Claymation

I know there are quite a few film students on these boards, so I am wondering if any of you could recommend me a good book on making claymation shorts?

I have a bunch of short scripts I have written over the years, and just last week got the bright idea of perhaps bringing some of them to life via clay animation. I know the basic principals of making claymation, but I'd like to get my hands on some sort of guide detailing the tools and tricks of the trade. 

It's really no different than any other kind of model/puppet animation, the only issue is the material you're working in.  The one issue I have heard about is that the lighting tends to melt the clay puppets, so you need to keep your set well air-conditioned and work fast.  Having a spare refrigerator to store everything in when you're not shooting would help too.

Wow... you started a thread.

Thanks for the advice Ziz, I hadn't even thought about the issue of melting from the lights, or about the advantages a spare fridge might provide. And thanks for the the links and the software recommendations Octorox. I'll check those out.

The skeletons and the lighting techniques are two of the major things I want to do research on before starting, or committing to start. Also doing the voice track first is a very useful piece of advice. I was actually planning on doing it the other way around and syncing my actors voices to the animation; but now that you have got me thinking about it, that is sounding like a really bad idea and just asking for syncing issues.

So, anyone have advice on getting a decent recording without owning a ton of expensive audio equipment? I don't really have a budget for this thing, it is really just for kicks, so buying a lot of expensive stuff isn't really an option.

Thanks for the tips and comments. Keep them coming.

I am somewhat considering adapting my analogy Jorge's Famous Three Layered Cake (which I wrote as a post on this site) into an animated short. It is nice and short, so I think it would be a good test drive into the whole claymation thing for me. Plus, since it is mostly narration, the whole syncing process wouldn't be overwhelming for me.

Soooo, anybody have a good narrator voice who'd be willing to contribute to a project that will ultimately (if it is ever realized) become just another worthless youtube video?

Anybody able to do a good George Lucas impression... maybe with a slight Hispanic twist (there's a challenge for ya, not even sure what that'd sound like)?

We can't get Mr. Spielburg, so we went for his Mexican Non-Union Equivalent: Señor Spielbergo.