Claymation
First decide on an idea to animate. It’s best to keep it short and narrow it down to one main idea. You can get inspiration from just about anywhere. Your finished animation should be at least 10 seconds (about 300 pictures).
Develop a Storyboard. Before you break out the clay, you will first need to PLAN, PLAN, PLAN. This step can’t be emphasized enough. The more you plan, the fewer problems you will have as you shoot your frames. Hopefully, any difficulties will be worked out in the storyboard. Keep in mind the animation process. Remember that motion will need to be in very small steps. Characters can’t go from a sitting position to a standing position in one frame.
Background or set construction can use just about anything, Don’t spend so much time on the background that it distracts from the characters (unless your background is part of your storyline, of course). Toys, fabric, paper, small rocks, leaves, doll furniture or carpet squares can be used to create different effects for the characters to interact with.
To create the character(s): Popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, or wire can be use to create an armature for your characters. An armature is a skeleton underneath the clay. This allows you to bend and move your clay figure without the clay falling apart and it helps it stand up and make fluid movements.
To shoot: Plan on filming your animation in one day. If your storyboard is thoroughly planned, you should be able to shoot in one day with no problem.
If you do not shoot in one day you cannot count on your set and characters not being moved and it will help if your frames are in numerical order. Also, put your camera on a tripod or tape it down so the only movement is the character(s). It is imperative that you set your camera to shoot frames at 640 x 480 pixels so everything fits on one memory card.
It will take about 30 frames per second and very small movements to make a smooth animation. This is the time consuming, but fun part of the process. Take a picture, move the clay figure, take a picture, move the figure, etc. You can check your progress by hitting play, scrolling back to the beginning and then holding the right side of the dial. This is a very choppy, crude version, but you can see what you have done. It will become smoother when you actually make the movie.
Save all your images in one folder, in order, so they can all be imported together.
To add a sound track from a Youtube video: Go to
http://convert2mp3.net/en/
and copy the URL of the video of your song you want to use. Tell it to make an MP3 and click download. Tell it to save the file in your turn in folder or drag it to your folder from the download folder.
Sound effects can be downloaded from:
http://soundbible.com/free-sound-effects-1.html
Claymation Evaluation
Has a focused, coherent story that shows
evidence of planning and development _____/10
Keeps the attention of the audience _____/10
Movements are fluent and smooth _____/15
Minimum 10 seconds long _____/15
Correct exposure and good contrast between the
characters and the background _____/10
Well composed, filled space _____/10
Background/Setting _____/10
Sound Track _____/10
Titles _____/10
Total _____/100
To Create an Animation With your Photos:
Open Monkey Jam from your class folder. Click Run.
File > Import > Images
Choose your images from this menu. Click on the first image. Hold shift and click on the last image to choose everything in between.
Click Add Files.
Click Import
File > Export.avi
Make sure you save to your folder.
Name the file and make sure your keep the “.avi”
If your progress bar stops in the middle or you get a red X, You did not shoot your photos at 640 x 480 and you need to change the size of all of them.
To Resize Your Images in Photoshop:
First, make a new folder to put the resized images in.
File > Scripts > Image Processor
In box #1 click select folder and choose the folder with the original images.
In box #2 Choose the new folder to put the resized images in.
In box #3 choose save as jpeg, quality 5, check resize to fit, 640 x 480.
In box #4 click Run Action
At the top right click ”Run.”
A dialog box will come up and you have to keep clicking continue.
To Create a WeVIdeo Account:
Go to https://goo.gl/3sVAW8
Click on the green button
Sign up with your school google account, logged into Chrome
Click allow
Click the school button on the left
Click k12, I am a student
Exit out
Once you have an account:
Go to Google Drive
Click the blue New Button
Go to More > connect more apps
Choose WeVideo> enter
Click the blue connect button
Create your project first – create new
Name it.
Choose personal or collaborative (invite to join if collaborative).
The program updates live so you cannot work on it at the same time.
To upload images or your animation, click the green button or the green up arrow.