This is really cool, it reminds me of a 2-D side scrolling video game in some way. Also I didn't really realize the scale of your characters was so small until I saw the lamp and paper next to them. It really puts it in perspective.
As for video editing, there are a lot of choices out there. I do like Sony Vegas, but compared to Adobe Premiere, it's a bit on the limited side. But I make do with it and it does allow you to do most things and is straight forward. The learning curve isn't too steep and it's also not going to break the bank. I think I bought mine for 50 bucks, at least not too bad.
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What you want to do is us a double boiler and melt down your clay until it is a liquid. From there you can dip your armature into it to coat the entire thing. You can do this several times until the clay is thick. That's the best way to do it. There are tutorials in the store if you want to see examples. Particularly the puppet sculpting tutorial here:
www.stopmotionstore.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1
I also have a free playlist in the tutorial section of this page of me creating a blue monster puppet. I go over most of the techniques there:
animateclay.com/index.php/articles/9-beg...ay-9x-video-playlist
Either of those should get you on the right track. If you do end up making your puppet make sure to share a picture or two. I'd love to see how it turns out.
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It really depends. I like to melt my clay to the armature which causes it to be a bit stiff once it cools.
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Technically you can harden the clay by cooling it down in a freezer for a while. However it will get soft once it heats up again. Another way to do it is to melt the clay to the armature. When this clay cools it does become slightly harder until you knead it in your hands a lot. If you want hard parts you might consider sculpting the forearms, upper arms, lower legs and upper legs in polymer clay you bake. Then add soft clay where the joints are so they can bend. That is a bit tricky to do but has been done by some studios.
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Looking good! I think your decision to keep the mouths simple when you have so many cats to animate is the smart move. Technically if you had the software you could always add some digital sticker-like mouths on there after animation like how they did in JoJo's Circus:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgIfUlT-W4Q
But of course it's still a lot of work to do - and it's definitely not necessary. Thanks for sharing and do post your next film when it's completed!
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You are definitely getting better and better Animatoste. It looks to me like you have honed your own unique style now. It's very recognizable.
Hey Dhilly, it definitely is possible to use real smoke, fire and even explosions using things like fireworks in stop motion. The way it is usually done is by filming those things against a black background. Then keying out the black so only the light is able to come through in the shot. It's the same process used in green screen, but of course you'll need to use some editing software. That way you can overlay the live action onto the animation you've made.
If you want to do it in a safe way there are free stock videos you can grab over here:
www.pexels.com/search/videos/explosion/
You can also use programs like Blender to create those effects. This is a video tutorial on hw to do it:
[video]
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I put up a new article in the news section. If you haven't seen Blink-182's Christmas video, it's really well done.
