Getting Started with Stop-Motion Animation

My six year old daughter did her first animation over the Christmas holidays, with a little help from her Daddy.  To make it, we used the Lego Animation Studio, aimed at kids 8-12 years old, which you can buy here.  Father Christmas gave it to her for Christmas (how did he know?), and we did this short stop-motion animation on Boxing Day.  We also needed some kit that didn't come with the Lego pack - an iPhone, a tripod (we used this one here), and the app "I can Animate" which cost $3 to download from the App Store. 

Getting Started in Animation

It's amazing how easy it is to get started in animation today.  The key ingredients to make your first animation are an iPhone (or similar) plus a decent  tripod to stabilise the phone/camera.  

The best tripod I recommend for filming with an iPhone (or any other phone) is this one here; it costs just £20 at amazon, and works really well (as long as you handle it with care and don't pretend it's as robust as an industry-level product). 

Animation Studio
There are also some other inexpensive animation kits you can buy to get started.  One that I like a lot is Helen Piercy's Animation Studio, which you can buy for £10 at Amazon. It comes with cut-out characters, and a set, to get kids' imaginations firing.

To see a more detailed list of ways to get started in animation, read this blog post. 

To find out more about Animation Apprentice, click here for a link to Frequently Asked Questions. To sign up for our next classroom at Animation Apprentice, follow this link.