Choosing the Best Clay for Claymation

Choosing the best clay for ClaymationIt may seem like a trivial task but choosing the best clay for your claymation is a key factor in making a good stop motion clay animation. If you choose the wrong kind of clay you will end up being very frustrated and disappointed. There are just a few factors that you need to take in to account in order to ensure you get the best results. I have listed them out here for you to use as a guide to choosing the best clay.

• Kiln fired Hardening Clays

.This type of clay have very limited use in claymation stop motion. You generally require easily manipulated non hardening clay in order to animation your clay characters. This type of clay is normally used for pottery work.

• Non Hardening Clay - Oil Based.

This form of clay is the one that is most commonly used for making claymation characters. It is generally oil based ( and that is key ) to allow you to make characters that are easily molded and manipulated in to the wide variety of positions needed to animate in stop motion. There are numerous brands available that are oil based on the market today. Plastalina from Van Aken is very popular. It's inexpensive and comes in a range of colors to suit all animation projects.

• Oven Baked Clay

This type of clay is soft until it is baked in an oven. It may seem like it would be unsuited to stop motion claymation as it hardens. However it is easily manipulated in to mouthpieces and then hardened in an oven to use in speech or dialog for clay characters. The various shapes are used as syllables matching dialog and stuck on to the faces of the clay characters during animating.

• Water Based Clay

These types of clay are a no go area for claymation. The clay looses its moisture quickly when exposed to the air and the result is that you will see cracks form on the surface of your claymation characters. It is also weak and will not stand upright or in the positions in which you pose your characters.My RecommendationI would strongly suggest you use a good quality oil based clay such as Plastalina or Newplast. Both of these clays will not dry out easily, or show cracks and are easily manipulated in to whatever pose you wish to place your clay characters. Newplast is available in 500g layered bars in various colors. It is firm enough to ensure your character stays in position for each pose. So remember choosing the right clay is as important as choosing a good storyline and the stop motion software you use to effectively entertain and engage your audience. Watch the below Youtube video where I use NewPlast to create my claymation character.