Clay Animation Camp at Piedmont's Recreation Department

Last summer the McKay's held a week long Clay Animation class for the City of Piedmont's Recreation Department for ages eight to fifteen.  All week they were animating a lot of clay and some aluminum foil just for fun!  Here are a few photos and some of the kids animating and their awesome animations!

With twenty kids we worked in smaller groups and sometimes as one big group make as many animations as we could. At the end of the week everyone brought in a usb or we supplied a DVD and the kids got to take home their animations.  Most of the kids wanted to edit at home in iMovie.

Here are a few more animations they did that week!

For fun we brought along some aluminum foil to animate!

It was good fun and we can't wait to do it again this year!

How to animate your Clay Dude at home!

Here are some documents you can pull to your computer and print to learn how to easily animate your Clay Dude at home!

Clay Dudes a hit at BAICFF!!

Clay dudes were a hit at the 2009 Bay Area International Children's Film Festival!  40 + children had an amazing time customizing their own Clay Dude and animating their dance party film!  The two sessions, taught by Valerie LaPointe and Matthew Luhn were sold-out, and the kids had a chance to see their animation at the closing of the festival on Sunday.  Don't worry though, soon you'll be able to order your own Clay Dudes to animate at home!!

Original Clay Dude© Movie

Clay Dude© creator, Nicole LaPointe-McKay created a custom movie for one lucky couples wedding!  This short was animated with a Canon Digital SLR, with a USB connector cable attached to a MAC laptop.  Cannon provides software for capturing frames, directly from the computer's laptop, and with an AC adapter plugged in to keep your camera on... you are good to go animating!  Cutting out the button clicking on the camera helps create a stable shot.  Check it out!

Clay Dudes Debut in 2008 Animation Classes!

Clay Dudes, created by LaPointe-McKay productions, hit Animation Workshop classes back in 2008.  The creators, Nickie LaPointe-McKay and Alan McKay came up with the designs for animation classes taught by Matthew Luhn and Valerie LaPointe.  The characters were an instant success and have been used since in various workshops!  An inner armature keeps the character stable, while the clay body is soft and able to be sculpted any way you like.  With this malleable form to go off of, kids can have an original creation of their own that is easy to animate!