Secrets of Clay Animation Revealed E-Book Sample 5
- Wednesday, 19 May 2010 06:22
- Last Updated on Monday, 16 May 2011 05:48
- Written by Marc Spess
Hand Tricks
Converse Touch EFX, "Comic Book" © 1995 Webster Colcord all rights reserved.
When sculpting the hardening clay called Super Sculpey there is one trick I have learned to make this clay as smooth as glass. If you rub the sculpted part with the palm of your hand, you really get a nice sheen. This is mainly helpful when using this clay to sculpt larger pieces because it cuts down on the amount of sanding required.
Hand Problems
If you have cuts or scrapes on your hands, you will be inadvertently adding textures to your character when you handle it. It is frustrating to grab a character, attempt to smooth out a certain part, and end up scraping the clay when running a finger across an arm or leg. So, it is best to be careful when doing yard work, changing the oil in your car, or working with objects that can mess up your invaluable fingers. I discovered that playing guitar was a problem for me. I developed thicker skin where I pressed on the frets, and it affected the skin's sensitivity in those parts, causing me to press harder into the clay. As you gain experience, you will find that there are many things that affect your hands that you did not think of before.
Brush and Oil Tool
The next tool an animator uses is mineral oil, in combination with a 35mm film can and paper towels. This tool comes in very handy in more ways than one. The way you make the "film can tool" is by taking cut up pieces of paper towels and "smooshing" them inside the film can until your film can is packed almost to the top. Then pour mineral oil inside the film can, letting the paper towels absorb the oil. It will take awhile for the towels to do this, so you may want to pour in some oil, let it sit for around five minutes, and then pour in some more. The way you know when to stop adding oil is by brushing your finger over the top of the towels to see how much oil spreads on your finger. Ideally, your finger should have a thin coating of oil. What you don't want is a finger dripping with oil.
You can find the full version of Secrets of Clay Animation Revealed here
Click here to view sample page number 4
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