How to make your own animated flip book

Why make a flip book? Because all animation – even stick-figure Flash animation and multilayered, highly technical 3-D effects – is built on, and can benefit from, the basics of the craft first developed by artists working at the beginning of the last century. And while fancy computer programs are nice, you can teach yourself these basics using nothing more than a pad of paper and a pen, and replay them over and over without any extra technology needed.

There are several ways to make a flip book, but this is the method that works well with kids. It replicates on a small scale the process of drawing a frame on a registered piece of paper, then placing another piece of paper on top of the first, tracing the lines that don’t change and off-setting the lines that do, using the original drawing as a guide.

A new trend is Post-It note flip books. Animator Jeff Chiba Stearns’ “Yellow Sticky Notes” is a prime example, but you can find amateur flip books as well on YouTube. The pads are cheap and easy to find, although the pages are not see-through.

These two videos are just examples of what can be done by making your own animated flip book. Check out the text instructions for details on the whole process of flip book making.