Course: Animation Fundamentals
Guide: Prof. Charu Monga, Asst. Professor, IIT Guwahati.
Clay animation or Claymation is one of many forms of stop motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine clay.
Technique
Each object or character is sculpted from clay or other such similarly pliable material as Plasticine, usually around a wire skeleton called an armature, and then arranged on the set, where it is photographed once before being slightly moved by hand to prepare it for the next shot, and so on until the animator has achieved the desired amount of film. Upon playback, the human mind of the viewer perceives the series of slightly changing, rapidly succeeding images as motion.
"DUMB WAYS TO SUICIDE"
Characters:
A blue blob (main)
A fish
A bird
Plot:
The blob is depressed and tries to commit suicide but gets lucky in a way that it fails to die.
In the first scene, he (personification) hangs himself, struggles for a while but the fan falls down due to his weight.
In scene two, the blob is on the road and sees a truck speeding towards him. He starts running towards the truck he falls into a manhole but just before hitting the truck, leaving him alive.
In scene three, he jumps into a campfire. After a few seconds, he farts big which puts off the fire, leaving him unburnt.
In scene four, he jumps from a building and a bird hits him which bounces him back onto the top of the building.
In scene five, he jumps into water but alas… he doesn’t get lucky this time and he dies.
The moral is that one doesn’t get lucky every time and one must realize it before he/she gets unlucky.
Props and materials:
The blob, bird, fish, fire and few other props were made with plasticine clay. They eyes used for plastic. The props such as truck, buildings and windows etc. were made using paper and cardboard. The background of the set was made of chart paper, textured and handmade paper. The set was a cuboid of 1m x 1m x 1m.
