Piximakey Animation Studio

Literacy Skills include children's ability to handle, decode, and use technology, information, and media. When we use tablets and mobiles for stop motion, the students relate to both the purely technical, e.g. how the phone's camera takes a good picture, and the more artistic, where message, image, and sound merge on a digital platform.

The second branch we refer to as Learning Skills, and it includes the four C’s: Critical Thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication. When children make films together, they go through a creative collaborative process that challenges them on many levels. Ideas must be translated into reality, and this requires compromises, problem solving, and cooperation. Furthermore, working with stop motion develops children's ability to critically decode video, as they experience how easy it is to deceive the viewer with the help of animation, background music, and editing.

The third branch, Life Skills, includes universal abilities that you take with you through life. Personal skills such as initiative, productivity, leadership, and social skills are essential for doing well in adulthood, both in and out of work. When a group of children make a film together, it is essentially a creative production that they themselves control. There is typically an overall framework, such as a theme or a time limit, but other than that, the children themselves must define tasks, go from talk to action, prioritise, cut from and complete a product. Stop motion provides far greater opportunities to change direction along the way than live recordings, so the above competencies are trained from start to finish.

User-friendly design, so even a three-year-old can animate on their own. You see the functions you need, when you need them, and you’ll be guided from the first picture to sound-recording and sharing of the finished movie. Developed for iOS and Android.

The small stand unfolds out by pulling the two halves apart until the width fits your device. The large stand is assembled by inserting the two legs into the two elongated holes in the top part. Tip: You can use a little modeling wax to attach your mobile or tablet to the stand so that it stays in the same place.

Remove the tin cans of modeling clay from the suitcase and place it the suitcase upright. Then suitcase take lid and slide it into the two grooves on the inside of the suitcase - now you have a stage you can move around. Use the X-shaped handles to roll down a backdrop so you get a nice background. Tip: You can remove the backdrop for easy cleaning, by carefully pushing it to one side and take it lout. The backdrop fabric can also be ironed at a low temperature if needed.

Find your favorite toy or build your own character. Modeling Clay figures are fun to work with as they can be shaped completely freely. Other good materials are pipe cleaners or thick steel wire that can both bend and hold its shape while taking a picture.

Once you've found your main characters, find out where your movie is going. Is it at home in their living room, on a desert island, in outer space or below sea level? You decide! See in the video below how kitchen utensils turn into a space station:

Use the large tripod to film from above and the small tripod to film straight ahead. When you open the Piximakey app and start a new movie, you can immediately see what the camera sees. Set the stand so that you only capture your scene - not the sides of the suitcase or anything else that makes your film messy. Finally, you can attach the stand to the table with small chunks of clays.

Your movie is created by taking a picture, moving your character a bit, taking another picture, moving the character a little more, and so on. The app shows you a "ghost picture" of the last photo you took, so you can see how far you move the figure. Remember to press play often so you can see your photos come to life and consider your next actions.

When you are ready to add audio to your movie, press the microphone button on the right side of the screen and it will take you to the audio editor screen. Here you can hold down the red record button to record sound. The sound can be moved around or thrown out - just tap on the image where the sound starts, hold down and drag it to where it should be.

When you are satisfied with the picture and sound, press the button in the upper right corner of the screen. On the next screen, you can name your movie and export it as a video saved in your photo gallery on your phone or tablet. Then you are ready to share your work with the world - remember to make popcorn!