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Stop Motion Animation

Success Zone / Highlands -
2025 Fall

Students will conceptualize original characters and bring them to life with photographs, clay or objects. Hands-on projects will cover the fundamentals of animation utilizing such techniques as flipbooks, paper cutouts, claymation and stop-motion animation. Invent your own story and characters and watch them come to life with a few moves.

Week Skills Lesson/Activity
1 What is animation and why is it magic? Students will learn how still images create the illusion of motion by exploring fun examples like flipbooks, Claymation, and early cartoons. They will discover the roots of animation through prej-film “magic tricks” such as thaumatropes and zoetropes.
2 Create a character and background Each student will create a background and simple character to complete their own short stop motion animation. Completed animation will be screened for the class.
3 Understanding frames Students will create their own flipbooks to learn how repetition, sequencing, and timing affect the animation.
4 Character animation revisited Students will illustrate a background and character on paper to create a scene. Concepts like anticipation, squash and stretch, and timing will be introduced.
5 Anime found objects Students will animate found objects (pencils, paper, rocks, etc.) to create a short story or visual pattern.
6 Foil figure animation Students will use aluminum foil to build poseable characters with moveable joints. Once constructed, these figures will be used to create a short stop animation that tells a brief story or depicts a clear action. The focus will be on expressing character and emotion through physical movement, without relying on dialogue.
7 Human-size stop animation Students will work in teams to create a life-size stop motion animation using a student as the animated character.
8 Plan and start animation Students will choose one or more animation styles they’ve learned and work individually or in groups to develop a final animation project using any method explored during the course.
9 Production and feedback Students will continue developing their final projects and receive instructor and peer feedback.
10 Final showcase The program concludes with a celebration of student work. All completed animations will be screened.
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Map/Locations
Locations
Highlands Elementary
2022 Colonist Park Dr
Sugar Land, TX 77478
SZ-HE-10

  Young Audiences of Houston

Highlands Elementary
Thursdays, Sep 18 - Dec 11
3:45 - 4:45 PM

  No Class Sep 25, Oct 16 & Nov 27

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Grades   2nd - 5th
$ 220.00
for 10 weeks