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Clay Color
Clay Color
I am new to claymation. I've been sculpting with Van Aken modeling clay (gray). I really enjoy the flexibility and the ease to create great detail, but I've come to a serious problem: only one color. I have painted a few inanimate objects with acrylic paint, and the result looked decent, but for moving parts: the paint cracks and the clay dries/breaks as well. For what I'd like to accomplish, solid colors will not work. What professional advice can you offer?
I have yet to perfect a style or method for my film. Right now everything is trial & error. Is there another type of paint I could use? Mixing pigment powder? Baking clay? Before I run off to the hobby store and load up with more materials, I'd like to see what advice is offered.
P.S. I am very fortunate to have stumbled upon this website. I have spent the majority of my day reading through the forum, looking at galleries and videos. This community is very strong with talent and the vibe is comforting. I look forward to sharing with all of you in the near future. Best wishes! - Jason
- jason
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- 11 Posts
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Re: Clay Color
Thanks for joining the forum I hope you decide to stay and share your upcoming videos! anyway to topic I also use van aken claytoon clay and I know that there are a whole variety of colors so I dont know maybe your shop you go to only has one color or you just never saw anything else but next time you go there I would recommend asking about other colors also bake able clay does work in stop motion but you need to use it before it is baked you can paint clay figures but I have never done this and I really dont know how or what you do so i hope that helped!
- mongothemonkfish
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- 59 Posts
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Re: Clay Color
Only one color? Do you have access to any other oil based clays? (Non-hardening ones). I personally don't know how well painting clay holds up, but I'd expect someone like Van Aken to make more than just one color. Well, good luck and hopefully you'll be able to learn much from this site.
- JesseOffy
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- 168 Posts
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Re: Clay Color
Have you tried mixing colors of clay? Van Aken does not have a lot of colors but it does have the basic primary colors. You can use a double pan and heat the clay. Start with a small white block and add some of the other colors to make new ones. I know I have seen an artical on this site by Marc. Not sure if that helps but good luck and welcome to the site.
- gcavasos
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- 14 Posts
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Re: Clay Color
well I disagree If you find the right places you can get almost any color from Van aken and they come in different packs the ones you are talking about are the "Kiddie" packs that are just a little sample of a couple colors for a beginner
- mongothemonkfish
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- 59 Posts
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Re: Clay Color
I just had this idea and haven't had a chance to try it out, but if you absolutely cannot find any other colors (which is weird because I have like 5 different colors of van aken clay), try getting white clay and mixing food coloring into it. Make sure you wear gloves with the food coloring or else you will dye your hands that color though.
- King of Boredom
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- 26 Posts
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Re: Clay Color
Mongothemonkfish, you are correct. There are a lot more colors available than I thought.
- gcavasos
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- 14 Posts
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Re: Clay Color
yeah I Guess the store that i go to just has a lot more colors then I dont know thanks though! actually I used to go to hobby store where there were only a couple colors but if you go the art supply store it had more and animation wire I would recommend going to the art supply store just check it out see if it has the same great stuff as mine does
- mongothemonkfish
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- 59 Posts
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Re: Clay Color
Thanks for the replies, everyone!
Solid colors (even a wide variety of them) is rather limiting. They look great for cartoon-like puppets, but the things I'm visualizing are more complex. For example, the featured video on this site : La Nostaglia del Sr. Alambre. The faces are not solid colors, or even layers of solid-clay colors. In the brief "making of" they show that all of the heads are made out of brown clay that was most likely formed in molds, baked, and then painted with something. Other films where *paint* is used on the puppets would be that of Tim Burton's creation. However, I could be wrong.
Perhaps I need to use a clay that I can bake... smooth it down with sandpaper and paint several coats on it. I could exchange heads with various facial expressions, but I'm unsure of how to align the new head up with the old head in the frame. I had the grand idea of trying to do everything digitally. For instance, build up my puppet out of gray clay, and then shoot all of the frames. Take these frames and color them digitally - like video game developers do with their 3D models, but so far I have had very little luck achieving the right look. I have been using Photoshop Extended CS4. It could be possible to achieve the right appearance with this program, but then again I may need something more along the lines of Maya - where I can apply the "mask" to my puppet and then animate him digitally.
Have any of you experience with these methods mentioned?
Thanks again for the replies and the warm welcoming 
-Jason
- jason
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- 11 Posts
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Re: Clay Color
They don't all necessarily use clay. Foam latex and plasticine are common for feature films, since they don't require constant re-sculpting and don't melt under hot studio lights.
- JesseOffy
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- 168 Posts
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