Stopmotion Explosion: Stop Motion Animation Kit (Review)

Sometimes my children complain about school work, but other times they beg to be able to work on it! I am so glad I took the opportunity to review the Stop Motion Animation Kit by Stopmotion Explosion because my son has loved it. He begs to have more time to work on videos and has multiple videos planned out that he wants to create. I expect that it will be a big project for him this summer when we have a bit more free time.

Since this was not a subject that I require in our home school, I asked my son if he was interested before agreeing to the review. It seemed like a really good fit, because it was a way for him to combine his love of all things Lego with a new found interest in videography.

I expected to have to help him get everything set up and figure out how to use the program and the camera, but he took it out and had it set up in just a short time.  The Stop Motion Animation Kit includes a 1080p HD video camera with internal microphone, the Stopmotion Explosion book, and the animation software.

Once my son had everything set up he quickly worked on a short video just to get the hang of taking pictures and putting it all together. Then I gave him a specific assignment for this next project. I wanted him to combine his history lesson for the week with a stop motion video. We were working on Assyrian siege towers and so he decided to do a video of the modernization of an Assyrian siege tower and the tower knocking down a wall.

He was able to get all of the video shots (over 2,000) done without any problems but was having some difficulty uploading them into the software for editing and adding sound. I e-mailed customer service and was pleasantly surprised and the rapid response. They were exceptionally helpful. Once we realized that he had a corrupt photo file, we were able to delete that one file and get it all working.

Next, he added title screens and sound effects. The Stopmotion Explosion book has an excellent chapter that explains how to edit and add sound effects. My son learned the hard way that its best to read it before trying to make changes. He did not read it at first and made a mistake that lost all of his changes. Once he read, he understood what he had done and was able to do it correctly next time.

The Stopmotion Explosion book was an excellent resource. It was laid out with each step being a different chapter. It was easy to read and understand and did not have to be read all the way through to be helpful. My son was able to read the chapters that he needed as he worked through the project. For example, one chapter is dedicated to lighting, and other to sound. The chapters on video editing and Sound were particularly helpful as he finished up his project. The book also gives links to video tutorials with more information on certain subjects.

This was a well laid out and easy to follow way to learn the art of stop motion animation. The book and video tutorials were thorough enough to take someone that had never done stop motion and teach them how to make movies with many great features.

All in all, I highly recommend this kit and I’m so glad we gave it a try. If you are looking for a way to add some fun to your homeschool this might be your answer. You could have a child make videos about the books they are reading, the history they are learning or even their science.  It can of course also just be a fun hobby, they can make videos about anything. For a middle grades student it is laid out in such a way that as long as they read the book, they should be able to work with the program fairly independently. With the exception of a computer and whatever they want to use in the video (we did Legos and Popsicle sticks) everything they need is included in the kit. This would make a great birthday gift or a way to keep the learning going through the summer. Check out the Stop Motion Animation Kit and don’t forget to click below to see the videos and reviews done by the other Crew members.

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