Activity Report
1. Explore your Topic (1-2 hours)
Stop motion is a fascinating type of video that everybody loves! My knowledge of it is limited having allowed one 2nd grade class to tinker with the Stop Motion Studio app for ios for 30 minutes. They would have continued playing with it for days! It was enough for me to see that stop motion video creation can be useful as a tool to create a final product as well as creative exploration. It doesn’t take long to find multiple sources of very useful documentation. Traggianese (2016) was very straightforward in her advice to first settle on a stop-motion app, then allow students time to rehearse their story keeping them in groups no larger than 4. The author also inspired the camera stability setup that I ended up using: pieces of wood creating a platform set across 2 stools. Dahl (2016) added detail to the particular app I plan to use, Stop Motion Studio. The author points out that the hundreds or even thousands of pictures taken throughout the creation process are not stored on the camera roll but within the app itself. Dahl included several photos of the process giving me an excellent vision for how to proceed. The most useful source for me and that I would recommend is a 20 minute Youtube video by Gach (2015). The author’s tutorial is filled with stop-motion animation examples that are certainly inspiring. But more importantly, her explanation of how to plan pictures (7-10 shots per second), choose a background, and steady the camera was very helpful.
References
Dahl, C. (2016). Stop motion made easy. Retrieved from http://www.cassiedahl.com/2016/04 /stop-motion-made-easy.html
Gach, A. M. (2015). Stop motion lesson. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com /watch?v=E-r3bLTRPQg&t=23s
Traggianese, A. (2016). 5 Tips for stop-motion videos. Retrieved from https://educationcloset.com /2016/01/21/5-tips-stop-motion-videos/
2. Learning Goal(s) (30 min - 1 hour)
My goal is to create a stop-motion video of a fractured fairy tale as an example for 5th grade students. As part of a creative writing unit, they will write a fairy tale based on a traditional tale but will change, at a minimum, the characters and setting of the story. They may also change the general idea of the ending of the story. Then they will script that story for a stop-motion video and create it using the Stop-Motion Studio app for either ios or android.
My stop-motion video, therefore, should have all of the elements I expect of students with a solid story, characters, a clear setting, and conclusive ending. I will use the camera timer function and have the playback speed set to approximately 8 pictures per second. In addition, I will record the narrative story once the pictures are all taken and add a background soundtrack.
My stop-motion video, therefore, should have all of the elements I expect of students with a solid story, characters, a clear setting, and conclusive ending. I will use the camera timer function and have the playback speed set to approximately 8 pictures per second. In addition, I will record the narrative story once the pictures are all taken and add a background soundtrack.
3. Do (9 hours)
Because my goal was to end this project with a product I could use as an example for a specific unit, I had to do significant up-front work before I ever got to the fun of the “Do:” animating my 2D characters for a stop-motion video. Between writing the story and editing it with the goal of cutting it in half, finding appropriate images for characters and props (making fairy bread takes time!), and then trimming the characters, I had already put in at least 4 hours. I brainstormed a bit searching for the perfect background (I wanted something reminiscent of the Australian outback, but my characters were camouflaged by everything I tried) when I realized something as simple as poster board is the answer - contrasting color and smooth, easy to slide on surface were perfect. See Section 4. Capture and Describe for the remainder of my adventure.
4. Capture & Describe (1 hour)
Knowing that my 2-minute story would require about 1000 pictures, all perfectly placed and paced, I approached the “Do” segment with a bit of anxiety. My first task was to play with the app, Stop Motion Studio, and tinker with all of its features. Two that were invaluable were the timer option for taking pictures and the ability to add narration within the app. Screenshots are below.
Next up was setting the stage, including the perfect scaffolding for the camera (my phone).
I knew from my research that I needed 7-10 pictures per second so my first goal was to take 30 pictures of one of my characters entering the stage. The video looked good, but I could tell it wasn’t going to be long enough to read the narration. The majority of stop-motion videos I’ve seen online don’t have any narration -- the animation tells the story. But my goal is to use stop-motion as a tool for creating a specific product. My narration wasn’t optional. I narrowed the solution down to two choices. One: I could shoot one scene at a time and practice the narration to see how the timing worked out. If the video scene wasn’t long enough to accommodate the narration, I could add more animation or even just still shots once all the characters were in place. Or two: I could create it in short scenes, add each scene on a separate Powerpoint slide, narrate the whole thing in Powerpoint, and save it as an mp4.
I decided to go for option one: using the Stop Motion Studio app for the pictures, video, and narration. To make it work, I did a little math for each scene. First, I timed the narration for that scene in seconds. Then, I multiplied that number by 10 (since I knew I wanted between 7 and 10 pictures per second). Next, I multiplied the product of the first by 5 because the timer on the camera was set to take a picture every 5 seconds. Finally, I divided that answer by 60 to convert the final time to minutes, an easier unit to use on the timer I was using.
So, I had the camera on my phone up there snapping shots every 5 seconds while I had a separate timer telling me how long I needed to make the animation last. Moving an object in a 5-inch space back and forth keeping my fingers out of the scene for 5 minutes can be quite tedious! And considering that there were 15 four-10 minute scenes in my story (a total of 1390 pictures in the final product), well, it took all day to get the job done. But it’s interesting to note in the finished product how much my animation improved over the course of the day! Confession: I did call in for assistance in moving characters for some scenes (and for taking a few pictures).
I decided to go for option one: using the Stop Motion Studio app for the pictures, video, and narration. To make it work, I did a little math for each scene. First, I timed the narration for that scene in seconds. Then, I multiplied that number by 10 (since I knew I wanted between 7 and 10 pictures per second). Next, I multiplied the product of the first by 5 because the timer on the camera was set to take a picture every 5 seconds. Finally, I divided that answer by 60 to convert the final time to minutes, an easier unit to use on the timer I was using.
1. (time of narration in seconds) *(10 pictures per second) = A
2. (A)*(5 seconds) = B
3. B/60 seconds = C in minutes
So, I had the camera on my phone up there snapping shots every 5 seconds while I had a separate timer telling me how long I needed to make the animation last. Moving an object in a 5-inch space back and forth keeping my fingers out of the scene for 5 minutes can be quite tedious! And considering that there were 15 four-10 minute scenes in my story (a total of 1390 pictures in the final product), well, it took all day to get the job done. But it’s interesting to note in the finished product how much my animation improved over the course of the day! Confession: I did call in for assistance in moving characters for some scenes (and for taking a few pictures).
Once the scenes were all shot, it was easy to add the narration and easy to see how invaluable doing the math ahead of each scene actually was. I uploaded each scene individually to YouTube, used the fabulous video editor available in YouTube to splice all my scenes together and even add a background audio track and credit on the final slide for that track.
While I failed miserably at completing the “do” within 9 hours (probably more like 14-15 hours), I believe the experience was worthy of the time spent. And I’m still far from the mastery level!
5. Toolset Story (15 min)
I used a Google Doc to write the script (with red lettering for stage instructions). The cast of characters flowed from the script. I used Pixabay.com and downloaded all of the images I would use in the stop-motion video, taking care to use only images that were licensed as “Free to use for commercial use. No attribution necessary.” I used the Android version of Stop Motion Studio on my phone because I will not have iPads for student use next year and it may well be that the only way I can do this project with students is in centers allowing groups to share my phone. I uploaded all 15 scenes to YouTube and used the video editor on Youtube to create one, cohesive story. And finally, I used a background track (Leon Berger's Outback Prayer - Cavendish - BBF) from the YouTube editor which means it’s free, but also means that the track owner can display his/her advertisements on my video.
6. Skillset Needed (30 min)
The skills needed for this project included: ability to find instruction regarding creating stop-motion video (from tips such as how to keep the camera stationary to how many pictures to take), patience for physical character creation (and cutting them out in my 2D version!), troubleshooting to determine an appropriate background (my first choice blended too much with one of the characters), time to take enough pictures per scene to create a free-flowing video, general understanding of the different tracks in video editing, and time. Overall, the Stop Motion Studio app makes it easy for a storyteller to produce their story as long as the user is willing to invest a little time understanding the basics.
7. Next Steps for My Learning (1 hour)
Having invested this amount of time in such a simple stop-motion video story (2D, simple movement, one track of audio), I can now see how easy it will be to model for and then mentor young students in their own stop-motion video creation. However, it would need to be a much shorter end product due to the amount of time required to get just a few seconds of footage. For example, to get a 13-second scene, it takes a minimum of 11 minutes just to physically take the number of pictures needed for smooth animation.
For 4th and 5th grades, a project similar to mine could possibly be accomplished by having the class write the story together and then having groups of students each complete one scene of the story. Obviously, multiple devices would help! In addition to this 2D style, I would give them the option of completing the video using either the whiteboard exclusively or 3D characters if desired. Another useful skill for a subset of stop-motion would be time lapse video. All of these aspects will require more learning on my part, but I believe would be beneficial for students and, therefore, worth the effort.
For 4th and 5th grades, a project similar to mine could possibly be accomplished by having the class write the story together and then having groups of students each complete one scene of the story. Obviously, multiple devices would help! In addition to this 2D style, I would give them the option of completing the video using either the whiteboard exclusively or 3D characters if desired. Another useful skill for a subset of stop-motion would be time lapse video. All of these aspects will require more learning on my part, but I believe would be beneficial for students and, therefore, worth the effort.
loved it!
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