[PRACTICE] Clay Animation - The Melting Clay

I have been experimenting with Clay Animation this week, I have been able to get hold of the Animate It kit featuring a "Morph" mold, 2 blocks of clay and a green screen. However, The kit is fairly old, and the clay hadn't been sealed properly, so I wasn't able to use the clay right away. So instead, I decided to use something I received for Christmas, "The Original Miracle Melting Snowman" by RED5.

This present had no real purpose to me, so it has been gathering dust in the cupboard since Christmas. I decided that I could use this to make a small stop frame animation, so I decided to experiment using the green screen, and the "snowman".

The Snowman is made using a rubber like substance, which can be molded and over time will turn gooey and melt, giving the effects of melting snow, a clever idea. I placed my make-shift snowman onto the green screen, and every 5 seconds I took a photo until I got 240 frames. I then took the video and edited it, adding a snowy background. I wanted to video to seem strange and out of the ordinary, so I decided to add a royalty free fire to the foreground, then super imposed some text onto the screen "The End". Below is the final result:

As you can see, the video looks cheaply made, because it is. This is my first ever attempt at any form of stop-frame animation, I have never used clay before nor have I really worked with green screen. I wanted to give an effect of cheapness, and add things that seem strange and out of the ordinary to contrast the digital animation. Stop-frame animation to me, has always got this feel of strangeness and weirdness, digital animation to me, always has this sort of "perfection" look to it, while traditional animation to me, seems magical and special to see moving images on a piece of paper. I wanted to get this across with this animation, a weird but wonderful stop-frame animation, a realistic look at the world with the digital animation, and a magical and fun traditional animation.