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Twenty-Four Pictures to Make One Second Move

7th grade nonfiction passage about stop-motion animation: 245 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

7th grade nonfiction stop-motion animation 245 words

Twenty-Four Pictures to Make One Second Move

A stop-motion film looks like a world that has come alive, yet nothing on the set ever moves by itself. Every motion is made by an animator who changes a figure a tiny amount, takes a photograph, changes it again and takes another. When the photographs play quickly in order, the eye blends them into smooth movement.

Film usually runs at about twenty-four frames each second, which means a single second of finished animation can need up to twenty-four separate photographs. Some studios save effort by showing each picture twice. Even so, a short scene may take a full day of careful work, and a feature film can take years.

The figures are built with care. Many have a metal skeleton, called an armature, hidden inside soft material such as clay or foam, so that arms and legs can bend and then stay exactly where they are placed. Others have heads with swappable faces, and the animator replaces one mouth shape with another to make the character speak. Clay figures are especially flexible, and artists often use sculpting tools to adjust them between shots.

Animators must also control the room. A bumped table, a shifting lamp or a changing shadow will show up as a flicker on screen, so they fix the camera and lights firmly in place. Small movements, like a blink, give a character life. The method asks for patience, but the reward is a story told with real objects.

Questions

  1. How is movement created in a stop-motion film? in the text

  2. About how many frames run each second in film? in the text

  3. What is an armature? in the text

  4. How can an animator make a character speak? in the text

  5. Why do animators fix the camera and lights firmly in place? think about it

  6. Why might a short scene take a full day to make? think about it

Words to know

animator
an artist who makes drawings or figures appear to move
frame
one single picture in a film
armature
a bendable skeleton inside a model
flexible
able to bend easily without breaking
flicker
a quick, unsteady change in light
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One passage, three levels

The same topic and facts written three ways, so a mixed class can read and talk about one text. Each group’s sheet shows only a shape; the key says which is which.

● Easier · 211 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 4.2

A stop-motion film looks like a world that has come alive. But nothing on the set moves by itself. An animator moves a figure a tiny bit and takes a photo. Then the animator moves it again and takes another. When the photos play fast, the eye blends them into smooth movement.

Film runs at about twenty-four frames each second. So one second of animation can need up to twenty-four photos. Some studios show each picture twice. Even so, a short scene may take a whole day. A feature film can take years.

The figures are built with care. Many have a metal skeleton inside, called an armature. It is hidden in soft clay or foam. So the arms and legs can bend and then stay in place. Some heads have swappable faces. The animator swaps one mouth shape for another to make the character talk. Clay figures are very flexible, and artists adjust them between shots.

Animators must also control the room. A bumped table or a moved lamp will show up as a flicker on screen. So they fix the camera and lights in place. Small movements, like a blink, make a character feel alive. It takes patience. But the story is told with real objects.

▲ This passage · 245 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 8.6

A stop-motion film looks like a world that has come alive, yet nothing on the set ever moves by itself. Every motion is made by an animator who changes a figure a tiny amount, takes a photograph, changes it again and takes another. When the photographs play quickly in order, the eye blends them into smooth movement.

Film usually runs at about twenty-four frames each second, which means a single second of finished animation can need up to twenty-four separate photographs. Some studios save effort by showing each picture twice. Even so, a short scene may take a full day of careful work, and a feature film can take years.

The figures are built with care. Many have a metal skeleton, called an armature, hidden inside soft material such as clay or foam, so that arms and legs can bend and then stay exactly where they are placed. Others have heads with swappable faces, and the animator replaces one mouth shape with another to make the character speak. Clay figures are especially flexible, and artists often use sculpting tools to adjust them between shots.

Animators must also control the room. A bumped table, a shifting lamp or a changing shadow will show up as a flicker on screen, so they fix the camera and lights firmly in place. Small movements, like a blink, give a character life. The method asks for patience, but the reward is a story told with real objects.

■ Harder · 282 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 10.8

A stop-motion film resembles a world that has suddenly come alive, yet nothing on the set ever moves of its own accord. Every motion is produced by an animator who alters a figure by a minuscule amount, photographs it, adjusts it again and photographs it once more. When the photographs are played rapidly in sequence, the eye blends them into fluid movement.

Film generally runs at roughly twenty-four frames each second, which means that a single second of finished animation can require as many as twenty-four separate photographs. Some studios economize by displaying each picture twice, so that two frames cover the same moment. Even so, a short scene may consume an entire day of meticulous work, and a feature film can take several years to complete.

The figures themselves are constructed with great care. Many contain a metal skeleton, called an armature, concealed inside soft material such as clay or foam, so that the arms and legs can bend and then remain exactly where they have been positioned. Others have heads with interchangeable faces, and the animator replaces one mouth shape with another to make the character speak. Clay figures are particularly flexible, and artists frequently use sculpting tools to refine them between shots.

Animators must also control their surroundings. A bumped table, a shifting lamp or a changing shadow will appear as a flicker on screen, so they fasten the camera and lights firmly in place. Tiny details of motion, such as a blinking eye or a swinging hand, give a character a sense of life. The technique demands enormous patience, but the reward is a story told with real objects that the camera has genuinely seen.

Download as one PDF

How to use it

  1. Press Read it big (or B) to put the text on the projector, or Full screen (F) to fill the whole screen.
  2. Ask the questions one at a time and use Show answer when the class has decided. A shows or hides every answer.
  3. Print student copy for the class, or Print with answers for yourself.

Ideas for class

  • Before reading, put animator, frame, armature, flexible and flicker on the board with their meanings from the Words to know section and have students predict what the text will be about.
  • Read it aloud once while students follow along, then have them reread it alone or with a partner. At a calm 100 words a minute it takes about 2 minutes to read aloud.
  • Use the Read it big button (or B) to put the text on the projector, and Show answer on one question at a time so the class commits to an answer first.
  • Question 5 asks the reader to infer. Ask students to point to the words in the passage that led them to their answer.
  • Ask students to write one question the passage did not answer, then look for the answer in a book or on a classroom screen.
  • Print the student copy for independent work and keep the answer-key copy for yourself.

Related

Questions

What reading level is "Twenty-Four Pictures to Make One Second Move"?

It was written for 7th grade. It has 245 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 8.6. That is a formula's estimate from sentence length and syllables, and it is not a Lexile or a guided reading level, so check it against your students.

What do the questions ask?

There are six. 4 ask for something the text says directly and 2 ask the reader to work something out from clues. Each has an answer in the key, and the answers are written as a teacher would accept them, not as the only possible wording.

How long does it take to read?

About 2 minutes read aloud at 100 words a minute. For a one-minute fluency check, paste it into the fluency timer and use the word count.

Can I print it?

Yes. Print student copy gives the passage, the questions with lines to write on, and the word meanings. Print with answers gives the same page with the answers filled in. Both are made in your browser.

Is this passage from a published book?

No. It was written for Peabody Teach, so there is no book to buy and no login to read it.

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