Keep Kids Busy with Stop Motion Animation Movies

A dinosaur has captured the princess and is keeping her captive in his lair. (Do dinosaurs have lairs?)

Who will save the fair damsel?

Golden Boy, that’s who!

He climbs aboard a fast moving train and holds on for dear life.

When the train nears the lair, Golden Boy jumps from the train and stealthily closes in.

He takes the dinosaur by surprise, beats him senseless, and saves the princess.

Yay!

Phew! I was so worried about the princess. I was afraid that Golden Boy wouldn’t get there in time. Luckily he did. And now, he and the princess can live happily ever after.

Now that you’ve read the plot, watch the 7-second high def video.

Have you ever watched the Wallace and Gromit movies? The app Stop Motion Studio easily helps you to create a similar stop motion animation. It’s great fun! You can have lots of good times with your tween and teen-aged grandchildren making your own stop motion animation.

Do you remember when I wrote about having your grandsons spray GI Joe men and dinosaurs with gold paint?

When I wanted to make a stop motion video, I thought of the things that I had recently painted gold.

They were perfect to use!

I set up the scene on the train table that my husband built for our grandchildren.

I used the app on my iPhone to create the video. It took me less than 5 minutes to take all of the pictures. (It took me more time to clear the extra toys from the train table than it did to take the photos!)

It doesn’t take any skill at all to make the animation. Merely set up the ‘characters’ that will be in your movie. Snap a picture. Move the characters a wee bit. (It is important to move things just a little bit. Otherwise, the action will be jerky in the completed movie.)

Snap another picture.

Keep moving and snapping until you’ve completed all of the action for your movie.

The app then adds motion between the pictures you took and creates the movie.

So simple!

I made another movie that I want to share. It’s called Help! I’ve Lost My Head.

(My husband gave me a cute little holder for my iPhone. It is in the shape of a body. I used it for this movie. Oh, I didn’t add music to this video.)

Before making a stop motion animation with your grandchildren, sit down with them to figure out a plot.

Then, gather the necessary props for your movie and set up your scene.

Hold your iPhone or iPad steady as you take pictures. Keep it in the same position until your scene changes.

When you’ve taken all of the pictures that you want, let the app do it’s job. Voila! You’ve got you stop motion animation.

Stop Motion Studio is available is available for free in the App Store.

For $4.99, you can purchase a version of the app that has all of the features. While the free version can keep you and your grandkids busy and happy for a long time, it is well worth the $5 in my humble opinion. (Busy grandkids are happy grandkids!)

This app is designed for the iPhone and the iPad. (I used my iPhone to make my videos.) The app requires iOS 7.0 or later.

(Note: I did not receive any remuneration for writing about Stop Motion Studio. Nor did they ask me to write a review.)