheel. Stop Motion is a rewarding process and every project you do becomes better than the last.
On day 1 we did one scene and day 2 we developed other scenes to extend out the story.
If your child has tried the Stop Motion camp and enjoyed it, we thoroughly encourage you to continue at home as well. It's an activity for all the family to get involved in!
