Tools for Making Stop Motion Movies
Last Friday I took the day off to take my daughters to the Children’s Museum and Theatre of Maine. On the third floor of the museum there is a room that has a stop motion animation studio. My daughters loved it! That’s the inspiration for this week’s newsletter.
Creating a stop motion video is a good way for students to bring to life short stories that they’ve written (that’s how Gumby came to life). The tools that I share below are also great for creating time-lapse videos of long processes like the changing of the leaves in autumn and for making videos of processes that are hard to see without the benefit of video.
Cloud Stop Motion
Cloud Stop Motion an online video editor for making stop motion videos. You can use it without creating an account. The benefits of creating a free Cloud Stop Motion account are the ability to create longer videos and the ability to upload media to use in your video instead of relying on the default options. This short video provides a demonstration of how to make a video with Cloud Stop Motion.
Animation Desk
Animation Desk is an iPad, Android, and Windows app (free and premium versions available) for creating short, animated videos. In the free version of the app (the version that I tried) you can create up to 50 scenes in each of your projects. In each scene you can include as little or as much as you want to draw on the canvas. There are a few different brush and pencil effects that you can use in your drawings. When you have completed drawing all of your scenes hit the play button to watch your animation unfold. If you’re happy with your animation you can export it to YouTube or save it on your device.
iMovie and WeVideo
It is possible to create a stop motion movie by using iMovie or WeVideo. The difficulty with those options is that you have to upload each image then set the timing for each frame over and over. Even though WeVideo has a template for stop motion videos, it’s still rather time consuming compared to using something like Cloud Stop Motion.
eBook and a Game
Are you tech coach who has been asked to run some tech workshops this summer? If so, 50 Tech Tuesday Tips is for you! In it you’ll find lots of ideas for short workshops that you can run this summer or in the fall.
Playing Around the World With Google Earth is a great way to introduce Google Earth to your students or to your colleagues. Get your copy here.