Just a general guide for timing: it took my Year 9 Animation class about 16-18 hours (1 hour 40 mins double period a week) to produce 15 seconds of footage at 12 frames per second (beginning with planning and finishing with adding sound). Animation takes a long time, need to watch that students don’t lose interest before the project is finished. Other students will spend half the term crafting beautiful plasticine figure and run out of time to finish animating.
A good first lesson is trying out the software. I get students to animate a coffee mug rotating 360 degrees in one second- 12 shots. Then one rotation in 5 seconds, etc. Then a piece of Lego on a piece of grid paper, one square per shot, etc. It teaches students to take enough photos and learn the timing.
Students will generally not take enough photos- they will take their whole story in 36 photos and then be surprised that the animation is over in three seconds. Have them storyboard each second or every three seconds, so they can break down the timing.
Plasticine is good but messy- have surfaces that can be wiped down by students afterwards. Old laminate year planners that fold in half make for great stop-motion backdrops. Keep plasticine off the floor. Make sure students plan first, otherwise with plasticine, students will just mush everything together or kill everything. Be very specific in the task what you want students to include.
Good physical resources to have: plasticine, plastic clay modelling tools, strong wire to use as armature, wire cutters, pins, fishing line, Blu-Tak, big pieces of coloured paper for backgrounds, tape/scissors, bamboo skewers, toys like action figures, Lego/ Duplo. Sandwich bags or takeaway containers to preserve students plasticine figures from one lesson to the next.
Stop Motion resources:
Task sheets and useful PDF’s attached.
Stop Motion Central: https://www.stopmotioncentral.com/
Western Australian Animation Association: https://wanimate.org.au/
Stop-Motion software. My school uses Stop Motion Pro. Having software that allows onion-skinning is very useful:
Best Stop Motion Software- Clout Techie article: general review of available stop-motion software, paid and free.
https://clouttechie.com/best-stop-motion-software/
qStopMotion- FREE: a free application for creating stop-motion animation movies.
https://www.qstopmotion.org/index.html#home
iKitMovie: Easy to use stop-motion app. Approx. AU $100.
Stop Motion Pro: High-quality stop-motion software. Available for AU $300, or $30 a month subscription.
Dragonframe: Professional stop-motion software, used for feature films such as Paranorman, The Boxtrolls, Shaun the Sheep Movie and Kubo and the Two Strings. Available at the student price of approx. AU $300, including a hardware controller.
There are also lots of iPad apps that are worth investigating if that is an option.
Kind Regards,
Simon James
Teacher