Revised Winter 2009 Written by R. Humble

MODULE OBJECTIVES 1. Learn how to do . 2. Understand the importance of stop mo- tion video to the industry.

OVERVIEW

This notebook contains seven days of assignments. Each day may have several activities. These activities are to be completed in the order they are placed in the notebook. When you finish one activity, go to the next. However, DO NOT go to the next days activities.

Follow the instructions provided!

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Pioneering this technique was one-time Vinton animator Joan Gratz, first in her Oscar-nominated film The Creation (1980) and then in her Oscar-winning Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase filmed in 1992.

Already 1972 animated André Roche in the Cineplast Films Studio of Marc Chinoy in Munich (Germany) several films for a serie named Kli-Kla-Klawitter for the Second German TV-Channel ZDF, for a German language teaching serie for foreign children and another one for a traffic education serie (Herr Daniel paßt auf = Mr. Daniel cares of).

A variation of this technique was developed by another Vinton animator, , for his series of “Arnold” short films, also made during the 90s, in which he not only used clay painting, but sometimes built up clay images that rose off the plane of the flat support platform, toward the camera lens, to give a more 3-D stop-motion look to his films.

Some of the best-known clay-animated works include the Gumby series of televi- sion show segments created by Art Clokey, and the TV commercial made for the Cali- fornia Raisin Advisory Board by Vinton’s studio. has also been used in Academy-Award-winning short films such as Closed Mondays ( and , 1974), The Sand Castle (1977), (Aardman, 1989), and all three Wallace & Gromit short films, created by Nick Park of Aardman Animation. Aard- man also created The Presentators, a series of one-minute clay-animation short films aired on Nicktoons. Some clay appear online, on such sites as Newgrounds.

Several computer games have also been produced using clay animation, including The Neverhood, Dark Oberon, the Clay Fighter series, Platypus, Claymates, Trog! and the forthcoming Cletus Clay. Television commercials have also utilized the clay anima- tion, such as the Chevron Cars ads, produced by Aardman Studios. Besides commercials, clay animation has also been popularized in recent years by children’s shows such as Bob the Builder and The Koala Brothers, as well as adult-oriented shows on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim lineup, including Robot Chicken (which uses clay animation and action figures as stop-motion puppets in conjunction) and Moral Orel. Many independent young film makers have used clay animation features for internet viewing.

Flushed Away is a CGI replication of clay animation.

3 Preparing for Your Calymation Video

Revised Winter 2009 Written by R. Humble

You will work as a team on this project.

1. First you must come up with the idea of what your video will be about.

2. Spend the rest of the hour brain storming ideas about what will be about.

3. Write down all ideas. No idea is to be left out.

At the end of the hour put your papers in the tray of your hour.

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5 Developing Your Ideas

Revised Winter 2009 Written by R. Humble 1.Choose your 3 best ideas and begin to develop them into a story line.

2. You are not working out all the details yet, just knowing where the story will go.

3. Choose the one idea that works best and get a storyboard form from Mr. Hum- ble.

4. Begin to lay out each scene of your film.

At the end of the hour put your papers in the tray of your hour.

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7 Developing Your Characters Look

Revised Winter 2009 Written by R. Humble 1. Take your story board and begin to fine tune what your character and back- ground will look like.

2. Make drawings of the character and background.

3. The background can be drawn on paper and be suspended to make your back- ground.

4. Spend the hour working on the look of the character and background.

At the end of the hour put your papers in the tray of your hour.

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9 Making Your Character

Revised Winter 2009 Written by R. Humble 1. Get some clay and wire from Mr. Humble.

2. Make the shape of your character using the wire. The wore gives your charac- ter a skeletal structure and makes it movable.

3. Use clay to create the shape and color of the character.

4. If your have not done so yet, draw or create your background.

At the end of the hour put your materials in the cabinet in the wood lab.

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11 The Dry Run

Revised Winter 2009 Written by R. Humble 1. Using your character and background, run through the process of placing your character in front of the background and shaping it into the various positions.

At the end of the hour put your materials in the cabinet in the wood lab.

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