Diocesan Boys’ School Primary Division stop-motion workshops

In 2021 and 2022, I designed and taught two sets of stop-motion animation workshops for all Primary 3 students at Diocesan Boys’ School Primary Division. Each set explored a distinct theme, with selected student animations later composited into short films.

The 2022 workshops centred on the Four Gentlemen of Chinese art – plum blossom, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum – with students applying their existing ink painting knowledge to create dynamic cut-out animations. The 2021 workshops explored metamorphosis, inspired by my own experience raising moths. I shared photographic documentation of the process before students animated their own butterfly life cycles.

Each class had over thirty students, all completing individual stop-motion tasks within an hour. It was a fascinating logistical challenge that required templates and simple rules to contain the sheer children chaos. Despite these constraints, students demonstrated remarkable originality, investing real care in the nuances of movement and storytelling through both observation and imagination.