Claymations Module

Created by Andrew Jones with the Movie Maker section created by Luc Plourde
Claymations
Claymations are short animations with
clay characters. You move the
characters a little bit, then take a picture.
After repeating this process several
times, the pictures are then shown very
quickly using a picture viewer on the
computer. The result will seem like a
movie.
The Movie Chicken Run is an example of a
professional Claymation.
Activity 1: Watch a Claymation
Go to the internet. Using the search engine Google,
do a search for claymation movies. Watch a few
sample movies to get some ideas.
Take a look at the characters in the movie samples.
Once you have watched a few samples, go on to the next activity.
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Activity 2 - Make the characters
 You get up to 1 1/2 bricks of clay from your teacher (choose half
bricks to get more colors)
 Create your character out of pipe cleaners or wire so they can easily
be moved without coming apart. (about 5 – 6cm tall)
 Then wrap them with play dough.
 You can leave the pipe cleaner/wire hanging out the feet to they will
start up more easily.
Optional: Try to make a skeleton and form the clay around the pipe cleaners.
Remember not to use too much clay because it will make your character too
heavy and harder to work with. Toothpicks can help them stand up.
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Not all your characters in this module have to be made from “scratch”.
You could bring in some action figures or other types of characters to
appear in your video.
Here is an example where the students could have brought the shark from
home.
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Activity 3: Create a Stage
You will need a few items to create your Claymation Stage:
 A cardboard box (check the garbage bin or ask the custodian)
 Some paint & paintbrushes
 A juice can that holds water to wash your paintbrushes
 A small tray/container to hold your paint.
 Something to cover your table/desk to paint doesn’t get on it
Create a simple background that you can use for your Claymation projects.
Here are a couple of examples:
You can bring in toys from home to add to your stage props.
Once you have created your stage, go on to the next activity.
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Activity 4: Your First Claymation
1. Use the characters and stage that you already created.
2. Get a camera from the teacher. Ask the
teacher to set the camera for the smallest
picture size (so your Claymation will flow
smoothly)
3. Set up your camera on a tripod.
Your teacher will show you
how to attach the camera to
the tripod – Ask!
4. Zoom in a little bit so the
stage fills the whole picture
frame. (The camera never
moves once it is set)
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5. Put some light markings on your paper so you know exactly where your
character needs to be. You call these points "reference points".
6. Take 30 - 40 pictures of the character raising his/her arm, waving, and
lowering his/her arm.
Remember, the more pictures you take the better you animated
movie will turn out.
7. Go to the next lesson to find out how to put the photos on your
computer.
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Activity 5: Import the Pictures from the Camera
Have your teacher help you to move the pictures from the camera to the
computer. There are two ways of doing this!
Steps:
1. Either, connect the camera to the
computer with a USB cable
2. A message box will open asking you
what you want to do – choose copy
pictures
3. Click Browse to find your network drive
(I:) - It’s best to put them in a folder!
Or, look on the next page to learn another way of moving photos from
the camera to the computer.
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Another way – Copying pictures
1. Click on the My Computer, and copy the picture files from the
Removable drive. They will probably be in the DCIM folder and then
another folder.
2. Click once on the first picture file, then press shift and hold it
down while you click on the last file.
3. Use the right mouse button to click once on any of the file icons. Click
copy from the list that appears with the left mouse button. (That copied
them to the computer’s memory – but they are not saved yet!)
4. Exit until you can see the drive with your user name on it. It is in My
Computer if you get lost. Create a new folder in your drive (right click >
new folder). Name it “claymations 1 pictures”
5. Right click and choose Paste with the left mouse button so the pictures
paste into your new folder.
Did you know…?
Click the icon next to folders and
choose the way that you want to see
the files. (i.e. Change from List View to
Thumbnails!)
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Activity 6: Making the Claymation Movie
In this lesson, we will put all the pictures together into a movie that we can
watch.
In out Claymation, it will take 5 pictures to make 1 second of video. In
Hollywood, they use 30 pictures for every second of video.
If you took 40 pictures of your character waving, how long will your
video be?
Did you guess 8 seconds? Good!
Just think how long it would take to make a full length movie!
Go to the next page and follow the directions to make your movie.
Answer the questions on your own paper as you go along.
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Lesson 1: Movie Maker
Movie Maker is a standard
component of Windows XP which allows
users to create movie projects using digital
still, audio and video files.
Some simple steps before you begin:
1. Create a folder on your network drive (My Computer > I drive >
(right click – new folder). Name the folder Claymation 1.
2. You must remember that with technology, nothing is certain or
guaranteed. Save you work as often as possible (every 5
minutes) to avoid loosing your work. (File > Save or click on the little
blue disk)
Start the program by double clicking the icon.
or find the program by clicking on START and
going to Programs, Windows Movie Maker
Click on the Collections Folder to display the Collections Pane
Close the Movie Task Pane by clicking on the X if it is open.
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Take a look:
Collection Pane
Collection Area
Story Board TimeLine
Preview Area
Collection Area: This is where you will import your images when you are
ready to begin your project.
Storyboard/Timeline: This area is where you will drag and drop your
images. It is here that you will determine what order your images will be
shown. You will also be able to modify, cut, or change the lengths of clips
and music.
Preview Area: This is where you will be able to see the preview of your
project. At any point during production, you can select the play
button to view the work you have already completed.
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Lesson One Questions:
1. You should save your work every 5 minutes.
A. True
B. False
2. Movie Maker is a component of Windows XP that has to be downloaded from the
internet.
A. True
B. False
3. The collections area is where you collect files for using in your movie project.
A. True
B. False
4. Another name for the Timeline is the Storyline.
A. True
B. False
5. The preview pane is only available when the movie project is complete.
A. True
B. False
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Lesson Two: Importing Images into collections
Before you can import images into a collection you must have digital
images already stored in a folder.
You must create a new collection to store your images while working in
Movie Maker.
1. Create a new collection by right clicking the word COLLECTIONS in
the collections pane, select New Collection.
2. Give your new collection a name and press
enter.
3. You are now ready to
import images to your
collection.
4. Click on FILE and IMPORT
INTO COLLECTIONS.
(Make sure your collection name is remains highlighted)
5. Change LOOK IN to Drive I.
(the drive where you saved
your pictures)
6. Select file all your pictures
and press import.
HINT: To select all the pictures,
click the first file and then hold down
the shift, scroll to the last file and
click on it. Release the shift key and
press import. It may take a little bit of
time for the files to import into your
collection.
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You will now be able to see all the images you imported into your
collection. Scroll up and down to see them all.
Go to File, Save Project and
make sure you save it to the
proper folder on your network
Drive
(The one you created earlier).
Lesson Two Questions:
1. You can import more than one image at a time by using :
A. The Control Key
B. The enter Key
C. The Alt key
D. The shift Key
2. To preview a clip or image in the preview area you must:
A. Have more than one clip in your collection
B.Select more than one clip at once.
C. Select the image
D.Drag the image over to the preview window.
3.When a clip/image is selected it is outlined in:
A. Blue
B.Red
C.Green
D.Black
4.The collection area is where you hold all your images for your movie project.
A.True
B.False
5.You must ___________________ your files into the collection area.
A.Collect B.Export
C.Import
D.Save
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Lesson Three: Placing Images on the timeline
Before you place images on the timeline, you must first understand that in
order for your characters to appear as though they are moving, you must
change the picture duration and the transition time to the lowest settings
(the time between your images). Remember: The shorter the time, the
smoother the animation will seem. Longer times will make your characters
appear to be moving in slow motion. You will have to experiment with
these settings.
Please remember that whatever settings are selected (time and duration)
will affect any pictures you place on the time line, not the ones already
placed there.
BEFORE you add your images to the timeline, make these changes:
1. Click on TOOLS in the menu bar and then to OPTIONS.
2. Click on the ADVANCED tab and decrease the
amount of time for each of the Picture Duration
and Transition Duration using the down arrow.
Set each of these at the lowest setting and click
on OK.
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Move your image files to the timeline. Select all the images (remember
how? Click on the first one, hold shift and click on the last one). Now,
click, hold, drag and drop it onto the video section of the timeline.
If you do not see your images on the timeline,
press the + sign to enlarge the timeline and
its images.
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Once you are successful in placing your images
on the timeline, drag the slider bar to 0.00 and
click on the play button
to preview them in
the preview pane at the right of your screen.
Isn’t that amazing!!
Lesson Three Questions:
1. When creating animations in Movie Maker, it is important to change:
A. The duration of the image
B. The number of images
C. The distance between images
D. All of the above
2. When creating a movie, you must place your images on :
A. The center line
B. The storyline
C. The timeline
D. The mean line.
3. You can access the image settings with reference to timing in the ________ menu.
A Clip
B. Play
C. Help
D. Tools
4. In order for your characters to seem as though they are moving, you must change:
A. The picture duration
B. The transition duration
C. The number if images
D. Both A and B
5. Once you have all your images on the timeline, you can preview them by clicking:
A. The play button
B The preview pane
C. All your images
D. you can not preview
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Lesson Four: Inserting titles and Credits
To add a title or credits to your animation you will have to
first go to the TOOLS dropdown menu and select TITLES
AND CREDITS.
Here you need to decide where you
would like to place your text. For
this activity you will select “add title
at the beginning of the movie”.
In the space below, type in the text you would like the audience to see
when they watch your movie such as: Animation Number One, (today’s
date)
To view what the title screen will look like, you can press the play button in
the preview area and watch what happens.
If you are happy with the way your title looks, you click on “Done, add title
to movie” and the title will be put in the timeline automatically.
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Although you might be happy with how the title looks, you will also explore
how to change the title animation, text font and the colours associated
with your title.
Changing the Title Animation: When you click “Change the title
animation”, the following screen will show you what options you have in
changing the animation.
You can scroll up and down to explore the various styles. By pressing the
play button in the preview area, you will see a demonstration of what your
animated title will look like. Try a few and see what happens.
Before moving on make sure you have selected FADE, IN AND OUT.
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Text Font/Colour and Background: From here you can change the style of
the writing as well as the colour of the text and the background.
In the same area as above, select “Change the text font and colour” to
bring you
to the
following
Click here to change the
style of the font.
Click here to
change the
colour of the
font.
screen:
Click here to
change the
colour of the
background.
Note: All changes you make will appear in the preview window to the right
of the screen after you click ok.
Once your editing is complete, you can click in the play button in the
preview pane to view what your title will look like. If you are satisfied,
click on Done, add title to movie.
Assignment:
Make sure that your hand waving animation has:
- A Title Screen
- A Credit Screen
- A nice, smooth flowing animation of your character waving (atleast
40 frames)
Show your teacher the results!
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Lesson Four Questions:
1. You should always have a ________________ at the beginning of your movie.
A. Empty slide
B. Fade to black transition
C.A title
2. You can insert a title in ____ locations in your movie.
A. 3
B.1
C. 4
D. 5
3. When you are happy with your title or credit you should always:
A. Preview it
B. Press Cancel
C. Press Done, Add title to movie
D. Show your teacher
4. When editing your title/credit you can adjust:
A. The font colour
B. The Background
C. Style
D. The animation
E. All of the above
5. Credits should be added:
A. At the beginning of the movie
B. At the end of the movie
C. When its needed
D. Only when you feel like it
D.Credits
Lesson Five: Importing Music into Movie Maker
It is important to understand that the most popular file type associated
with music is MP3, wav or wma format. For this activity, you will be
working with MP3 formats but will not be limited to only this type of file.
These files are in the Movie Maker Folder.
In order to use music or sounds, you must import the files into your
collection. To do this you must review the process of importing images
into your collection as mentioned in Lesson 2. Remember: Your music files
must already be saved in your folder before you can import them to your
project.
This symbol represents a sound or music which
has been added to your collection.
You will place this on your timeline as you would any images which are
part of your movie project. You will also notice that the music file will not
line up on the same line as your images did on the timeline.
Once the audio file is on the timeline you may shorten the sound by
clicking on the edge of the file and dragging it to the left.
You may also grab the music file and move it to any location on the
timeline. A hand will become visible when you are able to move the file.
Give it a try to get comfortable.
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You may also modify the audio file by right clicking it and
selecting an appropriate function:
 Fade In or Fade Out
 Mute
 Change the volume
When there is more than one music file on your timeline, you can combine
and fade one file into the other by clicking the file and dragging it into the
next. This allows one song to play into the next without any chopping.
(This can sometimes take some practice, don’t give up!)
As you see from above, the blue rectangle will slide itself into the previous
song. The more the rectangle slides, the more it will cut into that song.
You will have to experiment with this feature and adjust the file to your
liking. Don’t forget, the play button in the preview pane will also preview
the music files in your timeline.
Make sure the slider in the timeline is at
the beginning of your movie before
previewing.
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Lesson Five Questions:
1. In Movie Maker, this symbol
A. A staff
represents:
B. A note
C. A sound/music
D. La La La
2. The most popular files when importing sounds is:
A. MP3
B. Wav
C. WMA
D. All
3. You can preview your sounds by clicking on the Play button when the sound/music is
highlighted or selected.
A. True
B False
4You can modify your music/sound by right clicking on the file.
A. True
B false
5. Importing sound/music into your collection is more difficult than images.
A. True
B. False
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Lesson Six: Saving your project as a movie
Once you have assembled, previewed and are content with your movie,
you will follow these steps to save your project as a movie that will be able
to be viewed on a computer.
Go to File > Save Movie File (choose a place
to save the movie and give it a name). Click
the browse button and make sure you are
saving the movie in your network folder.
In the movie setting screen, make sure Best
Quality
for playback on my computer is selected and
click next.
You will see a screen showing the progress of
your movie being saved.
Congratulations! You have completed basic
activities using Movie Maker.
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Lesson Six Questions:
1. You must always save your completed project:
A. In a network folder
B. On the hard drive
C. On CD
D. Doesn’t matter where
2. Before you save your work as a Movie File, you should:
A. Preview the movie
B. Show the class
C. Ask your partner
D. Ask your teacher to look it over
3. Movie Maker files can be played back on your computer after they are saved.
A. True
B. False
4. You can view your movie:
A. When you want after it is saved
B. As you are creating it
C. Using the play button in the preview pane
D. All
5. Your movie can be burned to a CD and shared with family and friends.
A. True
B. False
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Activity 7: Story Board
Think of a short story involving two or three
characters. It should be short and simple.
Write it down. (Ex. Bill and Jane took their
boat out for a day of fishing. They caught a lot
of fish. So many fish that their boat began to
sink or I was riding my bike when I lost my
balance and fell over). No blood and gore!!!
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
____________________________________
You must complete a storyboard drawing/rough draft on paper before
attempting any work with the digital camera and clay.
i.e. Draw the characters and what they are going to do.
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Activity 8: Final Project Photos
Note:
Ask your teacher to clear off the memory card so you have lots of room to
take 200 or more pictures.
Note:
You should also have charged batteries because they have to last the
entire time you are shooting your Final Project.
Take Your Pictures
From what you have learned, take the pictures needed for your final
project. Remember, this should be a very simple scene as you described in
your storyboard from Activity 7.
- You should have over 200 pictures
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Activity 9: Creating an Opening and a Closing
You can create a Title Frame with Clay or with the computer!
Sample Title Frames:
If you use the computer to do the title, follow these directions:
1. Open Paint.net (Start > Programs > Paint.net) – This is a photo
program that can be used to create a title slide.
2. You need the Color Picker and the
Tool Bar on. Click the F5 key and
the F8 keys if they are not visible.
3. Choose a color for the background
by clicking on the color picker.
4. Use the paint bucket tool on
the toolbar to fill in the
background.
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5. Use the Pencil Tool or the Text Tool to put the words that you want.
Can you figure out how to make the pencil tool line thicker?
Can you figure out how to change the color of the line?
6. When you complete the slide, click File > Save. Save it in a folder on
your network drive so it’s easy to find. Name the file, 09 title
7. Click File > Save As, and save the file again. This time name it:
09 title 1
8. Save it again, (File > Save As). This time name it 09 title 2
9. Keep creating new saved files until you have done it at least 10 times.
This will keep your title up for 2 seconds when you put it in your movie.
10.
You can do the same thing to create an end frame for your movie.
You will need at least 10 of these frames. Name them… End 1… End
2… End 3… End 10
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Activity 10: Word Balloons
We can make the characters speak with
word balloons and text.
You will need to put the same word balloon
on 20 photos in order for it to stay up long
enough for someone to read a few words.
Pick the type of Word Balloon that you want
to use:
Word Balloon 1
Word Balloon 2
Word Balloon 3
Word Balloon 4
Word Balloon 1
Flip
Word Balloon 2
Flip
Word Balloon 3
Flip
Word Balloon 4
Flip
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Follow these instructions to insert the word Balloon and text:
1. Open the folder where you save your pictures. Find the name of the
first photo that you want to put words on.
Click the icon next to folders and
choose the way that you want to see
the files. (i.e. Change from List View to
Thumbnails!)
2. Start Paint.net (Start > Programs > Paint.Net)
3. Click File > Open and choose the picture file name
4. Click Layer > Import From File, go to the Student Shared Drive >
BBT folder > Word Balloons, and pick the name of the word balloon
that you want.
5. Click the Anchor Point in one corner and reduce it to the size you want.
Also drag it to where you want it on the photo.
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6. Use the Text tool to type the words you want (keep it short). Make
sure the words stay inside the Word Balloon. You can move the words
around.
7. We need to copy the word
balloon so we can use it in
the next picture with doing
so much work.
With the dotted line around
the word balloon, go to the
Edit Menu and click
Copy.
8. Now it’s time to save the first picture. Click Save – the following
messages will appear:
Important!
Change this box to JPEG
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Next Click OK
… then click Flatten
9. Now, open the next picture in the series that you want the word balloon
on. Click Edit > Paste. Since you copied the Word Balloon in the last
one, it will appear on this one. Move it to where it needs to be (as close
as possible to the same location as the first photo).
10 Keep pasting the word balloon on all the photos that you need to get 4
seconds of video (20 photos).
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Activity 11: Finish The Final Project
Now that you have all your photos complete, you can put them in Movie
Maker like you did in Activity 6.
You should have…
Your Title Frames followed by the main story photos and then
the Ending frames.
Bonus: Include music or sound (this site has free MP3 music files:
http://www.freeplaymusic.com)
Take a look at your final results!
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Claymation Checksheet!
Is everything finished and ready for evaluation?
Evaluation:
Activity 2: Character
Activity 3: Stage
Activities 4, 5, & 6: First Claymation Video
Questions:
Lesson 1
Lesson 2
Lesson 3
Lesson 4
Lesson 5
Lesson 6
/20
/20
/20
Activity 7: Story Board
/10
Activity 9: Opening & Closing Frames
/10
Activity 10: Word Balloons
/10
Activity 11: Final Product
/30
Bonus: Music
/10
/5
/5
/5
/5
/5
/5
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