How to Make a Claymation - Tayla

First, start with gathering all the materials below.
Time To Do Task:
5-10 minutes

Materials Needed:

• Different colours of clay, 1 block of blue, 1 block of black, 1 block of white, 1 block of yellow and 1 block of purple
• 1 Camera
• A2 Green paper
• Storyboard(s)
• 1 Laptop
• Clay tools
• Sand

You need to set up to get ready for filming. Start by setting up the green screen by sticking a piece of green paper as the background. This will create a background that will enable you to change and edit the background once you finish recording.

Time To Do Task:
Around 5 minutes

Materials Needed:

• Green piece of paper
• Steady and smooth surface

Next, set up your camera by placing a block of clay on a steady surface so that there is space between the green screen and the block of clay, put your camera on top of the piece of clay so it is on a steady surface. This space will be used for the setting of your claymation.

Creating the Green Screen
Creating your own green is very simple. All you need to do is to take the large A2 green piece of paper and stick it to the wall where the camera is facing. Make sure that there is no other colours (other than the green paper) or wall showing through the cameras eye. NOTE: When creating this green screen, you will not be able to use the colour green when making your claymation. For an example, your characters can't be green, otherwise they won't show up on the green screen.

Time To Do Task:
15 minutes

Materials Needed:

• Tripod
• Camera
• Smooth surface
• Large A2 green paper

This step will take a longer period of time. You will be creating all your designated characters that you will include within the claymation. You can start by using the clay to create your characters. Be sure to shape the characters sharply and include small designs.

Time To Do Task:
Up to an hour and a half

Materials Needed:

• Clay
• Clay tools
• Storyboard (Optional-for knowing the appearance of the characters)

When creating your claymation, you need to be careful that you DO NOT MOVE THE CAMERA. This is a critical step because if the camera is moving, the claymation will not look professional.

Time To Do Task:
Up to an hour and a half

1. Set up your characters for your first shot.
2. Place the characters between the green screen and the camera, and get ready to shoot the picture.
3. Make sure your hands aren't in the picture, and once you and your characters are ready, take a picture of the set up scene.
4. Keep the camera in the same spot, and adjust your characters for your next shot.
5. Be sure to only adjust the scene by around 1-2cm. This is so there isn't a large increase in your movement of the claymation
6. You will end up with hundreds of pictures because there are around 10 frames per second

Materials:

• Made characters
• Camera
• Tripod
• Homemade green screen

This step could be complicated, so follow the steps as precisely as possible.

Time To Do Task:
Up to 20 minutes

Materials:

• Computer
• Camera (memory card)

1. Once you have finished taking all your pictures, clean up the station you were at
2. Now, take the memory card out of the camera, and put it inside your computer (transporting the pictures you took onto your computer)
3. Export the pictures onto your computer, and then upload them onto iMovie
4. Once your pictures are on iMovie, you need to start editing the pictures to make them into an animation
5. Select all your pictures (you can do this by pressing CMD, A)
6. While all the pictures are selected, hover over an image and a small blue sign will appear on the bottom left of the picture
7. Click this sign, and then press Clip Adjustments
8. Change the duration to 0.1 seconds. This is so the pictures go very fast to create the animation
9. You now need to change the aspect of the picture. We do this by selecting all the images again, and pressing "Cropping, Ken burns and Rotation", then press "Fit" on the larger screen on the right. This will allow the images to stay still when playing the animation