Cover lesson · PE · Year 8 · Beginner

Stop-motion animation planning: teaching a skill

DCF: Producing → Sourcing, searching and planning digital content

Name: Class: Date:

Cover teacher — you need no subject knowledge

Print: this sheet, one per pupil. Pen and paper only — no computers and no cameras needed. This lesson is the planning, which is the part that gets skipped and the reason most classroom animations fail.

Run: 5 min read the frame rate box and do the two practice sums · 8 min choose the skill and fix the running time · 15 min fill in the storyboard table · 10 min sketch the three key frames · 7 min the shoot plan sums · 5 min swap and tick.

Collect: this sheet. The one thing to check is that the seconds column adds up to the running time the pupil chose and that every frame count is the seconds × 12. If those do not match, the animation cannot be made as planned.

What you are doing

Stop-motion is made one photograph at a time, so every second of finished film has to be counted before anyone picks up a camera. You are going to plan an 18-second animation that teaches one PE skill to a Year 7 pupil: six shots, the exact frame count for each, and a shoot plan that says how many photographs the group has to take.

The arithmetic you need

Frame rate is how many still frames make one second of film. We are using 12 frames per second (fps), which is the standard choice for classroom stop-motion: smooth enough to read, half the work of 24 fps.
Frames = seconds × frame rate. So 2 seconds at 12 fps is 2 × 12 = 24 frames.
Shooting "on twos" means each photograph is held for 2 frames, so you only take half as many photographs as there are frames: photographs = frames ÷ 2.
Professionals working on feature films manage roughly 3 seconds of finished animation per animator per day. That is why your 18 seconds is ambitious, and why the plan has to be right first time.

Practice. (i) How many frames is a 4-second shot at 12 fps? ______ (ii) Shooting that on twos, how many photographs? ______

Step 1 — choose your skill

Pick one skill your animation will teach. Ring it, or write your own in the blank.

The netball shoulder pass
The three phases of the standing long jump
A safe rugby tackle below the waist
The football push pass with the inside of the foot
Your own: __________________________________

Who it is for	A Year 7 pupil who has never done it
Frame rate	12 fps
Total running time	18 seconds
Total frames in the finished film (seconds × 12)
What the viewer must be able to do at the end

Step 2 — the storyboard

Six shots, and the seconds column must add up to 18. Work out each frame count as seconds × 12.

Shot	What is on screen	What moves, and how far per photograph	Words on screen or spoken
1
2
3
4
5
6
Total	—	—	Seconds must be 18

Step 3 — sketch three key frames

Draw the first frame of shot 2, shot 4 and shot 6. Stick figures are fine; show the camera angle and where the words sit.

Shot 2, frame 1

Shot 4, frame 1

Shot 6, frame 1

Step 4 — the shoot plan

Total frames (from Step 2)
Photographs needed if you shoot on twos
At 20 seconds per photograph, how long is the shoot in minutes?
Props, kit and people you must book
One thing that will ruin the shoot if it moves between photographs

Step by step

5 min — Read the arithmetic box and do the two practice sums.
8 min — Complete Step 1. Be specific about what the viewer should be able to do afterwards.
15 min — Fill in the storyboard. Use whole seconds so your frame counts are whole numbers.
10 min — Sketch the three key frames.
7 min — Do the shoot plan sums, then check the seconds column totals 18.
5 min — Swap and tick against the success criteria.

Success criteria

My six shots add up to exactly 18 seconds and every frame count equals the seconds × 12.
My storyboard says what moves in each shot and how far per photograph, not just what the shot shows.
I have planned for an audience — a Year 7 beginner — and one shot deals with a common mistake.
My shoot plan converts frames into photographs and into the time and kit it will actually take.
I can say what would have to be re-shot if the camera, the lighting or the background moved mid-shot.

If you finish early

Re-plan shot 4 at 24 fps instead of 12. How many photographs does that add, and is the extra smoothness worth it for a teaching animation?
Shooting "on ones" means one photograph per frame. Work out the whole film's photograph count on ones, and say which shots you would upgrade to ones and why.
Write the 18-second voice-over script to match your shot timings. Aim for about two and a half words per second, and mark where each shot changes.