Claymation Tips

I had a meeting this afternoon with the Director of Summer Camps at The Tech Museum in San Jose. She was so nice to meet with me and we shared some tips that we had each discovered regarding claymation. It was really interesting to learn a bit about their programs.
http://www.thetech.org/

I want to share a few of my simple claymation tips here.
1. Use plastic pearls with holes for eyes. You can color one hole black. This becomes the pupil which is really easy to move by just placing a pencil tip into it.
2. Place vaseline in the eye socket before you put the pearl bead in. Your bead eye will roll more smoothly.






































3. Light your object from the side to pick up the texture and to create depth. (see above)














4. Dental floss (split into fine threads) works great for "flying" objects.
5. A few places to enter your animation into competitions:
Short Film Depot (international competitions): http://www.shortfilmdepot.com/pre_index.html
California Student Media Festival: http://www.mediafestival.org/
International Student Media Festival: http://www.ismf.net/ns/