Time to build and film this project was spent mainly preparing and doing test work for it. I spent around 2 hours actually filming it, but part of that time was setting up the stage and clay pieces for it. I spent a lot more time actually working through the kinks of the animation and how I was going to literally approach it with my test animations. My build behind the animation was quite simple including pink, white, and blue clay to create an eye ball dude and then some wire to animate the starting drip.
My biggest problem in this animation was found mainly in the attempt to separate the clay from itself. I used 3 different very distinct colors and because of that I had to be very careful with all the parts, making them stick enough together to stay one piece but not so closely to no longer be separable. I really noticed this in my test animation and decided to rework my idea so I wouldn't need to be putting on and taking off pieces of clay so often. I kept it mainly to the blinking of the eyes. Additionally there was also the post production editing out the tweezers out of the shots so the animation appears to be floating in space. But I didn't have too much issues with it.
Aha moment came to me when I watched my first attempt to the eye slit opening from no where. I got the timing of the eye slit cutting open out of the clay perfectly first try and it gave me the confidence to press on with that plan. It did amazingly both in my test and final animation which makes me really satisfied.
If I animated this again I would absolutely bake the clay when it reaches its main shape without the eyes. That way I could animate the pupils moving around without accidentally destroying everything I had made in the process. Additionally the final creature would appear more refined and have more eyeballs which every ominous eye creature needs.
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