Teaching Stop Motion Animation & Sculpture

I was invited by Ngaere Sutton, Art teacher at Sutton Valence School to take two separate afternoon classes, one in sculpture, the second in stop-motion animation.

In the sculpture project a class of students taking inspiration from the sculpture of Modigliani, were given the opportunity to construct their own busts using recycled plastics. They then covered these in mod-roc to create a unified semi-abstract form.

The second afternoon involved a smaller group of 12 students, who were set the challenge of creating their own stop-motion animation within 2.5 hours. It was an opportunity of getting a taste of what is involved in animation. After a broad overview of animation types, styles and techniques, each pupil planned and then set about the process of making a very quick film. They worked in pairs using a camera, a light, and any materials (available in the art studio) they felt suited their ideas. Many pupils opted to use clay due to it’s immediacy when trying to take many images in a short period of time. The student who created the image above decided to employ a found object to great effect. Pupils then uploaded photo’s to create very short films using free stop-motion film software called Shotcut.

It was great to explore creative approaches to visual art with young people again and fantastic to see the wide range of outcomes they produced.