Stop motion is one of those animation styles that’s super simple but really fun! Basically, it’s just a bunch of still images strung together in a specific order, and then shown quickly one after the next to make the subject look like it’s moving. Think claymation, paper cutouts, flipbooks.
For example, we can make this mouse look like it’s running with just six 6 images:
The final GIF:
What’s cool is that you don’t need specialty software to create this. Stop motion animations can be created right in PowerPoint. Yep – the same PowerPoint we use for presentations can double as a mini animation studio!
All that is needed is to build out each frame of the animation as a separate slide. Then export the slides as a video or animated GIF. It’s perfect for fun little projects, social media posts, or even adding some personality to a presentation.
Here’s what the PowerPoint presentation of our stop motion running mouse looks like, which is only 6 slides. The same background is used on all slides, and the biggest design consideration is positioning the character art in the same location on each slide.
An important note is that there are no PowerPoint animations, and no slide transition effects. The slides are set with the NONE transition effect and automatically advance to the next slide. Go to Export > Animated GIF > Done! Download and experiment with this slide deck here.
Throughout this month, we are going to explore PowerPoint stop-motion creations in more detail, including how-to’s and examples in the weeks ahead.
-The TLC Creative Design Team