Animation Studio · With Tek
How to make a flipbook
This course shows your kid how to make a flipbook: a stack of small drawings that move when you flip the pages. Tek hosts four short films, from a first dot and a bouncing ball to a character that waves. Plan about 4 minutes of films and 30–60 minutes of drawing.
- Ages
- 6 to 13
- Time
- 4 films, about 4 minutes, then 30–60 minutes of drawing
- Host
- Tek
- You need
- A small notepad or a stack of sticky notes, pencil
- Status
- Out now in the app. Your kid watches the films in the Learn tab.
Meet Tek
Tek hosts the 4 short films your kid watches in the app.
The course in Tek's words
Hi, I'm Tek. Let's make paper move.
You need a little notepad and a pencil. That's it.
Here's how it works. You draw a picture on one page.
On the next page, you draw it again, but a tiny bit different.
Then again. And again.
When you flip the pages fast, your drawing moves!
We start easy. A ball that bounces.
Then a character that waves, or blinks, or walks.
Tip: start at the back page. You'll see why.
Every cartoon you've ever watched works this way.
Grab your notepad. Let's flip.
The 4 lessons
Lesson 1. Why it moves
Pictures that change a tiny bit, shown fast, look like they move.
- Draw a dot on the last page
- Draw it a bit higher on the page before
- Flip and watch it jump
Where: Paper
Lesson 2. The bouncing ball
Your first flipbook: a ball that falls, squishes, and bounces back up.
- Start on the last page
- Move the ball down a little on each page
- Squish it flat when it hits the ground
Where: Paper
Lesson 3. Make a character move
Draw the start and the end first, then the pages between. Only one part moves.
- Draw the start pose on the last page, and the end pose four pages up
- Fill in the pages between
- Trace the body on every page, so only the arm moves
Where: Paper
Lesson 4. Flip, fix, and share
Flip it, find the jumpy pages, and redraw them a bit closer.
- Flip your book slowly, page by page
- Find a page that jumps too far
- Redraw it closer to the page under it, then show your family
Where: Paper
What your kid makes
Your kid ends with a paper flipbook that moves, and an idea of how every cartoon is made. The same character can star in a short film in Animation Studio later.
Free guides to practise with
Questions parents ask
What age can make a flipbook?
Kids 6–13 can do it. Younger kids start with the bouncing ball and a few pages; older kids add a character and more pages.
Does this use a screen?
Only for the four short films. All the making happens on paper with a notepad and a pencil.
What if my kid's drawings don't match from page to page?
That's normal and it still moves. Lesson 4 shows how to find a jumpy page and redraw it closer to the page under it.