YAY!!!!!

I finished animating this evening. What a relief. It took me longer than I expected, but I added a few extra touches to Mommy Frog’s entrance that I feel really paid off. I’m really proud of this little film, I showed the work in progress to a couple of people who I didn’t expect to like it, and they laughed out loud. Louder than probably any laugh my animations have gotten before, so I’ve got my hopes up. I’m heading off to New York in a few hours for a week so I wouldn’t expect many updates, though I plan on spending a lot of time this next week doing concept and preproduction work for my next few projects, so I’ll be updating you on that soon.

Almost Done

I got a good chunk of animation done today. I animated the "climax," unfortunatley I can't share any frames from that because it would give too much away. Oh well, you'll see soon enough when the film is complete. I spent some time this evening adding sound effects to the completed animation and timing out the syllable framing for the rest of the dialogue. I also cleaned up a couple frames that showed some rigging propping a character above the ground. Tomorrow I probably have 2 hours of animation and then I'm done. I'm pretty excited. Most of my post-production is done too, so it will be ready very soon after shooting is complete.

Anatomy Of A Frog-Thing

Hey, I’m in between shots right now so I’m in the process of cleaning up the characters. The clay tends to get messy and dirty and ugly after it’s been manhandled over and over, frame by frame. So sometimes when I’m going to change camera angles, I take the chance to remove the characters from the set to repair them. This usually consists of tearing them apart and rebuilding them, and also smoothing out the clay. Sometimes the clay gets spots on it from other colored clay or bits of styrofoam. Sometimes there are just nicks in it from my fingers or tools. Here you’ll see Daddy Frog with his legs removed. They were getting a bit torn apart so wanted to make them sturdy again, you can also see the toothpicks I use for support. While not the best armatures in the world, toothpicks are great for characters who don’t do too much movement (It saves you a lot of time not having to build an unnecessary armature).

Here is Baby Frog without his eyes, I really needed to clean up his face, and smooth out his clay.

Lastly, here’s Baby Frog’s replacement mouths, made from baked clay. So Exciting!

Pretty Girl Visits Studio

It was definitely a morale booster for a number of the clay characters at the studio. They felt like soldiers at a USO show. Whoever gets to marry this lovely lady is a lucky man indeed.

23 Seconds is No Laughing Matter

Especially when almost the entire thing is lip-synched. I can’t remember the last time I shot this much in a day. If only every day could be like today. I was in the groove, and did some stuff I’m really happy with. I think this is going to be a funny little film. Ever since I started watching the Creature Comforts series I’ve wanted to push myself with mouth movements. I usually use replacement mouths when characters talk because I’m semi-lazy, but I’m taking the harder route with Daddy Frog and I’m glad that I am. Ugh, I didn’t wrap up until almost 3 am and boy am I ready for some sleep. I have a headache and my jaw really hurts, I think I’ve been clenching while I animate. Now that’s a habit worth staying away from, I need an animating retainer.


Somebody needs a haircut.

The Frogs keep moving, one frame at a time

Today was a long day. I spent the first hour at the studio listening to Cat Stevens and covering up the windows to stop the daylight from pouring in so I can keep the light consistent. I didn’t have to worry about it when I began animating last night. Also, I forgot what a great song “Daytime” is. I got a lot of animation done today, most of it dialogue shots. I’m up to 27 seconds now. I’m hoping to do twice as much tomorrow.



I did something really stupid this evening. Halfway through a really long shot, I accidentally stepped on the off switch to my power strip, turning off my camera and computer mid shot. I turned them back on and tried to salvage the shot, but the camera (which is digital) automatically changed it’s exposer and color balance as it rebooted up and I couldn’t get it to match the frames before it exactly. It was close, but not close enough and I had to scrap 50 frames, and do a cut away where I wasn’t planning on having one so I wouldn’t have to scrap an additional 50 frames. In the end, I think it looks better with the cut away, but I lost a lot of time. Oh well, I’ve learned my lesson. When animating, don’t have the on/off switch to your power strip right under your feet.


I’m so sleepy. Time for me to go to bed.

Finally!

Well, I had my first day of animating. Actually, 2 hours animating (I spent the first part of the day setting up). And from that two hours I got about 5 seconds animated. Tomorrow I should get a lot more animation done, now that everything is all set up. Man, my back hurts from sitting weird.

Gotta Rethink The Way I Do Things

So I’m so close to animating I can smell it. I’ve got the storyboards complete, and the characters and set ready. So last night I sat down to break down the prerecorded dialogue frame by frame so I can lip-sync the characters. Usually this is pretty simple. I just right out the syllables and how many frames they are. Then I draw a little symbol of the approximate shape the mouth will make. And that’s it. From there I have a little freedom to shape the mouths throughout the animating process.



But this short includes a couple moments where two characters have completely different lip-syncs going on at the same time. After writing out the frames and syllable for each, I realized my way of doing this won’t work. Look at this layout of two characters laughing hysterically, it’s a mess. It’s too confusing and there’s no way I’ll be able to sync everything up right.



I need to put the information down in a different way so I can translate it to the animation more effectively.

Set Complete

I’ve got the set pretty much ready for shooting. I added some stones I found lying out front of the studio and some more plants. I spent a long time removing all the little strands of hot glue lying around the set because those get really annoying when they move during filming and pick up light.





Here’s Scamper, from Happiness, visiting the set. Yeah, I’m a dork.

Detritivore Visits Studio Bathroom

My friends, Chris and Vince, came up to the mountains yesterday to visit the studio. Chris found this millipede in the bathroom, it’s pretty large. We brought it out and played with it for a while. Here’s Vince and the millepede. Usually I just find giant spiders in the studio.

Setting The Scene

Hey, again! So I’ve been working on the set a bit. It’s at it’s bare minimum at the moment, probably half complete. To create the ground I spray-painted some styrofoam brown, I find when I’m animating, the camera picks up the texture of the styrofoam really well to give a good illusion of dirt. The brown I used has a little more red in it than the brown I usually use since my main characters are green. I figured this would be a nicer visual contrast.



I’ve started putting some of the plants in the ground, but there definitely needs to be more. I’ll need to add some rocks and paint in a background. Fun. fun. Should be animating in a day or two.

Big Bulky Characters

When I'm building big, bulky characters like the Frog Family who have very limited movement and don't have to walk on legs or carry things, I usually don't use armatures. Armatures are skeletons that help support the character, and I usually build them out of wire and epoxy putty. If there is no major limb-movement, but I still want to have a little support for the various appendages, I'll use toothpicks. Most of my characters have tons of toothpicks in them, I love to use them. I also build up most of the body mass with dirty clay and cover it with clean clay of the right color for the exterior. This is a great way to recycle used clay, and save time when you have to mix your own color (which can be tough and time-consuming) by only making enough to cover the outside.

Frog Family In 3-D!

My characters are now (mostly) completely built, and I'm pretty happy with them. The three characters are a mom, a dad and a baby frog. The first shot below is of the three characters together.



Here's the Dad, he'll probably be seen only from the front, but I put together the entire body just in case. You can see how big the character really is when it's in my hand. He will do a lot of talking, so I made sure his mouth would be able to handle the wear-and-tear that comes with moving it that much. I mixed his color myself.









The baby frog will talk with replacement mouths. He's really cute. Also, like his dad, I made the eyeballs out of bakable clay and painted it. There's a small hole in the pupil for me to stick a toothpick in to move around.



Last, and maybe least, we have Mommy Frog. She has the least screen time and does almost nothing. She's only seen from one point of view, I didn't bother finishing the side of her that the camera doesn't see, I don't have the time for frivolous things such as that. Since her eyes won't move I just used regular soft clay (I still have to paint the iris and pupil).




Next on my list is to put the set together.

Frog Family Concept Art

For those of you who don’t know, I’m spending the next four months up here in the wilderness animating. Over the years I have had a lot of ideas for shorts that I never got around to animating, so I’m hoping these next few months will allow me to get it out of my system. The first project I’m working on is a short called “Frog Family,” and it’s a concept that’s been floating around in my head for the last few years. The film will run about 1 and a half minutes and stars three frog characters. Of course I use the word “frog” loosely, as they aren’t really frogs. Like my previous shorts, “Beautiful” and “Happiness,” this will feature critters that are not of this world. Usually when I design creatures, I try not to make them too abstract or alien, I prefer to keep them mostly familiar. These creatures are based on frogs, but with a few variations.





The picture above was my original concept design. I love the look of these guys a lot, but decided to go a different direction. Maybe I’ll use this design on some other characters in the future.





I eventually decided to give the back-half of their bodies a slug look, to allow for some comical movement, and I replaced the catfish barbels (whiskers) with ears.

First Post

Hey, welcome to Poor Claymator, where I'll be keeping you up to date on my newest clay-animated projects. My animations are shot on a very cheap budget, and usually I'm the only person working on the production (though my dad gets involved a lot and I have a lot of great artist collaborators). I'm currently living out in the middle of nowhere, up in the mountains, living like a lumberjack and animating my little heart out. My goal with this blog is to give a glimpse of the entire process. I hope this is fun and educational for everybody. I'll try to post regularly.