It's a simple concept, but even expensive films have been produced with claymation.
Claymation has been used to make 30-second commercials, full-length movies, and everything in-between. Claymation has a unique feel that combines a sense of reality and unfettered imaginative expression. The reality stems from the fact that real objects are being filmed, but because the scene and characters are created from a malleable medium, your imagination is free to create anything. The range of characters you can create is infinite, but there are general steps that will help move your creation along.
Instructions
1. Select the personal characteristics you want to emphasize in your character. Do you want your character to be generous, kind, mean, greedy? Is your character wealthy, artistic, dapper, unkempt?
2. Match your character's physical characteristics to his personal characteristics. A match or a contrast can work here. For example, you may have a character who is a nosy busybody, and you could give him either abnormally small or abnormally large ears.
3. Model the clay into the rough shape you envision for your character. Now is the time to experiment with different ideas. Try to keep your characters overall dimensions between 3 and 5 inches in height --- smaller is hard to make changes with, larger is difficult to pose.
4. Make the features of your character. Keep in mind the personal characteristics you want to convey, but also keep in mind that making frame-by-frame changes to detailed features can be very time consuming. Find a balance that will allow you to express what your character needs to express without requiring too much remodeling from shot to shot.
5. Build the shooting model of your character. Using your ideas from the previous two steps, shape your character. To reduce weight, you can make shapes of crushed aluminum foil as the basis for large body parts. You can also choose to use armature supports --- wire or toothpicks --- to maintain your character's stability.
6. Oil-based clay is preferred by professionals, because it doesn't dry out, but any clay can be used.
Carve in details using tools: toothpicks, paring knives, finishing nails --- anything that will create the shape you want. To enhance visibility and expressiveness of your character, you can use contrasting clay colors for details and embellishments. Yellow buttons on a blue jacket, or white eyes on an orange face, for example.
