Slow Motion Animation (Slowmation)

Slow motion animation (slowmation) is a simple way for students to make short educational videos with the use of stop-motion animation. Developed in Australia in the mid-2000s, slowmation allows students to produce comprehensive video lessons featuring stop-motion animation and informative voiceovers in a timely manner using equipment and materials typically available in the classroom. While most slowmation videos focus on science topics, virtually any educational topic can be explored using this unique approach. In addition to offering key insights on the topics being covered, the process of making slowmation videos encourages creativity and offers students an opportunity to improve their communication skills. Most often, this process involves the use of models made from everyday materials, a digital camera or cell phone, and video-editing computer programs. Slowmation encourages learning by requiring students to break a given concept down into small segments before reassembling it into a complete whole.

Background

Computers and computer technologies have become an increasingly common part of the modern classroom since the late twentieth century. These devices have paved the way for the development of many new and creative approaches to teaching and learning. In particular, digital video technology offers teachers and students the opportunity to participate in multimedia lessons that bring topics to life in a way that was never possible before. In many classrooms, students make videos to investigate and explain concepts in an engaging way. While some methods of doing this are relatively straightforward, others are more challenging. One especially effective approach to multimedia lessons is to have students make stop-motion animations that demonstrate a given concept. Although such assignments can be especially engaging and informative, they can also be difficult to produce. Because stop-motion animation typically requires a great deal of time and material, the making of such animations tends to be impractical in the classroom. The desire to create a simplified approach to stop-motion animation that would be easier to utilize in the classroom is what ultimately led to the development of slowmation.

Around 2005, Australian professor Garry Hoban set out to find new ways of using technology to enhance traditional methods of learning. Hoban, who spent fourteen years as a secondary-level science teacher before accepting a position in the Science Education and Teacher Education Department at the University of Wollongong, focused much of his attention on developing a new type of stop-motion animation that he called slowmation. Featuring a simplified production process, Hoban's slowmation was a more efficient alternative to traditional stop-motion animation that could be easily adapted for classroom use. Within just a few years, slowmation became a popular learning tool most commonly used in the exploration of science concepts that can be visualized through animation. As interest continues to grow, slowmation is likely to become an increasingly prevalent educational tool in classrooms around the world.

Overview

Slowmation essentially simplifies the process of making stop-motion animations to provide students with the ability to produce their own animated videos about the various topics they study in school. To understand the precise nature of slowmation, it is first necessary to understand what distinguishes this unique concept from traditional stop-motion animation and other forms of visual media. On a conceptual level, slowmation is unique in that its purpose is to offer students an engaging way of studying a particular topic by making a creative multimedia representation of that topic. Technically speaking, slowmation notably differs from other forms of stop-motion animation when it comes to orientation, materials, timing, and technology. In regards to orientation, slowmation is typically made using 2-D models that are usually manipulated in the horizontal plane, whereas traditional stop-motion animation is often made with 3-D models that are manipulated in the vertical plane. Because slowmation typically utilizes 2-D models, it allows for greater variety in the materials used to create those models. In fact, everything from drawings to cardboard cutouts, 2-D pictures, written text, and soft play dough can be used to construct the models and other visual elements used in the animation. Where timing is concerned, slowmation—as its name implies—typically moves at a much slower rate of speed than traditional stop-motion animation. Specifically, slowmations are usually played at a rate of two frames per second. Traditional stop-motion animation, on the other hand, is usually played at a rate of twenty-five to thirty frames per second. This means that slowmation requires far fewer photos than other forms of animation. Finally, slowmation is made using technology that is often much more accessible in a classroom. In most cases, slowmation can be made with little more than a digital camera or a camera-equipped cell phone and a computer with video editing software installed. All of these characteristics make slowmation easier and less time-consuming to produce than traditional animation. This makes slowmation much more practical for classroom use.

The process of making a slowmation animation typically unfolds in four distinct phases. These include planning, storyboarding, construction, and reconstruction. In the planning phase, students learn about what slowmation is, choose a topic to cover, and formulate a plan for how they will create their slowmation. In the storyboarding phase, students break down the topic they will cover into its component parts and create an outline of the events that will take place in their slowmation. This may involve chunking, in which the concept is broken down into several major scenes, or sequencing, which involves sketching out each planned movement in detail. In the construction phase, students make, manipulate, and photograph their models. Finally, in the reconstruction phase, students use video-editing software to transform their photographs into an animation, record voiceovers, and edit their slowmation into its finished form. Ultimately, all of this work leads to the creation of a completed slowmation that illustrates a given concept and provides students with a fun and engaging way to learn about and understand that concept.

Bibliography

"Four Phase Teaching Approach (Pedagogy) for Slowmation: Learner-generated Animations." Slowmation, slowmation.uow.edu.au/fourphaseapproach.html. Accessed 31 Dec. 2024.

Hoban, Garry, et al. "Slowmation: Exploring a New Teaching Approach in Primary School Classrooms." Proceedings of the 2007 Australian Teacher Education Association Conference, 2007.

Hoban, Garry, and Wendy Nielsen. "Using 'Slowmation' to Enable Preservice Primary Teachers to Create Multimodal Representations of Science Concepts." Research in Science Education, vol. 42, no. 6, 2012, pp. 1101–1119.

Kervin, Kristy. "Exploring the Use of Slow Motion Animation (Slowmation) as a Teaching Strategy to Develop Year 4 Students' Understandings of Equivalent Fractions." Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, vol. 7, no. 2, 2007.

McKnight, Anthony, et al. "Using Slowmation for Animated Storytelling to Represent Non-Aboriginal Preservice Teachers' Awareness of 'Relatedness to Country.'" Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, vol. 27, no. 1, 2011, pp. 41–54.

“Meaning-Making Through Slow Motion Video.” National Geographic, education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/meaning-making-through-slow-motion-video/. Accessed 31 Dec. 2024.

Paige, Kathryn, et al. "Slowmation: An Innovative Twenty-First Century Teaching and Learning Tool for Science and Mathematics Pre-service Teachers." Australian Journal of Teacher Education, vol. 41, no. 2, 2016, pp. 1–15.