Digital Art: Animation — Year 6 Lesson Plan
National Curriculum: Art and Design KS2 — To improve their mastery of art and design techniques; to know about great artists, craft makers and designers; to use digital tools as part of art and design practice.
Overview
Pupils explore animation as an art form with a history stretching from early flipbooks and zoetropes to Pixar's digital storytelling and Aardman's stop-motion craft. They learn the principles of animation and apply them to create a short frame-by-frame digital animation. The unit combines artistic design, narrative thinking and technical digital skill, providing a distinctive and contemporary end-of-primary art experience.
Learning Objectives
- To know about the history and key principles of animation as an art form
- To create a short frame-by-frame digital animation using a tablet app
- To apply at least two animation principles: timing, anticipation or squash and stretch
- To evaluate the finished animation as a narrative and aesthetic product, reflecting on what works and why
Key Vocabulary
Suggested Lesson Structure
Brief history of animation: show a Victorian zoetrope or phenakistoscope strip, then flip book, then a 1-minute clip of early Disney animation, then a clip from a Pixar film. Ask: what has changed? What has stayed the same? Introduce the 12 principles of animation — show anticipation, squash and stretch and timing with simple examples drawn on the board.
Using the chosen app (e.g. FlipaClip, Stop Motion Studio or Procreate animation) demonstrate on the projected screen: creating a new animation document, drawing frame 1, duplicating it to frame 2 and making a small change, using the onion skin feature to see the previous frame while drawing the next. Show how 6 frames per second gives a usable animation speed for simple projects.
Pupils complete a storyboard for a 4-8 second animation (approximately 24-48 frames at 6fps). They choose a simple scenario: a bouncing ball, a walking figure, a flower growing, a character jumping. They then begin animating, starting with the key frames (the most important positions) and filling in between frames. Teacher circulates supporting technical use of the app.
Pupils refine their animations, adding colour, adjusting timing and ensuring the movement is smooth at key moments. They add a simple title frame at the start and an end frame. Animations are exported as video files and saved ready for the class screening.
Class animation screening: each animation is played twice. After all animations, class vote on: most convincing movement, clearest narrative, most creative idea and best use of anticipation. Pupils reflect in writing on what they would change and why animation is valuable as an art form.
Common Misconceptions
- Pupils often try to make too many things happen in their animation, resulting in a confused, overlong sequence — encourage a single clear action and do it well
- Some pupils make each frame very different from the previous one, creating jumpy movement rather than smooth animation — teach the onion skin feature as the key tool for smooth frame-to-frame transitions
Prior Knowledge
Pupils should already be able to:
- Digital art skills from the Year 4 Digital Art unit
- Narrative and storyboarding from English and Computing
- Knowledge of Pixar and Aardman from media experiences and Y6 art movement studies
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