Claymation Claymation by Cindy Perdue

Step 1: The Big Idea Decide on an ecological concept that you would like to animate. Some ideas are: Succession Biological Magnification Food Chains and Food Webs Pollution Global Warming Recycling Deforestation Introduced Species

Step 2: Task Assignment Decide which team members will do which parts of the assignment. Information about the topic Storyboard Clay characters Background Photography Animation PowerPoint Production

Step 3: The Storyboard Create a visual outline of both the PowerPoint slides and the Animation Story. You can use the template provided by your teacher, index cards, or even sticky notes.

Step 4: Build the Clay Characters The most time-consuming part of the animation is building the characters. Keep characters under 6 inches tall. Create your characters on a mat or paper towel, not newspaper. The ink can come off on your clay.

Make a light-weight armature skeleton with styrofoam, pipe cleaners, or foil.

Cover the armature with a thin layer of clay and other materials.

Step 5: Create Backgrounds Create a background using calendar pictures, drawings, props or shoe-box dioramas.

Step 6: Take Pictures Use a tripod or a table to hold the camera steady. Set the camera image size to 640 x 480. Zoom in to the view you would like for the animation. Take one picture of the first scene. Be sure that the image records!

Move the characters slightly and take another picture. You should plan on 2 to 5 frames per second of finished video.

Continue until the entire scene has been photographed. Plan for 10 to 20 photos.

Step 7: Put Animation Together Your teacher will help you import the images into VideoBlender and create the video. Be sure to save often.

If you wish to add sound to your video, you need to have the information in your storyboard. Save your work, then export the animation as an AVI File Type to create the finished movie.

Step 8: Create the PowerPoint Create your PowerPoint that explains the topic you are presenting. The animation will be presented on one slide of your PowerPoint.

Import the video to your PowerPoint by selecting Insert Movie and Sound. When resizing your video, only resize from the corner to keep ratios the same.

The End Now go get started!