How To Make Claymation

By Staff Writer

Claymation, or clay animation, is the process of making a movie using clay models. It is the art of making clay move, with effects like dancing, singing, jumping, walking, talking, and anything you can think of. There are two ways to make a claymation movie—either by using a digital camera, taking a series of pictures, and collecting them to produce motion, or using stop-motion photography that will produce an animation as well.

These are the steps on how to make claymation:

Prepare first the things that will be needed. A digital camera or a digital video camera, software to put together frames of pictures to make an animation (used for digital camera), blocks of clay, wire cutter, a tripod (or one spool of tape to improvise), two spools of wire (one thick, and one thin).
Prepare a digital camera or a video camera with a remote control. Using a manual click can affect the positioning of the shot.
Prepare the story, the scenes, and the characters. It’s your movie, and your rules. Make use of your creativity, imagination, and passion when making a claymation movie.
Make a model clay character for the movie creation. With the use of a spool of wire create the torso, limbs, and a neck. After creating a skeleton frame for the character, make muscle mass for the character. Cover the torso, limbs, neck and all parts of the body with clay. Make sure that the wire skeleton will be at the center of the muscle mass. This is to prevent the character from ripping out once the character is moved. For the head, mold the clay then push it onto the neck of the wire skeleton.
After creating the character, set-up the digital camera, or a video camera in the tripod. If you don’t have a tripod, try to improvise by taping your camera firmly into place.
Construct a small set. Set up a stage where light can be controlled and which is unreachable by children or pets. The light can affect the background, and children can ruin the project. Even a small bump, dirt, or sunlight could affect the movie making process and ruin a day’s work. Set up the set in a secure place, to prevent accidental alteration. Besides all it takes is a small place, even a cabinet.
Next is to take a picture of each movement of the character, and repeat it as many times as needed. For the video camera, use the “start” and “pause” to capture each movement of the clay. Make a note of every movement that you make to the character, so that once you decide to resume your work the next day, it won’t be that complicated.
The last step is to upload the pictures from the digital camera, and use software that can put together a series of pictures to create a movie. Add background music to make it more appealing.