CLAY ANIMATION TIPS & TRICKS
Hello! I've been animating for a few years on commercials, tv shows, etc. and I've been working on this little page for anyone who is confused or unsure about starting a claymation/stop-mo project. I hope it helps.
CLAY
Clay is a tricky material to animate with. It can be messy and frustrating, but if you know what you're doing it can be super fun and rewarding.
What's the best clay to use for animation?
My favorite clay for animation is Newplast. It holds up well under hot lights, the colors don't run, and it's simply easy to work with. The only drawback I've discovered it that some colors don't age well and will get hard and crumble. That happened to a few colors that I hadn't used for a couple of years. Unfortunately, Newplast isn't sold in the United States so shipping is pretty expensive.
I've used Sculpey III for a lot of my personal projects. It might seem strange because it's known for being a baked clay, but it's wonderful to animate in it's soft form. It's easy to sculpt, it's lightweight, the colors don't run, and it doesn't harden or get too soft under hot lights. However, I've discovered that Sculpey will eat through some surfaces if it's left sitting for a while, so it's a good idea to do some tests or find ways to protect your sets from making direct contact with the clay.
UPDATE 02/2024: Newplast has gone out of business. I've been using JOVI and NARA clays recently and they seem to hold up pretty well. No weird problems so far, except Jovi smells funny. Magical Cat is made of Jovi clay, for reference.
My last choice is Van Aken clay which is sold at most art shops and is sort of a go-to for most claymation projects. Van Aken has vibrant colors and can be melted down for mixing custom colors, but that also means it gets very soft if it's under hot lights for too long and the colors rub off easily, so cleaning your fingers between frames is a must. Sometimes it gets so soft that it feels like animating gum and then it's necessary to put the puppet in the freezer or turn off the lights to let it cool off. Some animators mix their own batches of clay with secret ingredients, but I always use the clays straight out of the package. I like the look of fingerprints in the clay and I expect to re-sculpt the clay during animation. If you bend your puppet's arm and the clay separates at the elbow, just re-sculpt it. That's why I love claymation, I can sculpt my puppet into whatever shape I want and the repairs- although more frequent than silicone or foam puppets- are pretty easy.
I've used Sculpey III for a lot of my personal projects. It might seem strange because it's known for being a baked clay, but it's wonderful to animate in it's soft form. It's easy to sculpt, it's lightweight, the colors don't run, and it doesn't harden or get too soft under hot lights. However, I've discovered that Sculpey will eat through some surfaces if it's left sitting for a while, so it's a good idea to do some tests or find ways to protect your sets from making direct contact with the clay.
UPDATE 02/2024: Newplast has gone out of business. I've been using JOVI and NARA clays recently and they seem to hold up pretty well. No weird problems so far, except Jovi smells funny. Magical Cat is made of Jovi clay, for reference.
My last choice is Van Aken clay which is sold at most art shops and is sort of a go-to for most claymation projects. Van Aken has vibrant colors and can be melted down for mixing custom colors, but that also means it gets very soft if it's under hot lights for too long and the colors rub off easily, so cleaning your fingers between frames is a must. Sometimes it gets so soft that it feels like animating gum and then it's necessary to put the puppet in the freezer or turn off the lights to let it cool off. Some animators mix their own batches of clay with secret ingredients, but I always use the clays straight out of the package. I like the look of fingerprints in the clay and I expect to re-sculpt the clay during animation. If you bend your puppet's arm and the clay separates at the elbow, just re-sculpt it. That's why I love claymation, I can sculpt my puppet into whatever shape I want and the repairs- although more frequent than silicone or foam puppets- are pretty easy.
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Other clay tips
- Keep a pack of baby wipes nearby to clean off your fingers between frames.
- Metal wax sculpting tools are my favorite for sculpting and animating clay.
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PUPPETS
For the most part, I keep things very low-budget and I don't do much molding and casting. I mostly use clay, aluminum wire, hot glue, aluminum foil, pro-poxy, and brass stock. Good clay animation doesn't necessarily require fancy armatures or expensive materials because the clay itself can do most of the work. Below you'll see images of my puppet builds and materials. I do my best to keep my puppets lightweight, which is difficult with clay! I do this by using lightweight materials to fill larges sections. The large white pieces you see below are made from Sculpey Ultralight which can be baked hard onto the aluminum wire. The last image of the armature next to the cutout has black pieces which are a material called Plastezote (recommended to me by animator Tim Allen).
GENERAL STOP MOTION INFO
Here, I'll list some helpful information about various stop motion animation things you should know before you start animating.
Setup
There are 2 main things you want to control while shooting stop motion: lighting & movement.
Controlling Lighting
You want complete control over your lighting, otherwise your lighting will unintentionally change and flicker throughout your animation as sunlight shifts and other lights in your home are turned on and off. Block all light coming from the sun, other rooms, lights that aren't a part of your scene, etc. Also, consider wearing only dark colored clothing while animating. A white t-shirt will act as a "bounce card" and reflect light back onto your scene.
Controlling Movement
While animating, you only want to move the things that you intend to move. This means that everything in your scene that isn't supposed to move should be locked down in some way. A common tool in stop motion in stop motion is the hot glue gun. Glue your camera tripod to the floor, glue your set pieces, lighting hardware, etc. because you WILL nudge things with your elbows and hands as you reach in and out of your scene
SOFTWARE
Dragonframe is the best program for stop-motion. All the studios use it and it's pretty inexpensive. But there are other options like Stop Motion Pro and MonkeyJam.
FRAME RATES
Most claymation and stop-motion animation is done at 24 fps or 30fps on "twos", although feature films are usually animated at 24 fps on "ones" or "singles". There are also some animations shot at 30 fps on "ones". Here are some examples:
Shaun the Sheep - 24 fps on twos
Robot Chicken - 30fps on twos
ParaNorman - 24 fps on ones
Shaun the Sheep - 24 fps on twos
Robot Chicken - 30fps on twos
ParaNorman - 24 fps on ones
What does animating on "ones" and "twos" mean?
Shooting on ones means that the animator moves the object he/she is animating every time a picture or frame is taken. The result is super smooth animation, but it takes forever. Shooting on twos means that the animator moves the object he/she is animating and then takes two pictures or frames. It looks fine and it takes less time to animate.
It might seem like it makes more sense to just animate at 12 fps or 15 fps and that shooting two pictures of the same frame is a waste of time and space, but there are a few reasons why shooting on twos is a good idea. First, some animators like to use ones for certain elements and actions even if the rest of the project is on twos. For example, if an animator animates a character walking down a street on twos and a car drives by quickly in the same shot, the animator will want that car to be animated on ones, otherwise it wont look right as it passes the screen. That means the animator would move the puppet and move the car, take a frame, then move the car again without moving the puppet and take another frame. If the animator were shooting at 12 fps or 15 fps, animating the car on ones wouldn't be an option. Ones also help if there is a camera move. Another reason is that there will be an extra frame in case one of the frames get screwed up (computer/camera error, animator standing in front of the light, bug flying around on your stage, etc.).
It might seem like it makes more sense to just animate at 12 fps or 15 fps and that shooting two pictures of the same frame is a waste of time and space, but there are a few reasons why shooting on twos is a good idea. First, some animators like to use ones for certain elements and actions even if the rest of the project is on twos. For example, if an animator animates a character walking down a street on twos and a car drives by quickly in the same shot, the animator will want that car to be animated on ones, otherwise it wont look right as it passes the screen. That means the animator would move the puppet and move the car, take a frame, then move the car again without moving the puppet and take another frame. If the animator were shooting at 12 fps or 15 fps, animating the car on ones wouldn't be an option. Ones also help if there is a camera move. Another reason is that there will be an extra frame in case one of the frames get screwed up (computer/camera error, animator standing in front of the light, bug flying around on your stage, etc.).
Which frame rate is best?
That's up to you... Some people prefer super smooth animation, others like the look of the lower frame rates. I've animated at all different frame rates and found that I prefer the lower ones (24 or 30 fps on twos) for a few reasons. First, they are the most common frame rates used in professional animation projects. Second, they take less time to animate, especially when animating clay. Lastly, I just like the way the lower frame rates look. It might be wise to mess around with some practice animations at different frame rates in order to see which works best for your animation. The following clips are examples that I animated at different frame rates.
24fps on twos:
24fps on ones:
30fps on twos:
RESOURCES
Hello StopMo is an intro to stop motion podcast created by Alexis Deprey (my wife!) and industry professional Casey Follen.
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Animation Wild Card is a collection of animation artists compiling a light-hearted collection of short-shorts into episodes, while also strengthening the connection and collaboration of the animation community.
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BooksThe Animator's Survival Kit
Creating 3-D Animation Chicken Run: Hatching the Movie Shot by Shot |
Websites |