How to make a stop-go motion video with your child to create some lasting memories together.
It's school holidays here and we've been having some fun exploring some new apps on the iPad.
My youngest has been alternating between building secret rooms in Minecraft and learning Mandarin while the eldest has been teaching herself French but arguably, my 10 year old and I have had more fun creating short stop-go motion video together using the app Stop Motion.
Remember our handmade mix and match rock people? Well they just became the 'rock' stars in our movie.
In the past I've used the free Windows program Movie Maker to create videos for home and for class. Last year I used Movie Maker using all the photos I had taken in class to create a short video as a end of year gift for all my students.
We'd also filmed our own music video clip of Usher's ABC song to finish off our class video using an iPad. The students and their families all loved it! And yet it was so cheap and relatively easy to make once I worked out how to use Movie Maker. You can download Movie Maker for free currently.
Years ago I created some mix and match painted rock people for play. They weren't too hard to make and you can make your own rock people easily enough. Check out how we made ours!
Many people have been curious about how we use them so we thought making a video of them would be the easiest way to show you all.
But you want to know how we made our movie!
Firstly we had to choose an app. We Googled 'best stop action movie apps' before deciding to try Stop Motion. After downloading the app to an iPoad and taking a quick look at it's introductory how-to video, we had a couple of short trial runs before starting filming.
Then we had to decide on some characters for our movie. It was easy for us to decide on the stars for our stop-go video but you can use anything - LEGO, plastic animals, bears, dolls. We might use our growing collections of Beanie Boos or Shopkins next time. Smaller is better!
We then needed to set the stage and position the iPod we were using to shot our video. We used a selfie stick to hold our iPod still. Although these mini tripods look better still.
The app is so easy to use, just position you camera and then take a series of still photos which it then sequences them together for you. You can easily delete any photos you don't want after watching the video through. Your video is then ready to share with the world!
My other tips - choose your position well.
We worked on a table outside to ensure our video was nice and bright. Changes in light will show up in your video as will shadows from arms not quite out of shot.
We also chose a stable background but if you choose a different scene, you might need to also consider if wind will any create any movement that might detract from your main story.
This is extra but we wanted to add some music to our video so after using the Stop Motion app to film it we then uploaded it to our desktop computer and use Movie Maker, the free program I mentioned before to create the finished product.
We had lots of fun choosing some music to add to it before sharing it with you all. Such a fun project to try with your kids at home but would also be a great app to use in the classroom to have students develop their story telling skills.
Here's our finished product! Leave us a comment below and tell us what you think.
We'd also filmed our own music video clip of Usher's ABC song to finish off our class video using an iPad. The students and their families all loved it! And yet it was so cheap and relatively easy to make once I worked out how to use Movie Maker. You can download Movie Maker for free currently.
Years ago I created some mix and match painted rock people for play. They weren't too hard to make and you can make your own rock people easily enough. Check out how we made ours!
Many people have been curious about how we use them so we thought making a video of them would be the easiest way to show you all.
But you want to know how we made our movie!
Firstly we had to choose an app. We Googled 'best stop action movie apps' before deciding to try Stop Motion. After downloading the app to an iPoad and taking a quick look at it's introductory how-to video, we had a couple of short trial runs before starting filming.
Then we had to decide on some characters for our movie. It was easy for us to decide on the stars for our stop-go video but you can use anything - LEGO, plastic animals, bears, dolls. We might use our growing collections of Beanie Boos or Shopkins next time. Smaller is better!
We then needed to set the stage and position the iPod we were using to shot our video. We used a selfie stick to hold our iPod still. Although these mini tripods look better still.
The app is so easy to use, just position you camera and then take a series of still photos which it then sequences them together for you. You can easily delete any photos you don't want after watching the video through. Your video is then ready to share with the world!
My other tips - choose your position well.
We worked on a table outside to ensure our video was nice and bright. Changes in light will show up in your video as will shadows from arms not quite out of shot.
We also chose a stable background but if you choose a different scene, you might need to also consider if wind will any create any movement that might detract from your main story.
This is extra but we wanted to add some music to our video so after using the Stop Motion app to film it we then uploaded it to our desktop computer and use Movie Maker, the free program I mentioned before to create the finished product.
We had lots of fun choosing some music to add to it before sharing it with you all. Such a fun project to try with your kids at home but would also be a great app to use in the classroom to have students develop their story telling skills.
Here's our finished product! Leave us a comment below and tell us what you think.
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