7th Grade Art Machines

Some 8th and 7th Graders make Claymtion movies in art. The process takes about 15 class periods and involves teams of 4-5 students. Each team must create a storyboard, characters from modeling clay on armatures, sets and props and then begin the stop-motion photography. They use still digital cameras to take 200-300 pictures over several days. The clay characters are moved only slightly between pictures. The pictures then are transfered from the removable card to the computer with a card reader and the process of putting them together in a sequence begins in the iMovie program on the Macs in the art room. The most successful movies use many different editing techniques to create a Claymation movie complete with sound and credits.