Animation Guide

 

- So, first up. The will power. Your models may look bad to start with. Your models will get dirty, and melt from your body heat and you will eventually need to make a new one! So, you need patience. Lots of it. 

Choosing the right material. In my humble opinion, and many other modelmakers/animators, the best plasticine is the Lewis Newplast type. It is versatile and cheap at £1.50 to £1.75 depending on where you buy it. Also, it is soft enough to model make effectively but hard enough to last while animating. For the rich people out there, there is fimo, and that is good for the modlemaking aspects and parts that you wont be moving. Things like baseball caps should be made from this. 

Armatures If you are planning on animating these models, you will need an armature or the models that you spent ages making will fall to pieces in minutes. An armature is basically a skeleton structure of the body that you are making, with bends in the appropriate places. You build the plasticing model around this armature making it strong, an it makes it easier for making it walk/lift/dance…whatever. 

Legs. I found legs very difficult. They were always uneven. One would be thick, the other thin, one would be too long, the other too short. It really pissed me off. Then I found that when making legs, it could be easy. Simply make one massive leg, by getting a blob of plasticine and rolling it out to an equal diameter all the way across, then cut the leg in half and you have to legs, exactly the same thickness, exactly the same length.

 Hands. These are always tricky. You have plasjas to thank for this amazing tip. Crafting the two hands separately is very nearly impossible. They are always different sizes and the fingers look rubbish. I was talking to plasjas and he said. Its simple. Get one ball of plasticine and cut it in half. Then you flatten the two halves of the ball to the size you want it and use a sharp knife to cut where the fingers are. Then its just a matter of squeezing the parts into the shape of a hand. Easy as hell. 

Heads. If I could give you one piece of advice here, it would be this. DEFINETLY NOT ROUND. Most people just have a spherical ball with a blob for a nose. No, just no! have you ever walked down the high street and seen someone with a perfect sphere for a head? No. And if you have, stay off the drugs. Its best to look in a mirror and sketch a rough outline of your own head. Then use that to sculpt a shape of a head. 

Animating your masterpiece. Software.  This is important. You can get various free animation software on the internet. But, contrary to common belief, the best things in life are rarely free. Pay and you get good results. If you have a mac the best software in my opinion is Istop motion.  If you have a Windows computer, then you should ude SMP 9(see the other pages)All you have to do is use the cable to plug a video camera into a computer and away you go. The programme puts all the pictures together and you can change the speed at which it goes and so on. But have a hunt around for the ones that you like. Remember that money does not grow on trees, so read reviews of the software first and pick the one that is right for you. 

The rules. Most big companies in animation use the 24 frames per second rule. This basically means that 24 pictures are taken for every second of footage when those pictures are played at speed. But. If you are just starting out, remember this! The brain only holds a picture in the back of the retina for a tenth of a second, so you only NEED 10 frames per second. This will save time, and disk space on the computer. Top Ten tips! (No particular order) 

1.when your model collects dust and hairs, don’t scrape it off. Use baby wipes or wet wipes to clean it. It works. 

2.don’t give up. Even when you think that this project will never end, it will be worth it when it does. Wallace and gromit films take 6 years on average to finish. 

3. Make sets. Spend time on these sets. They will make the animation look ace! 

4. make a spare. Making a spare model for when the inevitable disaster strikes, you can leap straight back into the action without a long wait. Believe me, you don’t want to be animating a model covered in dog piss. 

5. Lighting. If you don’t have proper stage lamps, use desk lamps. If I could say the thing that ruins a animation or film the most, I would say poor lighting. Get it right. NO SHADOWS. Anyway. My opinion ain't worth jack compared to the lords at Aardman animations, so if you find this info inadequate, there a friendly bunch, so ask them! Have a nice day and watch out for my next instalment “making plasticine animals” .

Written by Krlux

Frame by Frame

 

Check out my first EVER animation i did years ago. things have changed sinse then. For the worse...:)