As enthusiasts of the combined power of animation and education, TED-Ed held a stop-motion animation station during breaks at TEDActive 2014. Using a fairly basic setup (iPad, tripod, black tablecloth, table, two lights and a stop motion app such as iStopmotion), TED-Ed animators Jeremiah Dickey and Biljana Labovic led attendees in creating their very own stop motion animations inspired by a growing library of TED-Ed Lessons. Here’s how they did it.

TEDActive attendees were able to utilize some props (letter magnets, cards, cutout images) to create a short animated message, using an animation technique called stop-motion. Moving the objects and letters, frame by frame, they created an illusion of movement. For many of the attendees, this was their first time trying animation, and they were surprised to find out how easy the process could be. With such a simple setup, stop-motion animations can be a great teaching tool for students and teachers alike.

Some of the educators had immediate ideas about how they could implement these techniques as learning tools in their own classrooms, potentially assigning animation creation to their students for upcoming class projects.

Here is one creation that came out of the workshop:

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