how to make a clay animation
current as of august 12, 2000

materials required:
digital camera, any type will do
clay, play dough, any kind of physical props
would probably help: some kind of tripod

plan your animation
set up camera and start taking pictures one at a time
(we have had better luck with "natural lighting" than with flash

transfer pictures to computer
(the fastest, most reliable way in our experience is with a card reader than with a serial cable)
On a Mac, movies can be made very simply with the "pro" version of quicktime player ($30)
Put your pictures in a separate folder, and keep their numbering label, rather than renaming them.
In the file menu, choose "open image sequence".
Find your folder and open it
select a playback speed (we've found 6 frames/ sec to be a good starting point)
If you like the movie, save it using the "self contained" option in the save window...
You can do simple editing in quicktime player pro, but more complicated editing such as changing the frame size has to be done in more complicated programs like Premiere.