Stop Motion Animation #Stikbots

**** Please note that we do not receive commissions of any description for this review. 
It is simply a product that we have found useful. ****

I have always loved watching stop motion animations, some of my all time favourite stop motion movies and shows are the Wallace and Grommet series, the Shaun the Sheep series, Kubo and the Two Strings, The Boxtrolls, The Pirates and Chicken Run. My brother really likes watching Pingu too. But while watching them, I have always been very curious about how they make them.

I really like watching the extras on DVD's because I can learn new and interesting facts about the movie that I just watched and on some of the stop motion movies, they have how the animations were made. Just from watching these, it looks really difficult and very time consuming.

Here's some information about Stop Motion Animation, just in case you're not sure what it means.

Stop Motion Animation is a technique that film makers can use to bring static objects to life - the film makers can basically make a character look like it is alive, even though it might be made of plastic or plasticine. Film makers do this by taking a series of still photos of the characters in the film. In each photo frame, the character has to move a tiny little bit so that when the photos are played in sequence from start to finish, it looks like the character is moving. My brother said that the sequence of photos are a bit like a flip book. Just in stop motion animation, the sequence of photos are played at a super fast speed.

When film makers are making a stop motion animation, they will usually use clay figures, puppets,plasticine, miniature figures with movable joints and sometimes even paper or fabric. The reason that these are commonly used is because all of these art mediums can be easily handled and re-positioned in small increments.

When I did some research on Stop Motion Animation, I found out that Stop Motion Animation was developed in the late 1800's. That's a very long time ago. The very first movie that used Stop Motion techniques was a movie called The Humpty Dumpty Circus. It was made in 1897 by J Stuart Blackton and Albert E Smith and was about a toy circus of acrobats and animals that comes to life. The two film makers used their daughters toys and dolls as the props. I also found out that this movie has been lost - there's only one screen shot that can be found - and that the reason the movie is lost is because the movie is really, really old and film makers back then probably didn't know how to save their creations. It's not like they had a phone or computer or USB to save it on.

A few weeks ago, my Mummy surprised my little brother and me with two Stikbot people figures and a Stikbot Dinosaur. My best friend, G, had come over for a play, and we were all a bit bored because it was too wet to go outside to play.

Stikbots are really cool because they are pose-able robot looking figures that have suction cups on their hands and feet. I think the dinosaur Stikbot is meant to be a T-Rex because it has two little arms and two big feet like a T-Rex. It has suction cups on it's big feet.

The suction cups mean that the Stikbots can literally stick to any surface, it's really cool. And because the Stikbots head, arms and legs are all joined to their body with tight stretchy elastic, it means you can change how the Stikbots stand and move around.

The other really cool thing about Stikbots is that they can be used to make Stop Motion Animation and there is an app that can be downloaded onto phones or tablets.

Mummy showed G, L and me how to move the Stikbots really slowly and then showed us how to use the app.

The app is called Stikbot Studio and Mummy downloaded it from the Google Play Store. It's a free app, so that is good too. Daddy had a look on his phone because it is an Apple phone and you can get the app in the Apple store too and it is free as well. Once Mummy had shown us how to use the app, G, L and me made some stop motion animations. The one just under this is the first one we made. We set up an animation studio in our garage and wouldn't let Mummy and Daddy in until we had finished!

Did you like that one? It was lots of fun to make.

I'm going to try to explain how to use the app.

1. When you open the app on your phone, Mummy has the app on her phone and her tablet but the lighting is better on her phone, the screen you should first see looks like this. Can you see the four icons along the bottom? There is Create Movie, Capture Photo, Gallery and Help. When we first opened the app, we had a little play to see what was on it.

2. The Help icon is really cool and useful because there are lots of video tutorials on how to use the Stikbots and how to make animations. We watched the first three tutorials before we made our first Stop Motion Animation.

One of the tutorials explains that to make a Stop Motion Animation that is one second long, you need to take at least 10 different photo frames. Can you imagine how many photo frames they need to take to make a movie that is an hour long? Now I know why Stop Motion Movies look so time consuming and complicated to make.

3. When you go into either the Create Movie or Capture Photo icons they both look basically the same. The only difference is that in the Capture Photo icon you can only take one photo at a time. 

In the Create Movie icon, that's where you capture lots of photos in a sequence. Each time you press the red camera button, the app captures a photo frame. What's really cool is that once the photo is captured, a faint photo that you just took stays on the screen so that you know where you moved the Stikbot to.

Once you start capturing frames for your Stop Motion Movie an arrow comes up in the top right hand corner of the screen. Once you have finished your movie, you press the arrow in the top right hand corner and it saves the movie.

4. When you go into the next screen, this is where you can edit your movie creation. You can add a soundtrack to your movie or you can add your own sounds. You can also play your movie to see what it looks like.

If you go into the icon on the top right that looks like a flower, you can change how many frames per second - fps - that your movie will play at. So you can make it go super slow mo or really, really fast. But remember to have a good Stop Motion Animation you need to have at least 10 frames per second.

After my friend G went home, I made some Stop Motion Animations with our Lego minifigs! These were fun to make but much harder to move the minifigs because they are much smaller than the Stikbots.

Now this is where it gets really exciting. Last week we had to go to Kmart and while we were looking in the toys because my little brother likes to look at the toys, I found some more Stikbots. I was really excited to find a Green Screen Stikbot Studio kit. Mummy brought it for me and L to use because we have been making lots of Stop Motion Animations.

The Green Screen Stikbot Studio has both a green screen and a blue screen (it's just a big cardboard box with a green side and a blue side, two smaller cardboard boxes with green sides and blue sides on them, two Stikbots and what looks like an art easel that can hold your phone while you're creating Stop Motion Animations. The easel is really clever because it will keep your phone in the same position while you create your Stop Motion Animation.

Did you know that a green screen, or sometimes a blue screen, is used when filming movies and not just stop motion movies, so that a different background can be added to the final movie. The actors and actresses would film their movie screens on a green screen set and then the movie editors would add the background in later. It's sometimes known as Chroma Key Compositing. Green and Blue are the two colours most different from our skin so it makes it easier for the movie editors to change the screen background without cutting off the actors and actresses body parts!!

There are a lot of movies that I have watched that have used green screen sets when they have been making the movie - Mary Poppins Returns used a blue screen in some of their sets, all of The Avengers movies, Alice in Wonderland, Captain America, Iron Man, Transformers, Thor Ragnarok, The Power Rangers Movie and heaps more.

When we went to use the green screen with our Stikbots, we couldn't work out how to use it because the green screen on the app wasn't working. We worked out that we had to turn the green screen feature of the app on. We found this out by pressing the different icons on the screen because there aren't any instructions in the kit! I think that whoever makes this kit, needs to put instructions in the Green Screen Kit on how to turn the feature on in the app.

When you first go into either the Create Movie or Capture Photo icons there is a flower icon on the bottom left. When you press that icon, four more icons open up. To activate the green screen feature you need to press the small green rectangle.

When the next screen opens up, it will probably look like the image underneath this. See how the tabs are grey? You need to slide the on tab across so that the screen looks like the next image.

When the tabs are coloured you can change the background from Green screen to Blue screen. You can also change the Colour roll Backdrop.

In Colour roll Backdrop you can choose from the Stikbot Library or you can choose a picture that is on your phone. We tried to use a backdrop from Mummy's phone, but it didn't turn out properly. I would recommend using a backdrop from the Stikbot Library as there are quite a few to choose from and the backdrops are really good.

This is what the picture will look like when the green screen is on. Can you see the Stikbot at the back of this picture? See how it looks like it has a ghost head? That's because it's head is green so it blends into the green screen. You have to make sure that if you are using the green screen, you don't use characters that are green. And if you use the blue screen, the characters can't be blue.

I made a few green screen Stop Motion animations and Mummy helped me to make some props to use. We made fire flames, some cardboard logs for a fire and some tents.

Now I wanted to show you some of my green screen Stop Motion Animations that I have made. I prefer to use the Stikbots because they are easier to move around and Mummy helped me with the Lego Minifigs.

I would really recommend the Stikbot sets to anyone who is interested in learning how to make Stop Motion Animations. They are really easy to use and lots of fun. It looks like there are other sets that you can buy like a set that has a Dino theme with lots of different accessories for the Stikbots and Stikbot Action Packs that have helmets, plastic hair and musical instruments for the Stikbots in it. I really would like to get a few more sets but we couldn't find them. Playing with the Stikbots, the green screen and the app has helped me to learn a lot about making Stop Motion Animations.

Now my Mummy wants to add something. Thank you for reading my review on Stop Motion Animation and the Stikbots.

From O 😍💕😻😸

Stop Motion Animation is a topic that O has always been interested in so it was wonderful to find a product that she could use to create her own animations. We found them in the toy section of Kmart but I would imagine that you should be able to find them in other department stores and toy shops.

While all of the Stop Motion Animation is done during screen time, we figured that at least O and L having been doing something constructive! O and L have also been doing a little unschooling when making their animations as they've had to work out how best to move the characters so that the movement looks semi natural on screen, which colours work best on the green screen and many other aspects of Stop Motion Animation. Oh and if your children do ask to use your device to create some Stop Motion Animation, be prepared that your devices battery may go very flat. The app is brilliant but it does chew up battery power!

22/8/19 Edited 

We've since found two more Stop Motion Apps that O also loves to use.

Stop Motion Studio is a free App available in Google Play which O finds much easier to use. We also found an App called Green Screen Video (also available for free on Google Play) and as the name suggests it can be used to create live green screen videos.

My Favourite Motivational Memes, 2018.

This year I have gotten into the swing of creating memes for my blog and for our social media sites. I wanted to share a few of my favourite memes that I have created!

These are just a few of the motivational memes that I created throughout 2018. I hope that you enjoy!

What does an Occupational Therapist do?

As I sit here in the reception area of L's therapy provider, I've been pondering - what does an Occupational therapist actually do?

I will be the first to admit that prior to gaining L and O's diagnosis of Autism, I had no idea what an Occupational Therapist actually did! I know now first hand just how incredibly important and beneficial an Occupational Therapist can be. L's Occupational Therapists over the last three and a half years, have been instrumental in the dramatic improvements that L has made. And the same can be said for O's Occupational Therapists.

So how does an Occupational Therapist actually help?

If you have ever sat in on an Occupational Therapy session, you may have noticed that a lot of play and a lot of talking occurs during the session. To the outsider it may appear that there is no benefit of this to the child but there certainly is.

Let's go back to basics ...

An Occupational Therapist can help children, and adults, with a variety of issues from cognitive skills to physical and sensory skills to motor skills and much much more. Occupational Therapy deals with fine motor skills, visual-perception skills, cognitive skills and sensory processing difficulties among others!

But when you hear the word "Occupational," you tend to think of adults. Adults after all have an occupation, or paid work, and yet children do not.

However while children may not have an official occupation, their goal in life is to play - yes play is an occupation - and to learn. Children need to practise skills and learn new skills to assist them later in life and the best way to do this is through play.

When it is simplified, Occupational Therapy is all about making sure that people can do the "occupations" that are important to them. For children - their occupation is to play and learn! If play is fun, children tend to learn and take in more.

Occupational Therapy can benefit individuals who have been diagnosed with Autism, those with sensory processing difficulties, individuals who have sustained traumatic injuries, individuals with developmental delays, individuals who have learning difficulties, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Dyspraxia, Cerebral Palsy and many more difficulties. Occupational Therapy can basically assist an individual who has difficulties with functional skills.

For a child, the first few sessions with an Occupational Therapist is all about assessment. The Occupational Therapist will assess and evaluate (through play) the child's current skill level and may compare their current level to the developmentally appropriate level for their age. While it sounds odd that child's skills are assessed, it is vital that this assessment occurs. Based on their current skill level, a plan can be put in place as to where the child needs to be. 

Both O and L's Occupational Therapy plans are based on where they both currently are and where we want them to be in twelve months time - we want them both to be able to self regulate their emotions. We want them both to be able to recognise their own and others emotions.

Throughout both O and L's Occupational Therapy sessions, assessments are made on a continual basis against their goals. This is to ensure that the goals are being met but also so that the goals can be updated when needed. Every twelve months we sit down with the therapists and reassess the goals.

The great thing about the Occupational Therapy sessions is that neither O nor L realise that they are learning new skills. They both think that they are just having fun! L makes me giggle quietly on a regular basis when he decides that he needs to go to Occupational Therapy instead of school because school is too hard when in actual fact he is working harder in his Occupational Therapy than he is at school!

During L's Occupational Therapy sessions he is working on …..

• Developing his fine motor skills which assist him with his hand-eye coordination and his pencil grip for school. Fine motor skills also assists with developing L's play skills (hitting a ball with a bat,) buttoning up clothes, being able to do up a zipper. Up until a few weeks ago L struggled with zippers and would not even attempt to do one up. He now has the confidence to try to do up a zipper without losing his cool!
• L is beginning to recognise the internal (interoception) feelings of his emotions.
• L is working on his turn taking and sharing skills.
• L has learnt and is continuing to learn how to interact socially with his peers.
• L is learning how to regulate his own emotions. Learning how to stay calm and brave when things get a little hard.
• L is strengthening his proximal stability.
• Everyday life skills and much, much more!

I have a lot of respect for all of L and O's therapists. Occupational Therapy has given L and O so much hope and has increased their confidence that they are able to overcome challenges that they both come across in life.

Sensory Souls Train Day!

Back in April, I wrote a post about a Sensory Souls event in which the little superheroes had a go at paddle boarding. This was our first sensory event since moving back to sunny Queensland and both O and L loved the experience.

Well just recently there was yet another Sensory Souls event - a model train day and seeing as though both O and L love model trains, we went along for the ride. Pun intended!

As I have previously mentioned, on numerous occasions, both O and L struggle on outings if there is much noise or too many people. The events that Sensory Souls organise and conduct are brilliant as the number of participants are limited so hence the noise and busyness of the event is also reduced.

Prior to the event I was told by the lovely ladies from Sensory Souls that the little superheroes were going to love this event and boy were they right. It was a truly amazing day. We took one of the little superheroes friends along for the day and all three had a ball. We started the day by finding a few playgrounds to explore on our way to the model trains location. They were a little excited so burning off some energy was much needed as was getting a little proprioception input!

When we arrived at the trains, all three didn't know where to look first. There were steam trains, electric trains, tunnels, bridges, stations and more as well as park areas to explore.

Our first stop was being a train driver. Those who were attending the event were given the opportunity to drive a small electric train, under close supervision of course! L's favourite part of driving the train was having his finger on the horn the entire way round!

After three trips around the small track as all three little superheroes wanted to drive the train, we went and joined the queue for the big track. The big track is just amazing - to see all of the track, which is four times around, takes anywhere between an hour and an hour forty five minutes. It was huge.

I spotted the grand old steam train and convinced the three little superheroes that we should ride on it. They were all enthusiastic about it until we went through thefirst tunnel. Faces full of soot and steam equals three unimpressed children!! Ah, what's a bit of soot between friends! All three quickly learnt as when we went through the next tunnel, heads went down and eyes were closed!

So once again, thank you Sensory Souls and all of your train loving volunteers, it was a great day out. L is already counting down the days until next years train day!