Claymation Claymation Claymation Claymation

by Cindy Perdue

Step 1: The Big IdeaDecide on an ecological concept that you

would like to animate. Some ideas are: • Succession• Biological Magnification• Food Chains and Food Webs• Pollution• Global Warming• Recycling• Deforestation• Introduced Species

Step 2: Task Assignment

Decide which team members will do which parts of the assignment.

• Information about the topic• Storyboard• Clay characters• Background• Photography• Animation• PowerPoint Production

Step 3: The Storyboard• Create a visual

outline of both the PowerPoint slides and the Animation Story.

• You can use the template provided by your teacher, index cards, or even sticky notes.

Step 4: Build the Clay Characters

The most time-consuming part of the animation is building the characters.

• Keep characters under 6 inches tall. • Create your characters on a mat or

paper towel, not newspaper. The ink can come off on your clay.

Make a light-weight armature skeleton with styrofoam, pipe cleaners, or foil.

Cover the armature with a thin layer of clay and other materials.

Step 5: Create Backgrounds

• Create a background using calendar pictures, drawings, props or shoe-box dioramas.

Step 6: Take Pictures• Use a tripod or a table to hold the camera

steady.• Set the camera image size to 640 x 480.• Zoom in to the view you would like for the

animation.• Take one picture of the first scene. Be sure that the image records!

• Move the characters slightly and take another picture. You should plan on 2 to 5 frames per second of finished video.

Continue until the entire scene has been photographed. Plan for

10 to 20 photos.

Step 7: Put Animation Together

• Your teacher will help you import the images into VideoBlender and create the video. Be sure to save often.

• If you wish to add sound to your video, you need to have the information in your storyboard.

• Save your work, then export the animation as an AVI File Type to create the finished movie.

Step 8: Create the PowerPoint

• Create your PowerPoint that explains the topic you are presenting.

• The animation will be presented on one slide of your PowerPoint.

• Import the video to your PowerPoint by selecting Insert Movie and Sound.

• When resizing your video, only resize from the corner to keep ratios the same.

The End

Now go get started!