I-pad key to classroom magic!

 



This week I used the app Stop Motion.  It was so amazingly easy!  We went away this weekend so I left this part of my assignment until the last minute.  When I woke up this morning in the hotel I knew I had to get this project done. I downloaded the app onto my iPad and iPhone and off I went down to breakfast.  I was worried as the app itself didn't give a lot of instructions. It just had a button that said start project here and then it showed a few things.  I couldn't believe how easy it was!

Watch my video:  http://youtu.be/RMV7NlLKoBw

Step 1


Figure out what you want to make a stop motion movie of.  I was limited to a hotel room and a free breakfast. I chose preparing my toast and pouring a glass of juice.  It was so fast! I just snapped pictures of every step; that's it.  Once I had my 40-50 shots I was done both the camera work and my breakfast!

Step 2

I watched my stop motion movie and marveled at my genius!  It worked!!!  I did notice that I had switched my view when I was doing the juice from horizontal to vertical.  Now what!  I have to say I am not that technologically savvy but I figured out right away how to take another set of pictures holding my device horizontally, select them and put them before the work I had already done!  It was that easy!  I fixed a few other problems; I had gone from the plate to the toaster and then the plate again and it looked funny so I just moved the toaster pictures together and it was fixed.

Step 3

Watch it 10 more times and make your family watch it over and over, forcing them to recognize your genius.  Then I wanted to add music.  I knew I wanted the song Mana Mana by the Muppets so I downloaded it from iTunes.  I selected it and I could see it overlay but no matter how often I fiddled with it I couldn't get it to play.  I was discouraged and worried it had to do with copyright.  I played around with it, had my husband try to fix it and finally left it until we got home.  In frustration, I had my husband try again and at last he figured it out.....my phone was on silent!  Lol!  So dumb!  I over complicated it. I thought it was some complicated glitch and it ended up being very easy and I had the music loaded the first try.

Step 4

I uploaded it to YouTube.  You can upload and edit your film right from the app.  It was quick, easy and painless.

I know that you can add credits and backgrounds but you have to pay to unlock many of the more advanced features.  It isn't expensive, for $1.49 you get a lot.  I also realized that I could have edited my photos in the app. I didn't have to redo all of them.  This will be a great tool in the classroom.  I had so much fun making this little movie and it was so fast and easy to use.  I can tell that students will love using this and doing projects.  Another week in class that I learned about some cool tools for school!