Flip It! Making Pictures Move With Your Own Hands
In 1937, artists at Walt Disney Studios drew Snow White one tiny movement at a time - over 250,000 separate drawings for a single movie! Flip them fast enough in front of your eyes, and still pictures trick your brain into seeing smooth motion. That trick is called hand drawn animation, and you can do a simple version of it with just paper and a pencil.
What You'll Learn
- Why our eyes see still pictures as moving pictures - What a frame is and how many frames make one second of film - The steps animators use to draw a simple bounce or walk - How to build your own tiny flipbook animation
Why Still Pictures Seem to Move
Your brain holds onto an image for a tiny fraction of a second after it disappears, even though the picture is already gone. Scientists call this persistence of vision. When you flip through drawings fast - each one just a little different from the last - your brain blends them together into one smooth moving picture instead of seeing separate flips.
Frames Per Second
Each single drawing in an animation is called a frame. Old-school hand drawn cartoons usually showed 24 frames every single second to look smooth - that means one minute of cartoon needed 1,440 drawings! Your flipbook doesn't need nearly that many. Even 8 to 12 simple drawings flipped quickly can make a ball look like it's bouncing.
Real animators draw the FIRST pose and the LAST pose of a movement first (these are called key frames), then fill in the middle drawings after. Try drawing your ball at the very top of its bounce and at the very bottom first - then add the in-between pictures.
Match each animation word to what it means.
Terms
Definitions
Drag terms onto their definitions, or click a term then click a definition to match.
Why does flipping a stack of slightly different drawings make them look like they are moving?
A classic hand drawn cartoon shows 24 frames per second. About how many drawings would 2 seconds of that cartoon need?
Before computers, animators drew each character on clear plastic sheets called cels, laid over a painted background, so they didn't have to redraw the background every single frame.
Build a 10-Frame Flipbook
Take 10 small sticky notes or index cards, stacked in order. On page 1, draw a simple shape (like a ball) near the bottom. On each following page, draw the same shape a little higher, then a little lower, tracing the shape lightly from the page below so it stays consistent. When done, flip through fast with your thumb to watch your ball bounce.
Flashcards — click each card to reveal the answer
Want to keep learning?
Sign up for free to access the full curriculum — all subjects, all ages.
Start Learning Free