Sample Ebook

ISBN-10: 9298910169 ISBN-13: 978-9298910161 No Part of this electronic book may be reproduced for the inclusion of brief quotation in a review without permission in writing from the author Marc Spess. All content is copyright Marc Spess unless otherwise noted. If you see this e-book for sale on any web sites other than http://www.animateclay.com please contact Marc at [email protected] Cover Art by Marc Spess Partly Edited by Lynda Lotman Visit Our Web Sites: http://www.animateclay.com http://myworld.ebay.com/animateclay

http://www.myspace.com/animateclay http://www.youtube.com/group/animateclay http://www.stopactionanimation.com/ http://www.zombie-pirates.com/

INDEX Foreword by Webster Colcord......4 Introduction......6 Tools, Sculpting Tools, Hand Habits......7 Hand Tricks, Hand Problems, Brush and Oil Tool......8 Using the Brush Tool, Texture Pads, Making Texture Pads......9 Common Sculpting Tools, Modifying Your Tools......12 Pasta Machine Tool, Pin Eye Tool, Hardening Clay Trick......13 Custom Clay Heater, Armature Tools, Wire Cutters, Hack Saw......14 Table Clamp, Drills, Coping Saw, Glue Gun......15, 16 Set Building Tools, Jig Saw, Power Drill, Exacto Knife......17,18 Glue Gun, Hand File......19 Dremel Tool, Clays, Water Based Clay......20 Hardening Clay, Oil Based Clay......21 Creating New Oil Based Clay Colors......22 Double Boilers and Melting Clay......23 Clay Stirring Tool, Thinning Oil Based Clay, Sculpey Flex, Armatures, Wooden Armatures......24 Brass and Lead Wire Armatures......26 Lead Joints, Lead Benefits, Detachable Body Parts......26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 Brass Feet......32 Expert Brass and Lead Wire Armatures......34, 35 Brass and Lead Wire Armature Reference Pictures......36, 37, 38 Brass and Aluminum Joints, Epoxy Time Considerations......39 Aluminum Wire and Epoxy Armatures, Armature Preparations......41 Epoxy Putty, Aluminum Loop Feet......43 Aluminum Wire and Dowel Armatures, Rigid Parts, Connecting Wire Sections......44 Ball and Socket Armatures, Common Joints, Modern B&Socket Process......45 Modern Joints, Plastic Parts, Final Preparations......48, 49, 50 Ball and Socket Parts - Making Your Own......51 Open Hole Ball Joint, Tools Needed......52 Materials......53 Commonly Used Ball Sizes......54 Brazing......54 Solutions to Typical Problems......55 The Pickling Process......56 Double Ball Joint Picture Tutorial......57 Drilling Ball Bearings Picture Tutorial......63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68 Mold Injection Process, Ultra Cal 30 Molds, Final Product......69 Old Traditional Build up Techniques......72 Ball and Socket Feet, Making the Foot, Tie Downs......75, 76, 77 Experimental Armatures, Sculpting Your Character......78 Preparing your Armature for Clay......79 Accessories, Vinton Style Eyes, Animating the Eyes, More Accessories......84 Sculpting the Face, Animating the Mouth......86 Replacement Parts, Sculpting the Hands......88 Recycling Clay, Set Building......91, 92 The Set Floor......94 Set Walls......95 Painting the Walls, Plaster Texturing, Pastel Insulation Foam......97 Texturing Styrofoam......99 The Set Sky......99, 100 A Glowing Moon, Other Backgrounds, Rear Screen Projection......101 Set Building Tips......102 Effects, Water......103, 104 Fire, Smoke......105 Clay Painting Effects, 2-D Characters on Glass......106 Lights, The Lights......107

Barn Doors, Colored Light Gels......108, 109 Lighting the Character, Lighting the Set......110 Hot Spots......113 Light Meters......113 Animation Film Cameras......114 Projection, Digital Photography......116 Motion Control, The track......117 Camera Base......118, 120 The Supporting Legs, Testing the Rig......121 Your Story, Storyboards......123, 124 Animation, Life, Timing, Voice Actors, Sound Effects......124, Exposure Sheets, Surface Gages......127, 130 Video Reference......132 Flying Rigs......135 Your Demo Reel......135, 136 How-To Web Sites, Frame Grabbers and Frame Grabbing software......137, 139 Clay and Armature Supplies......139 Foam Latex Rubber Supplies, Foam Latex Ovens......145 Lighting and Camera Supplies......145 Digital Clay Animation, Editing Programs......147 Digital Cameras......148 Analog Setup......150 Video Lunchbox Verses Computer Frame Grabbing......151 Capture Cards......152 Getting Capture Cards to work with Camcorders......153 Digital Animation Capture Programs, Anasazi......154 Animator DV......156 Frame Thief......157 Adding Effects, Blue/Green Screen, In-Between Software, Motion Blur......159 Setting up a Studio, Equipment and Space......161 Finding Employees......161 Finding workers by Promoting Your Studio......163 Promotional Materials, How to Succeed in Animation, Pitching to TV stations......163 Hiring an Ad Representative, Finding Work using Film Festivals......164 Glossary......165 Foreword

Mad Doctors of Borneo © Webster Colcord All Rights Reserved Marc's book contains the kind of nitty-gritty information I was looking for back in my high school days. In those days I spent most of my time pouring over issues of Starlog, Cinemagic, or the occasional gem like Dick Smith's Monster Make-up Handbook, making crude latex and wire animation puppets and filming them on Regular 8 and Super 8mm film. The effort paid off when, in 1987, at the age of 18, I was hired by Will Vinton Productions to work on the CBS special "A Claymation Christmas Celebration." I was making armatures and sculpting characters and props and I was eager to get some time in front of the camera to do some animation. I realized how valuable my home movie experience had been when I was given the opportunity to animate on the show, which went on to win an Emmy. I worked for the Vinton Studio for several years after that, and then went on to produce my own short films, a string of commercials for Converse shoes, and station I.D.'s for Nickelodeon, CBS, and others. Even now, as a professional animator on "James and the Giant Peach,” "Antz,” and "Monkeybone,” I still find myself using some of the tricks I learned from those early movie making exercises. You never know when that little tidbit of knowledge is going to pay off in a real production situation. Marc's book is a lot of fun and is full of those tricks of the trade that are usually only learned under the apprenticeship of a easoned veteran, or through a lot of painful trial and error.

One thing I would like to emphasiz is that the techniques Marc compiled into a book are just a means to an end. Don't get too bogged down in thinking about how you are going to get an image onto the screen. Ultimately, you need to tackle the practical issues of filmmaking, but it's extremely important that you spend just as much time-hopefully before you get started in production-thinking about what the image is that you want to create and what that image means to you. Perhaps you want to make a scene for a character-driven animated short film like Wallace and Gromit. Perhaps you want to create a fantasy effects sequence in homage of Ray Harryhausen; or perhaps you want to disregard all the rules of characterization, continuity, and staging and create a surreal stream - of - consciousness piece like the work of Bruce Bickford. Most beginning animators want to try their hands at character animation, so it would be a good idea to go over the basic principles of animation. This list is, of course, based on the fundamentals of Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, with a few modifications added that apply to the technique of clay as opposed to cel. Whole books have been written just on the study of motion, so please note that this is very abbreviated and that there are many more principles which could be listed and studied in depth (some animators have identified twentyeight.) As an overview, here are eleven principles: 1. Squash and Stretch-characters should feel like an elastic mass, squashing on impact and stretching on recoil or anticipation. When done in clay animation it's usually a sequence of sculptures (replacement animation). 2. Anticipation - a motion is preceded by a motion in the opposite direction, as in the recoil before hitting a golf ball. 3. Staging-the overall framing of your subject in the scene, and placement of the characters in space to communicate the action from shot to shot. 4. Follow-Through-appendages will have loose and trailing movements; they keep moving after the main body of an object stops. Like a flag flowing in the wind, the parts of the object on the tail end follow the path determined by movement of the leading part. A rag doll has lots of follow - through. 5. Overlapping Action-make sure that all the parts of your character do not arrive at the same pose at the same time. A centipede is an extreme example; each part of the body seems to be moving independently. You don't want your character to feel like an octopus, but you want to feel a looseness in the joints. Also, make sure that most of a character’s parts move at varying speeds. 6. Ease In and Ease Out (also called slow-in and slow-out)-as speed increases, the increments of movement become larger. Usually you anticipate an action, "attack" a movement out of a pose, and then slow out the movement as you work towards a new pose. Objects that impact a surface will not slow down before impact. 7. Arcs (similar to "path of action") - the curve that an object makes as it moves (if you were to draw a line between the increments of the motion). 8. Secondary Actions - little bits of motion that play under the primary animation: the twitch of an ear, a foot tapping, hands rubbing together nervously. Be careful! It's easy to get caught up in noodling these little actions and lose sight of the intent of the scene. You normally want your character to do one action at a time, and each action to have a purpose. Ask yourself: "Does a secondary action contribute to the main idea or confuse it?" 9. Timing Holds-work out how the gestures will play out over time. Learn to use holds and pauses to communicate your ideas. Remember, it is the thought and circumstances behind an

action that will make the action interesting. 10. Exaggeration-amplify the expression in your characters. The entire pose should express a thought and the facial expression should support, not contradict, the body. 11. Solid Posing/Silhouette-your characters should have interesting poses and attitudes. If you were to draw a silhouette of a pose, it should, by itself, communicate the purpose and emotion of the character. Avoid symmetry. There's also a whole list of "gimmicks" like blurring, speed lines or multiple limbs, vibration, and so on. For more on the mechanics and aesthetics of movement, I recommend Timing for Animation by Harold Whitaker and John Halas (published by Focal Press) and How to Draw Cartoon Animation by Preston Blair (from Walter Foster Publishing). No matter what medium you're working in-computer, stop-motion, or cel - it always helps to do rough "thumbnail" sketches of key poses for a shot before you start animating. It helps to study acting as well, as a clay animator is just an actor conveying emotion through a lump of clay. Sounds challenging, doesn't it? ~Webster Colcord Introduction

Mark Twain, from "The Adventures of Mark Twain" © 1986 Will Vinton Studios, Inc., all rights reserved. Animation has fascinated me ever since I was just a kid. The Domino's Pizza Noid was probably the first commercial animation project that caught my attention and filled me with curiosity. How did they make those colorful little guys move? It's a question that everyone asks when they see something inspirational like that before their eyes. This book will attempt to show what happens behind the TV screen and in the studio, where each

person has to do his or her part to make something unique. The Pizza Noid was created through a technique called clay animation, but there is more to it than just clay. It involves many different little tricks of the trades-from hammering a nail to loading film in a camera. This book will show the beginner, and the professional, a few ways in which these animated films and commercials are made.

Klayton by © Josh Jennings All Rights Reserved. Klayton was made completely from Sculpey Flex. Humankind has created thousands of tools for various tasks. When it comes to clay animation, tools can be narrowed down to three categories: sculpting tools, armature tools, and set-building tools. The following paragraphs highlight the best tools for each category. Sculpting Tools

Is there a secret for making good sculptures for animating? Is there a special tool that is used to bring these clay figures to life? Yes, there is a special tool used by clay animators, and all clay animators take very good care of this tool. It's called "hands." Your hands are the best tools for sculpting clay characters. You can pinch, twist, add, subtract, soften, and smooth clay with your hands, but there are a few tricks you should know to prevent problems and mishaps. Dirty hands are the primary problem-maker. If, for example, you are animating a talking man, and you press on his face with a dirty finger, you will get a discolored spot where you least want one. If your hands are really dirty you can ruin a shot, especially if your character's face is made from white clay. Hand Habits The best thing to do when sculpting your character is to make sure you wash your hands before sculpting and before animating. Make sure your tabletop isn't soiled with remains from other projects, such as building your set pieces. The dirt on the table will get on your hands and on your clay. Also, a lot of animators tend to wipe their hands on their jeans, picking up "little blue fuzzies" that can eventually build up all over your character. This is frustrating because it does not take long for your character to become a different color.

Converse Touch EFX, "Comic Book" © 1995 Webster Colcord all rights reserved. When sculpting the hardening clay called Super Sculpey there is one trick I have learned to make this clay as smooth as glass. If you rub the sculpted part with the palm of your hand, you really get a nice sheen. This is mainly helpful when using this clay to sculpt larger pieces because it cuts down on the amount of sanding required.

Thanks for downloading our sample EBook. If you would like to buy the full copy please visit: http://www.animateclay.com If you prefer a printed paper copy you can buy it at our publisher here: http://www.lulu.com/content/818511