162 ICT Innovations 2013 Web Proceedings ISSN 1857-7288 Using Smartphone Stop Motion Applications in Primary Education Sofija Grabuloska1, Darko Taleski2, Zorica Trajanoska3, Dragica Zdraveska4 and Mir- jana Trompeska5 1Primary School Krume Volnaroski, v. Topolchani, Prilep {[email protected]} 2Primary School Kiril i Metodij, v. Kanatlarci, Prilep {[email protected]} 3Primary Scholl Strasho Pindzur, v. Malo Konjari, Prilep {[email protected]} 4Primary School Kiril i Metodij, v. Kanatlarci, Prilep {[email protected]} 5Primary School Dobre Jovanoski, Prilep {[email protected]} Abstract. Education keeps in step with the constant progress of technology. Teachers are thus required to implement new teaching methods, to find better tools for more creative, funnier and active learning and use technology in their practise. Currently, one of the more powerful teaching and skills acquisition methods of the 21st century is studying through Android Stop Motion Application with smart phones. In this paper, we discuss the benefits of using stop motion ani- mation in the modern classroom. Keywords: stop motion animation, smartphones, Android, iPhone 1. Introduction Smart phones and the tablet computers are becoming increasingly available and af- fordable nowadays. They are used everywhere: in business, medicine, art, education. Rapid development of new Smart technology brought the challenging process of mak- ing new adjustment and application for the needs of education. One example of using smart technology in education is stop motion applications. Smart applications for creating stop motion animations offer students interesting and entertaining way of learning. They are easy to use which is one of the advantages to implement them in primary education. This kind of applications are available through the most commonly used operating systems for smart platforms such as: Android and Apple iOS. V. Trajkovik, A.Mishev (Editors): ICT Innovations 2013, Web Proceedings, ISSN 1857-7288 © ICT ACT –http://ictinnovations.org/2013, 2013 ICT Innovations 2013 Web Proceedings ISSN 1857-7288 163 The paper aims to show how teachers and students can use this system to create interesting animations, by using smartphones and computers with internet access. The paper is organized as follows. In section 1, stop motion animation is intro- duced and the characteristics and abilities of smart phone applications are presented. In section 2, it is shown how smart phone apps can be used in the classroom. The highlight is on learning three school subjects (Art, Mathematics and Science). The benefits of using smart phone stop motion application in education are outlined as well the disadvantages of this method of learning. Finally concluding remarks are given. 1.1 Stop motion animation Stop motion is a technique for creating animations. Inanimate object are turned into animate with Stop Motion Animation. It is a very old filmmaking technique. The father of this type of animation is the French caricaturist and animator EMILE COHL. He made the first animation on the film “Fantasmagorie”, 1908. It is one of the earli- est examples of traditional (hand- drawings) animation. Emile Cohl brought stop mo- tion animation in America. [4] Stop motion was used in the movie "King Kong" 1933, (when he jumps over skyscrapers in New York), and in the movie "Lost World", 1925 (walking dinosaurs in London). [2] Stop motion animation can be defined as animated productions created by filming an arbitrary number of objects frame by frame. The main idea is, by physically chang- ing the location of objects in very small sequences between frames, to make them appear to move on their own. [3] Animation can be achieved in various ways, drawing on paper, modeling in plasti- cine, moving real object and of course computer animation. All of this mediums are stop motion animations. But, in order to become an animator, you will need to under- stand movement and create emotion. [1] Stop motion animation is also popular nowadays and is used in production of mu- sic videos, advertisements, children TV series, cartoons and even in films as a cheap option for creating special effects. The art of stop-motion has experienced a renais- sance. Many people around the world got interested. Nowadays, animation movie can be made by various modern tools such as websites and mobile devices, which is much easier and cheaper than it used to be. Our village Podmol and other rural schools from the Municipality Prilep are be- coming the new Hollywood, and our students new directors, producers, editors, new active learners of the learning material. They use the newest technology smart phone stop motion apps to animate the lessons. 1.2 Android Stop Motion Applications It seems that Android is most widely used smartphone platform In Macedonia. Some of the larger numbers of applications for making stop motion animations are Android V. Trajkovik, A.Mishev (Editors): ICT Innovations 2013, Web Proceedings, ISSN 1857-7288 © ICT ACT –http://ictinnovations.org/2013, 2013 164 ICT Innovations 2013 Web Proceedings ISSN 1857-7288 applications. Two years ago, there were one or two Android stop motion applications. Nowadays, there is a great number in the Google play store. Some of the most popular Android stop motion applications are Stop Motion Maker – KomaDori, Animator, Clayframes, Lapse It, and Stop-Motion. Two stop motion applications are explained in the text below. 1.3 Stop Motion Maker – KomaDori This application has these settings: automatic and manual shooting mode, according to the needs of the user, possibility of review captured photos as a stop motion anima- tion, exporting made animation into AVI video format, editing every single image. When the application is started, it contains the following elements: Start menu: Name, Image size (from 320x240 to 1920x1080), shooting mode (automatic and manual). If you choose automatic shoot than you can set the time in seconds between every taken image. Shooting menu: Onion skin -This allows viewing the previous shot and the current shot in context; Flash – if the smartphone has it; Focus settings - option for infinity or fixed focus; White balance – auto, incandescent, fluorescent, daylight, cloudy-daylight; Colour Effects – depends of the smartphone camera; Scene – auto, night, snow, sports. Edit menu: Name of the animation; Frame rate – input between 0,5 – 30; Editing every single image, group of images or all images – cut, copy, paste, delete; Add new image by shooting from camera or importing from im- age file; Preview before exporting as video file. Before exporting video file you can choose video size which depends of the taken images size and after exporting as a video file animations could be shared by e-mail, YouTube, Facebook, SkyDrive. [5] 1.4 Lapse IT Lapse It is a simple, fast and intuitive Android stop motion application. It has power- ful and unique features. Capture stunning shots using the camera full sensor. By starting the application you have these settings: New animation, Gallery which includes all animations exported as a video format and all not exported animations prepared for editing, Settings: a) Capture settings: Frame interval; Time scale in minutes, seconds and milliseconds; Limit mode – Limit by Frame - in this mode you can determine the number of frames that will be captured, when it reaches the number indicated, the capture will stop automatically. Limit by Time – In this mode you can determine a maximum length of time to capture, when it reaches the time indicated, the capture will stop automatically. Limit by User – In this mode the capture will last until the user clicks on stop button; Initial delay in Milliseconds; Resolution from 240p to 1080 and Full sensor; Brightness level from 0% to 100%; Shutter sound – enabled or disabled; Schedule – schedule caption setting start and end point; Output folder. b) Render settings: Encoder – MP4, MOV and FLV; Quality – Low, Medium, High, Very High; Frames per seconds from 1 to 240. c) Capture menu options: Cap- ture – starting with taking photos; Stop motion – taking photos manually or Every __ V. Trajkovik, A.Mishev (Editors): ICT Innovations 2013, Web Proceedings, ISSN 1857-7288 © ICT ACT –http://ictinnovations.org/2013, 2013 ICT Innovations 2013 Web Proceedings ISSN 1857-7288 165 seconds – automatic taking photos; Changing image size from 240p to 1080p; Cancel; More (Focus mode, Flash mode, colour effects, Scene mode, White balance); Zoom. Captured photos after shooting are taken into edit mode where you can edit the an- imation: Trim, Effects (No effects, Vivid colour, Black and White, Invers Colours, and more); Music (adding music file); Render settings: Encoder – MP4, MOV, FLV (Using a encoder other MP4 will cause the video to be unplayable in some devices using the Android player; Quality – Low, Medium, High, Very High – A high quality means more bitrate levels and a bigger file. After rendering finished animation you can share or send by e-mail, Sky- Drive, Google drive, Facebook, YouTube. [6] 1.5 Smart apps for stop motion animations – iPhone. iMotion HD - app iMotion HD is a powerful iPhone application for making stop motion and time-labs in iOS. It can make two types of stop motion videos and time-labs. After starting the program and selecting New Movie button, it gives us the option to select one of the two techniques, which we will make the video with. Time – lapse is a cinematography technique which accelerates movement. It is used for clouds scenery shooting,