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How to Create Clay Animation in Five Easy Steps

Clay animation is a form of 3-D stop-motion animation. It uses the same frame-by-frame shooting process as 2-D animation, but with clay figures instead of drawings. This simple form of animation, which was used to create works like “Gumby” and the “Wallace and Gromit" films, relies on your creativity and imagination. You can create realistic looking people and animals or fun, colorful caricatures; it all depends on your sculpting ability. The clay animation process can be summed up in a few simple steps.

Things You'll Need

  • Modeling clay
  • Video camera
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Instructions

    • 1

      Sculpt your characters, set pieces and other objects out of your clay. Use different colors of clay for the different parts of the character; for example, make a character with a blue body, red nose, white eyes and yellow mouth.

    • 2

      Place the clay figures in front of your camera, setting up your scene. Look through the camera’s viewfinder to confirm everything is within the lens’s view.

    • 3

      Click the camera’s "Record" button once and then quickly click it again to record only one frame. A single second of animation normally takes 24 frames.

    • 4

      Move and adjust the positions of your clay figures slightly to simulate movement. Move a character’s arm or leg slightly in the direction it’s supposed to move. Reposition any other objects that are supposed to move by a centimeter or less.

    • 5

      Repeat the process of shooting a frame and moving the clay objects slightly. You will create movement and action on camera through this gradual process.

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