Calling for Help

I was thinking today that maybe some of you guys that read this blog could help me out on the new site a little. Basically I need help collecting some resources. It's something that's not normally the easiest for me to do because of my internet situation, but with a little help, it will make it less painful for me as well as speed things up with the process of getting this new site done.

Basically, I need any links or You Tube videos that you have saved or know of that you think would be worth sharing. These links don't necessarily have to do specifically about clay animation. Here's a list of a few things that I'm looking for, but this list doesn't cover everything. The only requirement is that they are quality. I don't want to have to sort through a bunch of stuff that I wont share. If you think they're good, chances are they will be.

Learning and Informational Videos and Sites
These can be about anything related to stop motion. Whether it's about mold making, film making, armature making, photography, brickfilms, or anything else related, I want it.

Entertainment Videos
I want to create a collection of good stop motion videos that are entertaining. These can range from clips, to episodes, to advertisements. They can be general stop motion, claymation, brickfilms, and whatever other forms of stop motion there are out there. No beginner animations that you just want to show off please. I want these to be relaxing and interesting to watch. They should be good examples of film or animation.


I guess that actually pretty much sums it up. If you would like to submit the links, just post them in a comment, or email them to me at kramer.klaymation(at)gmail.com. Replace the (at) with a @. Thanks bunches and I appreciate your help. By helping me, you'll be helping others.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's Thanksgiving break right now so I'm able to think about the site a little more as well as do a few other things in my free time. Today I messed around with a simple, stylized sculpt and also started to brainstorm for the new site name again. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with the rest of the time I have free, but hopefully I don't waste it. Here's a run down of what I have to do. It'll give you an idea of how much work I have left as well as help me get my thoughts straight. Estimated time to do things will be in parentheses. I still have school to go to so they are a little longer than it would be if I were working on them straight all day.

Site Name Brainstorming and Finalization (1-2 weeks)
Site Design and Coding (1-3 months)
- Research for needed code and SEO
- Blog Design and Editing
Site Information (1-2 months, with plenty of break time)
- You Tube Video Players (Find as go; Whole Time Period)
- Video Research and Collection
- Tutorial Edit and Redesigns (1-3 weeks)
- Link Information (1-2 weeks)
- Product Information and Links (1-3 weeks)
- Certain Page Descriptions and Text (1 week)
Possible Tutorial Writes (1 week)
Ask for Donations for Hosting (1 week to post on sites)
Advertisement and Exposure(2 weeks)
Kramer Klaymation Redesign?

It may not look like tons of work to do right there, but now that I list it all out again, I can tell that this will take a while to complete. I'm probably going to aim for a finalization date at the end of May since I would like to work on "The Hole" during the summer. Hopefully that will be plenty of time to find and get things as well as do the design and everything. In theory, it should work since all the estimated times added up is equal to about 6 months, which from now, is June. This next month I'm going to really try to get the name finalized and design almost complete. With that out of the way, the coding can begin and I can focus on other things.

If you want to see a Thanksgiving inspired animation I made with my brother a couple years ago, head off to my website, here, and watch Turkey Fest.

Before you leave, remember to be thankful for what you have this Thankgiving and use it for good. So many people in the world don't even have a computer(which you're using right now), much less other essential needs.


Thanks for visiting.

Slow Progress

Well, I've be honest. I've been pretty lazy this month with the new website stuff. I've also been pretty busy with other things as well, so it's not all just me being lazy. It's been hard to come up with a good solid name and I need to do that before I can start designing and coming up with a good logo design and website design. Hopefully next month I'll get into things a little more than I did this month. I need to get a head start on doing up a schedule for next month so that I don't put it off for a long time like I did for this one.

At a Stand Still

I still haven't done any more work on the site. This is partially because I haven't come up with a new schedule for myself, but also because I would like to come up with the site name before continuing on with anything else. Once the site name is decided, I can start working on the design of the logo and then on the design of the site. Then, I'll have to decide between an artsy look or a more clean look for the site. There are downsides to both that I may post about later and let you vote on. I still have a bunch of content to gather, but I'll have to leave that for other times when I have access to a computer and internet with large amounts of time. I am brainstorming for ideas, by-the-way, for the site name. I just have to find the right one so it's taknig a while.

Busy With a New Lens on Top

Recently, I've been really busy with various things so I haven't had the time to work on anything for the site at all for the past few days. I hoping to be able to get back to work on it sometime soon, but I'll have to see how my school work load is as well as other things that I have going on are.

One thing that I did manage to do this weekend was to purchase a new lens. It was a rushed purchase, but I’ve been doing research on it for some time and it’s one of the sharpest, but cheap lenses on the market. From what I’ve seen so far from it, it works great and has awesome depth of field as well as sharpness. I still have yet to get out and use it some for some real stuff. I don’t know if I’ll be using this for any animation yet because it is a cheap lens, and it being that, it will probably fail a lot sooner than others with a quality build. I just don’t think shooting hundreds of shots with it would be a very good idea, especially if I want it to last. We’ll see though, I still may use it for some simple short stuff.