Sam Shorr and Willy DeConto are the two brains behind Gif-o-Graf, a device for making short stop-motion animations. I met with Sam and Willy at their studio/workshop in downtown Pawtucket and before I could even ask a question, Sam wanted me to try out the machine.
Shorr: So this is the Gif-O-Graf. It’s basically a stop motion animation machine that uses cut paper as its medium. Have you ever made an animation before?
James Baumgartner: No.
Shorr: Okay, do you know what stop motion is?
Baumgartner: Yeah.
Shorr: Okay, so we chose this form really because it’s the simplest…
NARR: The Gif-O-Graf is a sleek black metal device, with three panels in a squared off C-shape about the size of a laptop. It has a stage where you move your paper around to animate it and a screen where you can review your work. Sam showed me how to put paper on the stage and take a picture. Then I moved the paper a little and took another picture. I repeated the process a few more times.
Shorr: And you just hit save and then that sends it up via the WiFi and then you can download it on your phone.
NARR: A QR code popped up on the screen, I aimed my phone at it, and just like that, I had a little 5 second animation on my phone. The whole process was simple and intuitive and took about 2 minutes.
Neil Letendre: Any level of student at any grade level could get on a Gif-o-graf.
NARR: That’s Neil Letendre, a STEAM teacher at Winters Elementary School in Pawtucket.
Neil Letendre: And like you said, within minutes create, you know, it’s a very simple learning curve, very few buttons, you know, not a lot to not to learn.
NARR: Sam and Willy are leading an after-school program in Letendre’s classroom. He has 4 Gif-o-grafs and his students use them for group projects in his class to combine art and science. Today, each machine has 3 students using it together to make a short animation.
Neil Letendre: I love that it brings out so much creativity from the students. Students that you wouldn’t necessarily think had that in them. They get on those machines and the ideas just burst out of them.
NARR: The simplicity of the machine has a lot to do with unlocking that creativity. There are just five buttons and a knob, and I only used two of the buttons when I made my animation.
NARR: Maria SanMartino-Clinton is the principal at Winters Elementary. She dropped by the class to talk to me even though she had lost her voice the previous day.
Maria SanMartino-Clinton: The level of engagement is amazing. When you see the kids working collaboratively together in groups, sharing ideas, they’re engaged and they just, they love to hear from one another to get more ideas and expand upon what they’ve already started on.
NARR: The Gif-O-Graf is the result of a collaboration that goes back to middle school. Sam Shorr and Willy DeConto grew up in the North Shore suburbs of Boston. They became friends in art class. Here’s Willy:
Willy DeConto: Making things like, I remember like learning how to make stencils was like a really, you know, monumental thing. And then after the stencils, screen printing, and then the screen printing.
NARR: They had a screen printing business together for a while. It didn’t work out but they did learn from it.
DeConto: We were into doing the screen printing and the process and the art making, but then through making it into a business, then we had to expand and learn new tools, like photography or doing web design or digital design. So it all sort of like, built off of that.
NARR: They also gained an appreciation for building a physical product and bringing it into the world. In 2020, Willy was working in product design for a company in Boston. When COVID hit, Willy’s flexible schedule meant he could work out of a studio space he shared with Sam.
DeConto: I’d be working in PowerPoint or something and Sam would be like making animations. So I sort of got sucked into it.
Baumgartner: Did it look like more fun?
DeConto: Yeah. I mean, I can’t, you know, I don’t want to say it wasn’t fun when I was doing, but yeah, definitely. I think making animations looks super fun, which was one bit. And then. The opportunity to be like making a tool versus just making something with a tool was like, yeah, you know, super enticing.
NARR: They went through a few prototypes and worked with a display manufacturer and a software designer, finally creating the sturdy, simple machine you can see today. The components come from a few different places, but the final assembly takes place in their Pawtucket workshop. The physicality of the Gif-O-Graf is a big part of its appeal. But the curriculum is just as important, Sam says.
Shorr: Being able to transform the classroom, any classroom, Is a really powerful thing, you know So you literally turn the lights off, you bring Gif-O-Graf in, you put on some music put on a video and now all of a sudden it’s like a movie making studio. It’s like a very powerful thing to be able to take a piece of equipment or an intention and transform a space.
NARR: They initially thought they might get schools to use the Gif-O-Graf for after-school programs, but now they see teachers using it for many different lessons.
Shorr: And I think now that we’re 100 percent going for like, this should be part of your curriculum. And unless, our curriculum too is not trying to say like, we’re going to increase your math standards, you know. we’re really trying to say like, you’re in math class and you need ways to get your kids engaged. You need kids to have fun. They need to work together. This is a visualization tool that you can now integrate into your flow, and have something that gets the kids energized.
NARR: And the kids at Winters Elementary in Pawtucket were certainly energized. In the class I visited, the students used a madlib to write a 5-sentence story about going to the beach. They made a quick storyboard and then they were cutting out paper to make their animations. It’s like a glue-stick and construction paper project brought to life. Willy and Sam anticipated only getting through the first two steps, but the kids worked faster than they’d thought.
Shorr: We didn’t even think they were going to animate today. That was our plan. So, I think that’s something that you see with Gif-O-Graf. Especially because they’re working in a group. Like Adam, he doesn’t really make much of the artwork. But then he’s a great animator and he’s waiting to make sure he gets to animate. So I think they separate their jobs and they know they can share the responsibility.
NARR: Adam, a 4th-grader, describes it this way:
Adam: I usually make stuff bounce and make it go fast. And when I first started it looked like, it looked very weird. But now my editing looks a lot smoother than it was before. I like challenging myself. Because it just feels like something new and it feels like a challenge. And once I complete that challenge, I feel great.
NARR: Winters Elementary plans to buy 4 more Gif-O-Grafs for the next school year so more students can use the machines. There are Gif-O-Grafs in public libraries in Providence, Pawtucket and Cambridge that anyone can use. Sam Shorr and Willy DeConto are working with artists and teachers to expand the curriculum. They hope to make 60 machines this year and Sam says they have big dreams for the future.
Shorr: Our goal is every school and library in the country. I think we, it just from like an idea that like this could fit anywhere. and we really feel that it’s important and we’re excited about it. And we, and the feedback we get from certainly from kids and from teachers is that it’s a valuable thing. And so we want to, you know, from a mission, put it in as many places we can.
NARR: Sam Says it’s not easy these days to get kids off their phones and using their hands. But he hopes the Gif-O-Graf can help teachers bridge that gap.
