Magical Stop Motion Animation

On this rainy Sunday, T and I played around with creating stop motion animation.

It was two Sundays ago that we experimented with creating puppet show videos.

I like doing activities that encourage T to build his creativity and digital skills.

With April Break camp cancelled this week because of stay at home orders, I’m planning activities to keep him busy as I still have work.

Stop motion animation is something I’ve always wanted to try. I found this video explainer helpful.

I have a phone camera and tripod. I downloaded the Stop Motion app from the Apple App Store.

As soon as I showed T the sample stop motion animation above, he got off his tablet and asked to help out.

I told him to pick any toys he wanted to use in his video and he came back with his giant stuffed animals. And here’s T’s very first animation.

I don’t think he got the concept at first. But it was all about having fun and experimenting.

Then T, who has the attention span of a gnat, got bored and went to build a robot with his blocks.

So I suggested we create an animation of his blocks coming to life as a robot.

It took convincing, but he bought into the idea. He didn’t want to place and move the blocks, as he found it tiring (oh, the child abuse!), so I asked him to be the camera man.

I moved the blocks around and T snapped the photos and the app brought it to life.

As soon as T watched our work, his smile was all I needed to know he was pleased with it.

Then T wanted to do an animation with his wooden train set. He was already quite restless by this point, so we kept it short and sweet.

This was probably my favourite one that we did and I have ideas of how to make a more elaborate animation with the train set.

But I want to do it with T and will wait when he can focus. The whole point is to have fun together and I want the final output to be a reflection of our time together.

The imagination of a young child is so pure, innocent and limitless – and I can see that T has a wonderful imagination.

As tiring as it can feel at times to help channel his energy and creativity sometimes, the end result is always fun and worth it!

Oh, and here’s another one done later in the afternoon in T’s room!

15 thoughts on “Magical Stop Motion Animation

  1. Sounds like you and T are both very creative. What a neat way to pass the time on such a drab and dreary day yesterday. It’s funny seeing the progress from the first video of the stuffed animals to the ones at the end with the train and stuffed animal getting tucked into bed. This is very cute. And who knew a phone could do this?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you, L! It was a fun way to pass the time. Looking at the forecast this week, it looks like there’s only one day of sun. So lots more video making ahead. 😂

      Enjoy your upcoming week! Hope it flies by.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you, LaDonna. It was fun! 😊 I was also really happy that a friend said her two kids have been at it all day doing their own stop motion animation. The best part about childhood is those entire days lost to fun. Hope you are doing well! 😊

      Liked by 1 person

  2. Aww These were great ❤️ Super cute and creative! I love the train one 🙂

    I hope you all had a great time and wish you a wonderful week!

    Liked by 1 person

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