This term the Year 2 class have been learning all about stop motion animation. They started with a short YouTube tutorial which led to them having a go at making their own short movie using everyday objects, toys and classroom resources. They then spent many hours working as a team to create the movie ‘5 Pirates’ which tied into this term’s topic ‘Land Ahoy’.
But what is stop motion animation?
Stop Motion Animation is a technique used to bring static objects to life on screen. Objects are moved bit by bit and filmed frame by frame to simulate movement. Clay figures, puppets and small toys are often used in stop motion animation as they can be handled and repositioned easily.
Stop motion animation can be thought of as just a series of still photographs. Before technology advanced, stop motion animation was the only way to bring objects that cannot move by themselves to life on screen.
Some important things that the children learned while making stop animation movies are:
- It takes 12 frames to make 1 second of film.
- You must move your objects very carefully and only a little bit at a time so that it looks realistic when played back.
- You need a lot of patience to make a stop motion animation.
- You need to be able to work in a team.
5 Pirates
The Year 2s used an iPad app called ‘Animate It’ to create their movie.
As with every movie, ‘5 Pirates’ needed a title at the beginning and some credits at the end. The children spent two whole afternoons working together to create these. They decided to use LEGO blocks for the title and very carefully took turns to place each LEGO block into position on the mat, one at a time, taking a photo each time.
The children also created a voice-over for their movie. This allowed a narrative to be heard over the action. The children practised and learnt their words before speaking clearly into a microphone. The voice-overs were then added later.
It may only be a short movie but, as you can see, many hours were put into the making of it!
Well done Year 2!
Mrs. Claire G.
Fantastic