My One and Only Stop Motion Animation Gig

I have been going through my old CDs trying to cobble together old files for a design/illustration portfolio again and found this fun claymation job I did for an education CD ROM company (yep that dates me right there) called Tenth Planet. They were a great client out in Half Moon Bay and I remembered how fun it was to drive out to the coast on my visits. Most of my work was done remotely and usually I only visited my clients when I bid on the projects or when I was brought in with a team of other designer for game prototyping or something like that. This is the only claymation project I have done and there is a kind of funny story to go with it.


I was asked by the project director I worked with if I could do claymation. I said, "Sure! That would be fun!" I was totally clueless, but thought I could make up for it in enthusiasm. I made wire armature, but not with the appropriate armature wire. I cannot recall what clay I used. The end results were cute clay figures and a motorcycle for the bunny. I showed up at the shoot at the same moment as the camera guy and the light guy. It was kind of satisfying to see that they, too, drove mini vans. These guys were pros and had recently worked on Tim Burton's A Nightmare Before Christmas. After we got the lighting set and I started the first set of moves I heard the camera/editor guy stationed in the other room ask, "Has she ever done this before?" Big gulp. Guess enthusiasm didn't count for too much! Oh, and I think I used the wrong clay as it started to melt a bit and the weak waiter was a bit too weak...he would sag and lean. Man, I can laugh about it now! The nice thing was once it was established that I welcomed coaching, they were great teachers. (Guess they had no choice there!) In the end, the piece came out well for what it was. I learned on the spot not to make too big a move between frames and to also exaggerate a motion in the reverse direction before the action. ..but perhaps not much more than that. Anyway, I had a blast and was humbled by the experience. Ever since then I have hoped to do claymation again and really learn it. So, now I am educating myself as I teach and learn along side children. I do know a bit about storyboarding as I used to storyboard for various projects so I am incorporating these lessons in as well. Anyway, this was a fun blast from the past today to find this animation.