Summer Reading Club – Author Blog

Welcome to the last installment of our blog! Here are the last few things you need to think about!

Simplified filming technique – In camera editing

Rather than using the computer, you can just use a video camera (just like we used to do when we first started experimenting with this medium.) This is called in camera editing. Now this may sound technical but it is super easy! All you have to do is press record and then stop. Move your character a little then press record and then stop again. And do it over, and over, and over again… With this method it is helpful to have a larger monitor eg. a TV which you connect to the camera with an RCA cable. It’s hard to see the detail on a little LCD monitor on the camera and you can make mistakes which are almost impossible to fix later unless you do further editing on a computer. You get  a good result with this technique and it is quick and easy and very affordable because if you don’t have a video camera your school or a friend may be able to lend you one.

Slide show

Other options to explore if you are trying to keep things basic are to try capturing a series of shots on a digital still camera or even a mobile phone and then watch them back as a slideshow. You can experiment with programs such as Picture Viewer, Power Point, iPhoto etc.

Continuity

This is important. You must maintain consistent object placement. It looks particularly silly if you pick up a character to do some running repairs and then put it back in a different place. Worse still is if you leave a clay tool in the shot for example a knife that you have used to deconstruct the character!

Framing the action and staging the action

Before you begin filming make sure that you consider the framing of your animation. Your frame should not be too tight or too wide. You need to be able to see the detail but the characters need enough space to be able to complete the action that you have outlined in your storyboard.  Below is an example of good framing from an animation that we created for the World Shakespeare Congress 2008. The framing is tight enough that we can see the action but some space at the top, bottom and either side of the frame.  

Also, it is worth noting that we always have a practice run before hand and move the characters around and check out how it looks on the monitor. There’s nothing worse than filming a scene right to the end and then realizing that the character that has to walk on right at the end won’t fit in the frame! If that happened you would have to zoom out and continue filming which is not effective in a short animation and is very disorientating to the viewer. Try to ensure all your action occurs towards the middle of the frame which is the focal point of the scene.

Special Effects

The world of special effects is so fun! And just because you are working on a small scale production doesn’t mean that you can’t create some amazing results!  The best special effect is to make the impossible occur by making a character or object disappear or reappear.

 If you take away small pieces of your object or character in each frame, the character or object will appear to disappear. This can be good for showing people eating food, or diving into water. If you then add small pieces of your object or character in each frame, the character or object will slowly appear. This is good to show a fish jumping out of water or a rabbit coming out of a hat. Let your imagination run away with you!

Here’s a final animation that shows this deconstruction and reconstruction technique. It should leave you with a smile on your dial…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRMHxM51GJM

 The final result – what to do with it now?

So you have made an awesome clay animation (of course – we knew you would!) but what should you do with it. Show your family. Yes. Show your friends. Yes. Show the world. YES! But how? Well there is a very popular program called You Tube. We bet you have heard of it! YouTube is a place to discover, watch, upload and share videos. It is very simple and you just need to follow the steps on their site in order to create an account and then off you go! There are also competitions with animation categories like Kid Witness News http://www.panasonic.com.au/About+Panasonic/Sponsorship/KWN/What+is+KWN so you can hassle your teachers to give you a helping hand to get your work out there and to help you connect with other young people with similar interests.

Well that’s it from us. We hope this blog has been beneficial to you and a good intro to how to make a stop motion video using the medium of clay animation.  Check out our new website that just went live YESTERDAY! We’ll be putting all the latest info about Bazil Grumble clay animation up there for you.

Happy clay animating crew!

Bye!

Fiona and Grant from…

We are back! We have been away touring to Gladstone and teaching clay animation to some amazingly talented young people. The showcase of animations that participants in our workshops created in just 8 hours was shown at the Gladstone Entertainment Centre to a huge audience on Friday night and they were amazing! But we have now returned and here is the next instalment of our blog!

So where were we… oh yes…

Concept…check. Storyboard…check. Character…check. Background…check. Now what?

Now you need to set up your equipment. Don’t worry. You don’t need lots of gear OR lots of money. We have ways around that!! Before you begin we would like to suggest that all technology resources and powered equipment is best used with adult supervision. This is for your safely of course! You need to be very careful when hooking up equipment to electricity.

The way we do it is to set up a camera on a tripod. This will act as your lens.

We use a digital video camera of broadcast quality but really any digital camera will do. We connect this to our laptop or computer with a fire wire cable.  On the laptop we use a program called Stop Motion Pro. This is the program commonly used within the industry (they use it to film Wallace and Gromit!) and a free trial of this program can be downloaded from their website www.stopmotionpro.com

There are of course HEAPS of other programs out there but this is the one that we have found works well for us!

What else do you need to consider?

Light

We also generally like to use a room with curtains or blinds and then use lights to create a consistent shooting environment, otherwise if you film in natural light you get shots that are all differently lit. We generally use mini par cans on a T bar (you can see them in the image above). But you can simply use desk lamps like we are in the image below!

With lighting there are many special effects that can be created with gels (filters that change the colour and intensity of the light). Experiment and see what sort of creative lighting effects you can create!

Basically you now have your stage setup with your background, your characters and other objects placed on the background (or to the side if that is where they will enter the frame), the camera, the tripod, the laptop or computer and the lights… what now….

You basically need to take a shot. Then you will move the characters just the slightest amount. Then you take another shot. Then you move your characters again…

The reason that Chicken Run took four years to make was that for every one second of animation, they took 24 still shots and only moved the characters one or two millimetres each shot! Now we are not suggesting that you go to those lengths! (Although we did warn you that you needed to be patient if you were to explore clay animation!) The less you move your character each shot the better.  For the demo animations that we film in our workshop we move our characters two to four centimetres each shot and then we play the videos back at a rate of two frames per second. That is why there is a jumpy effect (like the flicker books we mentioned in our first blog). But a great result can still be achieved despite the low frame rate as long as you have original, innovative ideas and you spend the time to create a unique character that will withstand the rigours of animation.  Our next post is going to wrap up the series with some handy hints and what to do with your animation when you’ve finished so stay tuned.

Bye for now,

Fiona and Grant

2011 is here – and what a year it has been already…

Well we had a break and we are ready to get back to it all. It seems a little flippant under the current circumstances to say happy new year so we really just want to say that we hope that everyone reading this is safe and well and our thoughts go out to everyone experiencing a difficult time right now.  This is from both of us and also from everyone here at Bazil Grumble.

And for those who are looking for some indoor action for the remainder of the holidays, let’s get to it!  Hopefully by now you have taken on board some of our ideas from Part 1 and 2 of our blog and have your concept and your storyboard. We gave you HEAPS of time!So come on, let’s move onto the next step…

What materials should I use to make the characters?

The word clay in Clay-mation comes from the term modelling clay. Many people think immediately of clay as in the muddy stuff you make pots out of! That’s because most people know modelling clay as plasticine but this is actually a trademarked name for the most popular brand. We have actually used clay (as in the pottery type!) for animations before and it is fun to use but lacks the differentiation that can be created due to the multitude of colours available in modelling clay. It can however be helpful in creating landscaped backgrounds.

Plasticine is a product that is made from petroleum jelly (Vaseline), calcium salts and aliphatic acids. It comes in a wide variety of colours but it doesn’t often come in brown. Brown is a colour that many people like to use so this is how you make it:  Use equal parts red, yellow and orange and 1/10 of that total quantity of black. You then have to mix together by hand which takes a while (once more… we warned you that you needed to be patient to be a clay animator!) The Aardman team uses a bubble gum mixer – you will have to use your imagination about how that works!

We purchase our Plasticine from a local large office supplies retailer here in Brisbane however you can buy other brands in lots of different locations. We have found the original Plasticine brand to be the most effective and of the most consistent quality however. This is a pic of our leftover plasticine box. There’s just a little bit leftover… (we run STACKS of workshops!)

How do I use the modelling clay to make my character?

Now this is where it gets really fun!  Making the character is so cool because you can let your imagination run wild. We each have characters that we like to make best. Fiona loves to make dinosaurs and Grant loves making interesting little people! And usually someone gets chopped up into bits so you can’t get too attached to them!) In our workshops we like to let everyone try to guess what we are making and it can take a while for them to work it out! We get some pretty funny suggestions… is that an…. armadillo???

So, what will your signature character be?  Basically there are few rules to adhere to when creating a character that you are going to animate. If you sculpt your character from one piece of clay moulded into shape it will be stronger and last longer than if you stick single pieces together, which can result in a character that falls apart!

 To help you along we have made a character and here is a picture of all the individual components:

 “But my character is falling apart” you cry! “

A way to ensure your character is strong enough to animate is to use an armature. This is like a ‘skeleton’ for your character. It is made of wire and has ball and socket joints for knees, elbows, hips etc. This ensures that your character can move time and time again without falling apart. It also ensures that you character moves in a realistic manner and means that it can have thinner arms and legs which is more appropriate for particular characters. Armatures can be purchased from overseas locations online for a significant monetary outlay. But we suggest that you create your own. Some people swear by covering tie wire with the alfoil so that it doesn’t cut through the plasticine. Others just like to use alfoil on its’ own by scrunching it up into a bendy frame. And others again just like to use tie wire. We have even seen people use pipe cleaners for smaller characters and this seemed to work quite well!  We generally always use a matchstick in the neck of the character as well so that they can look from side to side.

Once you have a basic structure you can add other elements to your character to make your creation more interesting….

So experiment and see what you can come up with. You may need to attempt your character several times as no doubt they will become more interesting and unique each time you try again.

But now I have a character, what next?

You need a background that you will place the character on for filming. A miniature stage so to speak. Backgrounds can be used to create more visual interest and meaning?  We use a large piece of MDF board for our backdrop. We have ties strong cord in it so that it curves but then it can also be released for flat storage. It is great because it has an indistinguishable horizon and a surface that the characters can stick to (which really helps because then they are less likely to fall over!) Also it can be wiped clean after each shot so that you cannot see the characters footprints (they leave greasy little tracks the little critters!!) 

 In the past when we have travelled long distances by plane we have to make do with what is at the location at which we are facilitating our workshops so we have used fabric for the background (although this does get greasy marks)… 

  …and even lego can jazz up a background!

 Our advice is to use a background that is fairly plain and simple and not too ‘busy’. It can be tempting to want to build elaborate sets on which to film however for a short animation they are too distracting. You don’t want the viewer to spend more time looking at your background than your characters! You need a background which enhances your characters and does not detract from them.

So now you need a bit of time to play with some modelling clay and see what you can create. Go wild! Be creative! Have fun and we will check back in really soon with the next instalment!

Over and out. Take care everyone :-) Fiona and Grant

P.S. We want to give a big shout out to Laura street for her awesome cartoons in this blog!

 So you want to make a clay animation?

Here’s a little dude that we made for our workshop series at the Fun 4 Kids Festival in Victoria but where should you start?

You need a concept (and lots of time indoors – rainy summer holidays are the perfect time to make animations for this very reason!) Here is a link to a video of a segment on Bazil Grumble Clay Animation that was on the WOW edition of Totally Wild on Network 10 last month.  It will get you pumped to get happening and get animating. Once you start you’ll love it! 

 So…Action stations… we mean Animation Stations people! 

But how do I come up with a concept?

We suggest that you…

Keep a visual diary to keep track of your ideas – images, poems, photos, funny sayings… it can all provide great inspiration for your project

Watch people, animals, things – how do they move? Be observant and notice the little details as these will give your animations more life!

Imagine the impossible – remember anything can happen in clay animation!

Don’t forget that if you have to say “and then this happens, and then this…” you are forgetting the key point – animation takes a LONG time!

Oh… did we mention that you need to keep it simple…

Some examples of amazing animations that people have created in our workshops….

Short animation concepts:  A chase, a race, a cartwheel, a dance, sinking into quicksand, eating, being eaten, fishing… can you think of others?

Elements that are easy and look really effective are: ripples on water, crying tears, facial expressions, clouds being blown across the sky, sun rising or setting…can you think of others?

Big River Fishing is an example of a basic concept that we created in only 45 minutes as a demonstration for a workshop that we held at a school in Grafton, NSW earlier this year. Traditionally a story has a beginning, middle and end and a climax in the middle. Animation does not necessarily need a formal structure but this example does have a clear story that works really well.

Feel free to experiment with your ideas but no matter how you structure your animation, you will find that your best animations are when you make the unexpected occur to shock or surprise the viewer. We think this animation called Geoffery or Geof-fry created by our students in a workshop at a school in Ipswich is an awesome example of this…

In the above animation meaning is communicated through simple text however you can also create meaning, mood and atmosphere through the use of speech bubbles, by voice over, by even by using music or sound effects (both of which you can make yourself!) We are not going to get into the technicalities of sound in this blog. That is a whole other story and another blog for sometime in the future! In our workshops we focus primarily on communications through the visual elements of animation due to time restrictions – a lot of our workshops are only two or three hours and have we mentioned how long animation takes??? Ha ha!!!

Here is an example of sketches of a concept created by students in one of our workshops in Grafton, NSW.

So once you have a concept and an idea of what techniques you are going to employ to create meaning for the viewer you are ready to storyboard…

But what is a Storyboard?

A storyboard is like a comic strip. It is a series of images drawn by hand that represent the key shots that will be taken by the animator in order to bring the concept to life. Underneath each ‘box’ you can write notes about the action taking place and include details such as the location, lighting, and other relevant notes. You can draw arrows on the storyboard to remind yourself about which way a character will move etc. Here is an example of a storyboard template…

Here is an example of a storyboard created as a result of those initial sketches we showed earlier… 

And the plasticine characters that were used to film the animation!

Well we think its only fair to give you a couple of weeks to work on a concept, some initial sketches and a storyboard. (We are having a little holiday now we spend far too much time in darkened rooms playing with plasticine and computers!)

Wishing you a Creative Claymation Christmas!

Fiona and Grant