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 five short films, from a first bouncing ball to a character that walks or waves. Plan about five minutes of films and 30–60 minutes of drawing.
- Ages
- 6 to 13
- Time
- 5 films, about 5 minutes, then 30–60 minutes of drawing
- Host
- Tek
- You need
- A small notepad or a stack of sticky notes, pencil
- Status
- Coming soon. Kids vote in the app for the courses they want first.
The intro film
Tek's 45-second intro film is coming soon. Here's what Tek says in it.
Transcript
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 5 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. Start and end first
Draw the first and last pictures, then fill in the ones between.
- Draw the start pose
- Draw the end pose a few pages later
- Fill the pages in between
Where: Paper
Lesson 4. Make a character move
Pick one small move, like a wave or a blink, and keep the rest still.
- Draw a simple character
- Pick one part that moves
- Change only that part on each page
Where: Paper
Lesson 5. Flip, fix, and share
Flip it, find the jumpy pages, and redraw them smaller.
- Flip your book fast
- Find a page that jumps too far
- Redraw 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 character from the flipbook can go next into Animation Studio's Characters room, where your kid's drawing becomes the star of a short film.
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 five 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 5 shows how to find a jumpy page and redraw it with a smaller change.