Stop motion animation is great fun, both to watch and to create. This is an interesting (and secretly educational!) way for your kids to start using tech, use their imaginations and boost their own creativity.

Here are some recommended apps to use on phone or tablet.

A useful app, Stop Motion Maker has functions such as:

• Shooting mode with manual / automatic shooting
• onion skin
• preview
• export into avi or motion-jpeg format.

You can also frame edit and import image files in jpeg, png format.

Cost: Free

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PicPac offers stop motion animation and time lapse together in the one app.

Features:

• Add audio and music easily
• No upload to server or PC required.
• Use your gallery photos, gallery videos (broken down to pictures), Instagram photos, or capture time-lapse photos to create stop motion/timelapse videos and animations. You can also do Hyperlapse.
• Hands-free sound-controlled in Timelapse Manual mode. Simply make a loud sound and a photo will be taken!
• Add voice or music

If you upgrade to the Pro version you can also:

1. remove watermark
2. generate 480p,720p,1080p videos/animations
3. duplicate and merge projects
4. use your own ending logo

Cost: Free (€4.99 for Pro)

With Stop Motion Studio you can create stop motion animated movies anywhere instantly on your device. Everything you need is right at your fingertips. No computer needed. It’s simple to use, deceptively powerful and insanely fun to play with. Cool themes, titles and sound effects are easy to add, too.

Stop Motion Studio has these features:

• Overlay mode to show you the differences between frames for precise control
• Grid mode to position animated objects more easily
• Ability to use the volume button on your device to capture images
• Integrated movie editor with frame-by-frame preview at different speeds
• Cut, copy, paste, delete and insert frames at any position
• Automatically capture frames with an adjustable time interval feature
• Zoom in and out on the timeline view so you never get lost, even if you have hundreds of frames
• Fade your movie in or out for a professional look

Cost: Free (There’s also a Pro version €6.99)

iMotion is an intuitive and powerful time-lapse and stop-motion app for iOS. Take pictures, edit your movie and export 1080p & 720p HD videos to your device or directly to Youtube.

Features:

• HD capture & exports
• 4 capture modes (time-lapse, manual, wifi remote, microphone)
• Ultra speed shooting up to 10fps (*)
• Variable frame rate playback
• Portrait and landscape orientations supported
• Useful capture tools (Manual Focus, Exposure Lock, Onion skin, …)
• Export your videos and photos to your Photo Library, iTunes Sharing Folder or YouTube, Facebook and Mail (Full Version In-App required)
• Autosave and direct preview
• Unlimited movie length
• Retina Display

Cost: Free with in-app purchases to access some of the extra features

“This is probably better suited to older kids – not as kid-friendly, and less available on free version” – Jennifer

Also available for iOS, Stop Motion Studio lets you create stop motion animated movies anywhere instantly on your device. Everything you need is right at your fingertips. No computer needed. It’s simple to use, deceptively powerful and insanely fun to play with. Cool themes, titles and sound effects are easy to add, too.

Stop Motion Studio has these features:

• Overlay mode to show you the differences between frames for precise control
• Grid mode to position animated objects more easily
• Ability to use the volume button on your device to capture images
• Integrated movie editor with frame-by-frame preview at different speeds
• Cut, copy, paste, delete and insert frames at any position
• Automatically capture frames with an adjustable time interval feature
• Zoom in and out on the timeline view so you never get lost, even if you have hundreds of frames
• Fade your movie in or out for a professional look

Cost: Free and purchase all the features forever once for €6.99

Stop Motion Factory allows you to easily take pictures and make stop motion animations. It comes with some special features:

• Add text and images: You can easily add text and images to the video to make the video content richer.
• Add Sound. There are many ways to add sound, you can even convert text to speech.
• Various filters to make your video more exciting.
• Voice-activated shooting – use sound to trigger the camera to avoid shaking caused by touching the phone.
• Frame capture. Every frame taken can be shared or downloaded to the album.

Cost: Free (some in-app purchases)