Top 5 Stop Motion Animations

If you have ever tried to create even the shortest of stop motion animations, you know how incredibly time consuming this art form can be. Still, it is easy to get lost in the story line of a good stop motion animation and forget about the time staking work that went into its creation. However, having the viewer mesmerized by the story line is the aim of stop motion, or any video for that matter.

Listed here are five of my favorite all time stop motion animations. I share these with not only my Computer Art & Animation class but with all of my classes including Art One and Art History.

So that my students gain an understanding and appreciation for the work that went into each of these videos, I often play the "making of" video as well. Below each video, I've also included a link to the "making of" video (where available).


Top 5 Stop Motion Animations I share with my High School Art Classes


#5. Cardboard Animation
by Sjors Vervoort



This animation created by Dutch based artist Sjors Vervoort brings monsters to life on the street. The characters are painted onto cardboard and filmed interacting in a real life environment.

I couldn't find a making of video so here is a link to Sjors Vervoort website


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#4. Light Warfare
by Freddie Wong and Brandon Laatsch




I'm a big fan of drawing with light. Freddie Wong and Brandon Laatsch team used slow shutter speeds and lights to create this campy, yet entertaining street battle.

Here is a link to the Behind the Scenes of Light Warfare

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#3. In Your Arms
By Kina Grannis
Directed by Greg Jardin
Produced by Daphne Raves
Concept Art by Lauren Gregg




What would you do with 22 months, 1,357 hours, 1 still camera and 288,000 jelly beans? Create a stop motion video for Kina Grannis, of course! The background of each scene is created entirely out of jelly beans but you still get lost in the story.

This is a much watch video of the Making Of In Your Arms

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#2. Strawberry Swing
By Coldplay
Art by Shynola




This incredible stop motion video was created on the street using chalk by a group of friends who met in art school. Shynola, their team name, asked the actor Chris Martin to balance on a skateboard in order to save a princess from an evil squirrel. Meanwhile, they created chalk drawing after chalk drawing.

No video but here is an Interview with Shynola 

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#1. Art History : Beginning to End
by Apex HS Art





OK, maybe I'm bias but this class did a great job creating this stop motion video. The video was created over the span of the semester. Though it appears to be a sped up video, it is actually thousands of single photographs put together.