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Stop Motion Animation

Success Zone / Lantern Lane -
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 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.
8 Final showcase The program concludes with a celebration of student work. All completed animations will be screened.
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Map/Locations
Locations
Lantern Lane Elementary
3323 Mission Valley Dr
Missouri City, TX 77459
SZ-LLE-4

  Young Audiences of Houston

Lantern Lane Elementary
Tuesdays, Sep 16 - Nov 11
3:45 - 4:45 PM

  No Class Oct 14

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Grades   2nd - 5th
$ 180.00
for 8 weeks