Clay Animation Project
This project was a collaboration among Waters teachers, students and Chicago Arts Partnership in Education (CAPE).  The project began in January, 2006 and ended with our final presentation in June. During the project, students recorded their feelings about claymation and communicating their thoughts about the project on the Waters Claymation Blog, hosted by 21Publish.

Information and Tips for Creating Claymation

Clay Animation Station 

Clay Animation Made Easy

How To Create Clay Animation In Five Easy Steps

Clay Animation Samples

GigaPalette

Animation Clips

Creating the StoryBoard
The students began by writing a round-robin story with each creating a different part.  The storyboard reflects the basic outline of the story in words and drawings.
Making the Clay Figures and Backdrops
So far, the part I like best about working on this project is working on the backdrops I think I am learning a lot about how to use differnt tools to make the backdrops.
AN (blog entry)
...the part I like best about working on this project is working with the clay. It's a lot of fun and I get to know the students in 204 more. Working with clay and the kids is cool, i get to know more about the kids that i didn't know about them before. the kids are nice to work with.
TP (blog entry)
Using The Digital Camera

As Renée (our wonderful CAPE artist) moves the clay figures, Lorraine and Gabby experiment with taking still photos of the action.
Lorraine, Autumn and Gabby adjusting the camera before taking the next shot.
Finishing Touches
We completed the video by uploading the digital photos into iPhoto and then imported them into iMovie.  The students wrote, sang and played instruments to an original song, which plays over the movie's final credits.


Here is the chorus of the song:

Oh Danny, Oh Danny
His boot got stuck
His boot got stuck
His boot got stuck
Oh Danny, Ohi Danny
His boot got stuck
But his sister came
And gave him luck!

 
Presentation - Sharing Our Work
The students invited three classrooms to come and learn about claymation and view the movie.  After reading the information the students had put on posterboards, listening to their stories about the claymation process, and seeing the actual movie, a questions and answer session completed the presentation.  It was a wonderful end to a fun and exciting project.


Explaining the claymation process to students.
 Answering student questions, such as
"How many pictures did you have to take?"