How do you make a ClayMation video?!

Question

if you don't know what claymation is read this and you'll understand: A form of stop-motion animation that uses actual clay figures which are molded into different positions for each frame. See stop-motion animation, anyway how do you make a claymation movie?! i know how to take the pictures but how do u put them altogether into a movie?!? Thanks everyone!

-Sunnydot12

Answer 1

windows movie maker. you can import mass photos at a time and put them into frames that will play

Answer 2

http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Stop-Mot...

=^_^=

Answer 3

Plasticine is preferred over actual clay, as it's a type of modelling clay specifically designed not to dry out easily. As such, if you do use lights while you're shooting the heat won't dry out your figures (although they will become soft and limp, that's normal with any putty). Don't use Play-do, it becomes too brittle too quickly.

Usually art stores sell cheap bricks of plasticine, along with higher end stuff, like Van Aken and Roma Plastelina. The cheap stuff will do fine if you just want to experiment and make your own films. I've found the cheaper bricks to be fine for stop motion animation. Van Aken is very soft, too soft I found. It's definitely too soft if you don't want to use armatures. (wire skeleton inside your character.)

Don't use windows movie Maker to actually shoot or compile your animation together. You should use a program specifically designed for stop-motion animation purposes to actually compile your movie, then edit your larger clips afterwards in a video editing program like Windows Movie Maker. An animation program will make it easier to arrange, re-arrange, add and delete single frames. Typically, playing around with multiple single frames is kind of difficult and bothersome in video editors since they weren't designed with frame by frame animation as a primary function in mind.

If you have a webcam or camcorder, you can plug them into your computer be either USB or firewire and use them with a stop motion program which can take the pictures for you, automatically put them on a timeline, give you onion skinning (see ghost images of previous and future frames), export your images as a movie, and other features that make it easier to shoot stop motion. If you have a digital camera, you won't be able to get a live video feed, but you can still import the images you've taken into a stop motion program and it can turn the images into a movie for you.

To actually frame-grab and compile the movie, I'd suggest using Monkeyjam if you're on a PC. It's free.

http://www.giantscreamingrobotmonkeys.co...

AnimatorDV: Simple+ became freeware.

http://www.animatordv.com/download7

If you're on a Mac, you could try Framethief or FramebyFrame.

http://www.framethief.com/

http://web.mac.com/philipp.brendel/Softw...

You can also check out this website for other stop motion animation programs; some free, some retail. I haven't used any of them (other than Stop Motion Pro) so I couldn't tell you if the rest of their features were any good or not, but at least it gives you other options.

http://www.stopmotionworks.com/stopmosof...

For any specific questions, you should check out stopmotionanimation.com

It's a message board filled with stop motion animators helping eachother out. They even have a handbook section that has basic answers and info on a variety of stop motion topics (armatures, sets, cameras, etc)

http://www.stopmotionanimation.com/handb...

The Tutorials on AnimateClay.com are also really good.

http://www.animateclay.com/index.php?nam...

Here are some online resources about the basic principles of animation. These principles can and should be applied to any genre or medium you choose to work in, whether that be drawn, CGI, or stop motion animation.

http://www.idleworm.com/how/index.shtml

http://www.awn.com/tooninstitute/lessonp...

http://www.animationarena.com/principles...

http://w ww.animationmeat.com/notes/notes.html

If you need more help or info, let me know.

Answer 4

yeah..u have to take the picture of the clay motion by motion...

Answer 5

Depending on your OS, you can use iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, Power Point, or Keynote.

Instead of video frames or slides, add the pictures one at a time.

Then voice over dialoge or add music.It's a lot of fun!