Design and Production

Design Course

Clay Animation Module - 4

Set Design from Scratch to Set

Design and Production

Once the study is complete, let's get into the production. The idea now is to recreate the same environment in a miniature, desktop format, on which the characters could be then animated

Deciding the look and feel of the fishes, their sizes, the materials they can be made in - abstracting their form.

Just try sketching, in order to get the form and color sorted out.

Mess around with some materials while fixing upon the patterns and textures.

Choose a material, which is closer to the real object. Be sensitive in understanding the nature of the object you are creating, and let this influence your choice of materials.

I discovered that it would be fun to make fishes from tire tubes, they impart a soft rubbery feeling, similar to the one you can feel on the skin of fishes.

Concentrating on the design elements, use them as a method to maintain a consistency in the style used for designing the props.

They should look like they belong to one family.

Final Props:

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The ruggedness, raw and rough feeling of a fish market has been captured by mixing plaster of paris, stone and clay. Mess it up using your hands.

Unevenness and imperfection should be the trademark of every element and prop created for this set.

For preparing the wall of the set I have used some dried coconut husk, mixed into the plaster of paris. This ensures that it hold together firmly, while imparting a rough texture onto the wall.

Plaster of paris is an amazing medium to work with. It is cheap, easy to mould, dries quickly, and can be used to create a number of textures.

Most of the objects used while building the props have been found through various scavenging trips that I made around my workspace.

Bamboo and raw wooden sticks being amongst those were used to create the roof of this set.

The stone slabs, made from thermocol, are where the fishes would be kept.

To give the damp, and wet feeling, applying varnish onto all the props.

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Clay Animation Module - 4