Stop-Motion Animation of NASA’s Dragonfly in 3D

📖 My Story

1. As a kid, Star Wars lit up my imagination.
2. As an adult I created STEAMation.
3. Today, Creating an activity that bring NASA’s Dragonfly Mission to life for The 2025 NASA Challenge—Galaxy Quest rekindles that same excitement.
4. Now, I get to share it with YOU through STEAMation!

STEAMation is a project-based learning program that uses art and stop motion animation as a base.

The combination of the arts and technical skills have endless possibilities to allow kids to grow, find their passion and create their own path.

🎬 Storytelling & Creativity

Students often find a love for storytelling — inventing characters, plots, and emotions that bring their ideas to life. They learn how powerful imagination can be when it’s shared visually.

🎨 Art & Design

Many discover a passion for art — from sculpting clay figures, drawing backgrounds, or designing miniature sets. It helps them see that creativity and technical skill can work together.

💡 Problem-Solving & Engineering

Stop motion is full of creative challenges: how to make a character “fly,” how to keep props steady, or how to make movements smooth. Students begin to see problem-solving as fun and rewarding.

🤖 Technology & Digital Media

As they take photos, edit frames, and add sound effects, students develop an interest in technology and digital production — possibly sparking a passion for animation, filmmaking, or coding.

🎶 Music & Sound Design

When adding soundtracks or voiceovers, some students discover a love for rhythm, sound effects, or music composition — realizing how audio brings emotion to visual art.

💬 Collaboration & Communication

Working in teams helps students uncover a passion for leadership, teamwork, and expressing their ideas clearly — essential STEAM and life skills.

🧠 Persistence & Reflection

1. Stop motion takes patience. Students often discover a quiet pride in perseverance — learning that great things take time and small details matter.

🛠️ What You’ll Do in This Class

1. Build your own model of NASA’s Dragonfly in Tinkercad
2. Explore science + imagination behind real space missions
3. Learn simple stop-motion techniques
4. Create your very own short film 🎬
5. Code the soundtrack for your short film

✨ Why It’s Special

1. Mix science + art + storytelling
2. Spark curiosity and creativity
3. Experience the thrill of exploration

🚀 Get Ready to Launch!

Grab your materials, bring your imagination, and let’s make something out-of-this-world together! 🌠

1. Tinkercad accounts (free online)
2. Laptops or tablets with internet access
3. Access to a 3D printer (or print through a local makerspace/library)
4. 3D-printed Dragonfly model from Step 2
5. Painting or artistic backdrop of Titan’s surface
6. Or green screen setup with a digital image
7. Stop-motion app (e.g., Stop Motion Studio, iMotion)
8. Tablet or smartphone for filming
9. A tripod or phone/tablet stand.
10. Access to Chandra “Space Jam” coding site (https://chandra.si.edu/sound/code/) for soundtrack creation

Mission Briefing: Introduce NASA’s Dragonfly to the students

page: https://dragonfly.jhuapl.edu/What-Is-Dragonfly/

1.Driving question:

How will NASA’s Dragonfly mission help us learn about space and the universe, and why is Titan an exciting place to explore?

2.Investigation in small groups

3.Research what makes Titan (Saturn’s largest moon) unique and why scientists chose it for the Dragonfly mission.

4.Each group presents their findings , explaining what they learned about Titan and the Dragonfly mission’s goals.

5.Key ideas: Titan has a thick atmosphere and lakes of liquid methane, making it different from Earth. The Dragonfly mission will use a drone to study Titan’s chemistry and search for signs of life, helping us understand more about the building blocks of life in the universe.

6.Exit ticket: What is one thing you learned about Titan or the Dragonfly mission that surprised you, and why do you think exploring other planets is important?

1. Tinkercad
2. After completing the model ask the students to draw whatever they feel like around the Dragonfly, making their own space craft.

Welcome to Stop Motion 101

Start by creating the background for your drone’s path.

I used a green screen to show that you can use almost any images to build your own scene. No need to spend money on a big physical scene — just create it digitally!

My students got creative with two poster boards, acrylic paint, and a little sand to create Titan’s surface. You can see the results in the film attached here!

I love mixing hands-on art with stop motion. It gives students a chance to get messy, experiment, and see their creativity come to life. There’s nothing quite like painting, paper, and imagination to spark creative energy! But the choice is yours.

Whether your backdrop is tangible (like paper and paint ) or digital, you can easily take a picture of it, upload it into a graphic’s design tool to switch backgrounds. For example, Canva has a free background remover that works well.

If you are using a green screen like I am, it is important to keep the lighting consistent. If you are using a physical set, changes in lighting make the scene more realistic.

1. Planning is everything. Be sure to plan out the path of your drone before you start shooting.
2. Storyboard your idea first so you sketch out your idea first.
3. Before taking any pictures, position the camera and firmly anchor it to the table. It is important to keep the camera from moving. Use a tripod or phone/tablet stand.

Turn on your App to start your movie. If you need a stop motion App, there are many options in the App store. There are some that are free.

Watch the videos with instructions attached

For the movie soundtrack, students can add a favorite song, use space-themed onomatopoeia—the language that imitates sounds—or even code their own sounds. A few websites can support this process, but for this project, I used Chandra Space Jam. It provides tutorials and makes it easy for students to code their own song—definitely worth exploring.

1. https://chandra.si.edu/sound/code/
2. The soundtrack you hear on the short film was created using this code, as shown in these pictures.
3. After it was produced, I doubled the speed.
4. You can record the soundtrack on your phone or upload a sound file right on the app.

Huge shoutout to my amazing students who completed this task online! Even though I’m based in Atlanta, GA, I also teach remotely overseas. This group joined the call remotely from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and did a fantastic job!!! Huge congratulations to Agatha, Brayan, Davi Lucas, Davi Luiz, Jeanny, Jhonatan, Larissa, Luiz Felipe, Maria Eduarda, Matheus, Murilo, Thaynna —Way to go! Many thanks to the facilitators Taina and Amanda for their support. Many thanks to Joao for voicing over the videos and Richard to glue the dragonfly together.