Introduction

Software

2D Stop Motion Animation
Shadow Films

Time Lapse
Reverse Video

FILM MAKING FOR KIDS

Time Lapse Photography

Time Lapse is a type of photography which allows you to see motion that would normally be too slow to notice. It involves taking photographs from the same position over a period of time. When the photographs are put together into a film you get a sense of motion. If you search on YouTube you will find some classic time lapse movies like this one of fruit decomposing:

Yukk!

The time lapse technique is much the same as for stop motion animation, but with the right software, all you need to do is set up the camera and walk away. Some cameras have a time lapse feature built in, but a cheap webcam with some free software will also do the trick. Check out detailed instructions here of how to use YawCam for time lapse (it's free).

What if your project is long (several hours, or even days) and you don't want to tie up your camera and software for that amount of time? Well, it is possible to take the photographs manually but you need to make sure that your camera is positioned in the exact same spot each time. The resulting photographs can be imported into any video editing software.

Here is an example of a crystal growing kit which took about 10 hours to make:

Other ideas that you might like to try are:

A birthday candle burning (great, only takes 20 minutes)
Ice cream melting (very quick on a hot day!)
Cress growing (about 6 days)
Snails
Building a lego model
Butterfly life cycle
Bean roots growing
View from a window

And one final idea, try reversing the frames and unmelt your ice cream! Kids love doing this.