McPherson Square Library, a site that launched Maker programming just last month, held a Fall Festival this past weekend. Maker Jawn was invited to attend and host an activity table. Gavin and I went, ready for some animation with a set of iPads and a big box of Play Doh. We decided to do stop motion animation because the event was projected to have hundreds of attendees and from experience we know that this activity is usually a crowd-pleaser, and one that doesn’t require a lot of consumable supplies. Because the theme of the Festival was food and nutrition related, Gavin brought a recent plaster cast of his teeth, which proceeded to eat all different kinds of Play Doh creations.

Other passers by created and animated animals.

Stop motion is a great activity for these kinds of events because it offers pretty immediate gratification but also allows those who are interested in the technique an opportunity to engage deeper and make more intricate stuff if they feel like it. Since this was a family event, there were lots of under-school-age kids. Even if they were too young to do the animating with their older siblings or cousins, they could still hang out and happily mess around with the Play Doh. Meanwhile others could spend close to a half an hour making an elaborate animation like this one: