Free PreK-12 lesson plans, activities, and resources
Animation Software & Examples
With the wide variety of free-to-use animation software now available, there is no reason not to incorporate animation into art and STEM curriculum.
Infographics*, the graphical and sometimes animated illustration of diverse data, has gained in popularity, because graphics is such a popular media of communications.
Not every teacher can be an expert on all of these tools. Spread the skills around and then you can concentrate on your classroom and go to your “experts” when you need something.
Remind your students about copyright issues when scanning in or capturing images or music for their projects.
Alice is an innovative block-based programming environment that makes it easy to create animations, build interactive narratives, or program simple games in 3D. Unlike many of the puzzle-based… learn more
A collaboration between Pixar Animation Studios and Khan Academy, Pixar In A Box looks at how animated moves are made, and in the process helps students answer an… learn more
HyperStudio allows you to create storybook-like animation or "card stacks" that can import images from podcasts, webcams, and more. Hyperstudio is the chief tool for young multimedia makers… learn more
Stop frame animation -- think Chicken Run or the old Gumby cartoons -- can easily be done with programs like Clay Animator (free!). Includes information and videos as… learn more
Randy Krum highlights the best examples of complex data displayed in visual format - infographics - found in magazines, newspapers and on the Internet. This site can be… learn more
Unreal Engine 4 is a complete suite of game development and animation tools originally made by game developers, for game developers. The people started discovering that it can… learn more
A very robust yet inexpensive tool for 3D animation is Animation Master from Hash. While not free, it is easy to use for budding animators and can be… learn more
RenderMan is the software that brought you everything from Toy Story to Finding Nemo and Cars. RenderMan is now free for all non-commercial purposes, including education and personal… learn more
Adam Pesapane (aka PES) is an American director and stop motion animator who uses man-made objects to portray sea creatures in "The Deep". As part of Showtime Network's… learn more
In addition to making Alien Song ("I Will Survive"), Victor has a great web blog where he talks about the animated movies he's worked on, tutorials, and more. learn more
Here is an example of how the Alice programming language can be used to create animations. While there really isn't much of a plot, you can see how… learn more
Pencil2D Animation is a free, open source, cross platform program that can be used to create traditional 2D animations in a wide variety of styles. Supports both bitmap… learn more
