How to Do Flip O Rama
Commonly known as two-frame flip book style animation, Flip O Rama is one of the most loved activities among children. David Pilkey, the famous illustrator gave the concept of Flip O Rama in his famous series, Captain Underpants. Although Pilkey referred to this technique of his as a cheesy animation technique, that didn’t take out fun out of it. Children love this activity and it is considered one of the most practiced activities among children these days.
The most amazing thing about Flip O Rama is that all you need is tracing paper and soft-lead pencil or a pen.
Instructions
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1
Plan your animation. You need to plan your animation before starting the procedure. Keep this in mind that you have to keep things simple since it is a children activity animation. Keep your animation limited to one or two actions at most. For example, you can choose a swinging bat or pants falling or waving.
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2
Now take a paper sheet and fold it in half. It would be better if you use tracing paper but there are no hard and fast rules regarding that and you can also use lightweight photocopy paper. The folded up paper is right in front of you with top fold being the page one while page two is the inside fold.
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3
Now, once again flatten the paper and on the inside panel, draw the final frame. You will be able to trace the first frame using this trace. If you want to make the drawing darker, use a softer lead to do that and do not apply do much force. There is another way to make your drawing darker. You can use an ink pen to make drawing even darker but it is not a recommended method.
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4
When you draw it, tape the fold rather loosely over the inside fold. This will allow the frame to secure the other frame and it won’t slip in this case. Now, you can draw the elements that are bound to change in their finished position. Then from the lower frame, trace the remaining elements step by step.
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5
After you are done with tracing, flip the top fold. Flip it back and forth and you will notice that your Flip O Rama will move and forth as well. You need to keep a mental note that the smoothness of Flip O Rama depends on the way you flip and the faster you flip, smoother it will be.
