More information about this project

At MBN Arts, we have the opportunity to explore many different types of art forms, both modern and traditional. Stop motion animation, especially using plasticine, is something that many of us students have not previously experienced or experimented with.

I attended a month-long training course in Foundation Animation with the world-famous animators at Aardman. They are responsible for the Oscar-winning films Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run, and Shaun the Sheep. During this time, I learned a great deal about stop motion animation and, by the end of the course, was able to create a two-minute animated sequence.

I thought it would be a great idea to pass on some of these skills to other students through a series of workshops. During each workshop, I demonstrated to small groups of students some of the basic principles and techniques needed to create their own stop motion animation videos. By the end of each workshop, every student was able to produce fun and creative animated sequences.

Finally, I asked the students in the last workshop to create their own short animated story, and we produced some fantastic sequences of animation.

See below for final animations the students created. Also photographs of the process of the skill share.

Student’s final stop motion outcomes

These were the final attempts for the third stop motion workshop made by MBN art students.

They have done very well given such short time to learn!

Practising stop-motion

This is me sharing with my coach my stop motion skills last year, after my stop motion animation course with Aardman academy. This was in the hopes to plan a workshop series for other students.

Preparing for the workshops

In these photographs I am seen in meetings with my mentors, and MBN arts directors; discussing the workshops, delegating tasks, and deciding room set up. You can also see me making invitations and posters for the stop motion workshops.

Designed Tutorial Book for students

I had made the stop motion workshop hand book for the MBN students to help further guide their new skill learning, assisting them when I was busy and/or providing a different format of answers. This was a resource they also took home so they can be reminded of the skills they’ve learnt and continue growing in their stop motion skills.

Delivering Workshops

Here, you can see me delivering my presentation and helping the students with their very first stop motion animations! With the very basic materials of a phone, plasticine, a tripod and later some props, the students were able to produce their very own stop motion films, with little guidance, by simply photographing a sequence of movements in a way which was taught in the morning by me.

Editing Final Outcomes full video with Adobe After Effects

With the guidance of the MBN arts director, I was able to edit the short snippets of the students stop motion animated films, first time using an editing website called Adobe after effects.

Creating the project post of WordPress for the website

These photographs evidence my step by step process of uploading my photos and videos, along with uploading text on the MBN arts website using WordPress.