Ever find yourself at a loss on how to fill up a few hours with a kid? If you’re a parent, the answer is “OF COURSE I DO.”

Some days, the clock laughs because it’s only 1:00pm and we’ve been to the playground, we’ve eaten lunch, we’ve played with Legos, and OMG now what?!

Over the past seven years, I’ve had a lot of those “now what?” moments.

Enter stop-animation videos. I’m far from expert at video editing, picture taking, or anything crafty, really, but this was fun. Tucker and I were contacted asking whether we’d like to participate in the Goldfish Smiles  challenge: Create a stop-animation film using Goldfish crackers (Pepperidge Farm).

(THIS BLOG POST IS SPONSORED BY GOLDFISH/PEPPERIDGE FARM but all words and the video we made are my own)

We didn’t hesitate to say yes, because we LOVE Goldfish. They’re tasty, they don’t have artificial flavors or preservatives, and hey – they smile at you. What food smiles at you? Goldfish!

Having Fun Making a Stop-Animation Movie

Making a stop-animation video was both easier and more difficult than I’d realized. The hardest part is probably finding a way to keep your phone or iPad in place while you move the objects around the scene.

We had a few stop-animation fails, where I realized that the angle of the photo was changing each time, but finally, I rigged up a business card holder to the table for the 3D scenes, and used a file holder for the final one looking down.

Also, we moved the dining room table to the wall to create our scenes, and then, um, wait, where to have dinner?

We figured it out but wow, did Tucker laugh when he saw me eating breakfast at his baby table the next day!

Tucker and I took about 600 photos, but cut them down and the final film has 254 frames. I edited it in iMovie, and added two “holds,” some music, voice-overs and fading between scenes.

We wanted to make a movie about inclusion and kindness, and trust me – the movie in my head was MUCH better than the one we ended up submitting, but, like I said, we had FUN, and bonded over moving (and eating) tiny crackers around for an entire Sunday afternoon.

I think we lost some of the details in the speed… things like that the greens and reds and oranges and yellows were playing separately:

Here’s our official description:

Using multi-colored Goldfish, we find peace in unity. The movie starts out where the orange, green, red, and yellow fish are all playing separately. The orange fish over by the rock kicks his ball near the red and green fish. All of the fish see them migrating toward the ball and take a look. A visitor from outer-space descends to remind them they’re all the same on the inside.

So they migrate to form PEACE, and then are eaten by a seven-year-old who declares that they all taste the same: delicious!

The theme was easier to figure out when the video was longer, but the contest mandates that entries are less than 60-seconds, so here’s what we ended up with. Tell us what you think?

I know we’ll make more stop-animation movies in the future because what a fun way to spend an afternoon, so tips, tricks, and feedback is welcome!