How to make a flip book

Early animation is all about the optical illusion. Some of the first movies ever made were by a photographer named Eadweard Muybridge, who would take photographs of animals moving and compile them into film strips that could be played on a camera so that it looked like the animals were actually movies. That's called stop-motion.

Making your own stop-motion moving images doesn't have to be hard. All you need is some paper and something to draw with. This tutorial is difficult to explain in writing. So if you need extra explanations, have an adult help you search 'Post-it Note flipbooks' on YouTube.

Make your own flip book

1. Gather together a bunch of paper or, I find, Post-it notes work best. Now decide what you want to animate. Want to draw a flower growing? A stick figure running? It's best to start simple.

2. When you are ready to draw, begin at the back of the stack of paper or Post-its. I started with a dot. I drew one small dot on one side of the Post-it. On the next page I drew another dot, but just a little bit farther over. You keep drawing dots slowly inching across the page until you reach the end.

3. Then, hold the top of the paper stack in your hands and flip them down so they hit the table. You should be able to see the ball look like it's moving across the page. Once you get good at it, try a line or even trying to make a stick figure walk.