Clay Animation is an obscure yet amazing art form. In the following ten steps, you will learn how to turn a ball of clay into a figure of your choice. Then you will animate the figure and create a short clay animation video of your own. This form of animation is most often called "Stop-motion animation" because that is what it is. You are animating something that can't move.
- Buy plasticine or polymer clay and wire at your local craft store. Any size wire will do. Make sure the clay will not harden when exposed to air. Purchase any color of clay you desire, but also purchase gray clay to use as a base.
- Cut about a three foot piece of wire and bend it in half. Starting at the bent end, twist both strands of the wire together.
- Form the wire into any shape you wish. Form it in the general outline of whatever you are trying to make. Do not include fingers. This shape is called an armature, and it is the frame on which you will mold your clay. This will help support your clay figure when you begin to animate it.
- Start molding a thin layer of gray clay onto the armature or wire frame. The gray clay acts as a neutral base on which you will later mold other colors of clay.
- Create a figurine for clay animation. Begin putting on the other layers of colored clay. For example, if you are creating a person from clay, then you mold different colors of clay onto the figure for things such as the shirt or pants. If you are creating a zebra, you may want to use black and white clay to make stripes.
- Begin animating your figure. Set up a still digital camera at the angle in which you wish to capture the animation. A tripod is essential in this situation. For the animation to flow, it needs to all be captured from the same angle. Without a tripod, it isn't going to work.
- Place the figure on a flat surface. Carefully bend it into a starting position and take a picture of the figure with the camera.
- Move the figure very slightly into the next position, then take another picture. Each picture is called a frame. Film runs at 24 frames per second, and digital video runs at 30. Be very precise while animating your figure. If you move it too much, it will appear to jump in the video. If you remove the figure from the camera's view, it will seem to disappear.
- Continue to move the figure and take pictures until you have completed your desired animation. If you run out of pictures before you have finished, save the pictures to your computer and leave your figurine in the exact same position. Clear the camera and continue shooting.
- Load the pictures onto a computer. Use a photo editing program to speed up each individual picture so that it creates a movie. Watch your creation and show it to whoever you wish.