How to Make a Claymation Movie

Notes: You cannot do this unless you have a quickcam, PC with USB ports, windows movie maker, stop motion pro v5.0, and some empty space. This is all my own words. Tyler Higgins taught this to me in an animation class.

1. Open Stop Motion Pro v5.o and plug the quickcam in. Once you have added a title and other movie settings, continue.

2. Click live.

3. Pose your clay figures, backdrops, and props according to how you like.

4. Click the button that looks like a camera.

5. Move the figures and props just slightly.

6. Go back to step 4 until your movie is finished.

7. Click File and then Make Movie.

8.Open Windows Movie Maker and find the file that you saved your movie in.

9. Select your movie and drag it onto the film strip. Sometimes it will be divided into scenes, depending on the length of the film.

10. Add titles, credits(you can change the type of titles/credits and/or the color of the background or text), transitions, and soundtrack.

11. Get a projector and projecting screen, kick back, make some popcorn, and enjoy your cinema movie!

Questions about Claymation

This is all my own words.

• Who invented claymation?
• Who turned the idea down?
• Did Gumby and Pokey bring it back?
• What percentage of the people have seen more than one Gumby and Pokey episode?
• How many studios are there?
• Out of 100 claymation movies, how many fail?
• Out of 100 people, how many prefer claymation to regular, filmed movies?
• Is there an unknown, twelfth step in making claymation movies?
• How are plasticine and claymation alike and different?
• Which is harder, plasticine or claymation?
• Who decided that it was better to make characters out of clay rather than plasticine?
• How long is the average claymation movie?
• On average, which is longer, claymation or plasticine movies?
• Is plasticine still a used technique?
• What is the ratio of claymation to plasticine movies today?

History of Claymation

These are my own words and the sources of this information are: http://rijasy0.tripod.com/id1.html, http://www.gumbyworld.com/memorylane/histpok.htm   and: http://www.pwc.k12.nf.ca/projects/claymation/historyofclaymation.html

Most people can remember the first claymation film they saw. However, most living people hadn't even been alive when claymation was invented, let alone remember the first claymation film.

Claymation dates back to 1897, when the messy art of plasticine was invented. It might not have been practical, but it was claymation. Claymation was unpopular for its first 50 years. Things got easier when Art Clokey started producing ads with characters made out of clay. Later in his life, he invented the famous Gumby and Pokey television show. They met in the third episode when, at a train station, Pokey's hoof got caught in the switch mechanism. Gumby pulled the handle and Pokey was free just as the train was about to go through.

In 1989, Nick Park invented Wallace and Gromit. These are the most modern examples of claymation and what most children have in the claymation movie bin. My favorite scene is in the short film The Wrong Trousers, it is the train scene.

In the 1980s the Pygos group created Pingu, the friendly penguin. Pingu is a show for toddlers with short claymation films, each having an educational moral. Pingu meets friends and plays with them to give preschoolers an idea of how to react in every situation they show. Credit to the Pygos group for inventing the language, "penguin".

Claymation falls into the category of stop-motion animation. This requires a slight difference in each frame, and it combines to make smooth movements and actions. If you have the right PC hardware, then you can make your own claymation film.