Clay World

A small tabletop world of hand-made clay, lit like a stop-motion set, in real 3D (three.js); every word sits above it.

Essence, and what it is not

• Everything is a rounded, hand-pressed form of matte clay, slightly out of true, thumb-dented; no sharp edge, no gloss.
• Things are made, not shown: squeezed into being, re-kneaded into something else, rolled out as coils, cut open with a wire.
• Things have weight: what falls stretches, squashes flat, throws up crumbs and jolts the camera.
• One small set under one camera that orbits, tilts and dollies; the floor curves up into a pale backdrop, with no horizon.
• Words are thick rounded letters and pale clay tags over the picture, never inside it.

Not glossy plastic or bricks (no clearcoat, studs or bevels), not low-poly (no facets), not Iso Works (no grid or flat-shaded blocks), not Depth Stage (no flat cards: every form is a lit solid), not a cartoon (no outlines).

Ground and material

ClayWorld is the set, light and camera, one per scene: a sand-clay floor bending up into a cool backdrop, a warm soft key (the sun), a cool rim, a fill, falloff and grain; island stands a scene on a round base. Clay is matte with a faint velvet rim and a bump of finger pressure and whorls; each form has its own wobble and dents, and "boils" on twos as handled clay does. Shadows are soft; a contact shadow tightens as a form comes down.

Colour roles

• panel the floor, bg the backdrop; an island's base is a palette clay.
• Forms take a clay by what they are: data (tomato) the story's one subject, good leaves, warn sun, grad blossom, op water, bad berry, muted earth and bark.
• text (plum) is ink: letters, pupils, a tag's dot and coil. panel2 and border are the pale clay of tags and captions and their edge.
• One saturated clay leads a frame. Never pure white or black, a gradient on a form, or a glow.

Type and captions

Fredoka for everything: titles 96–140 px at 700 as thick clay letters with a darker side; figures 160–220 px; tags 40 px at 600, notes 28 px, nothing smaller. Chinese: LXGW WenKai for titles and tags, Noto Sans SC for text. The caption is a strip of pale clay with a pressed edge and plum text, low in the frame: one more piece of the set.

Motion

• Arrivals are physical: form, drop (linear), draw; letters drop and squash. Changes are hand-made: grow, tint, knead, Slice.
• An impact is felt: Crumbs burst and the world's shake jolts once, on the frame of contact. One or two per film.
• Squash keeps the volume: wide when flat, thin when tall. Overshoot once, settle within half a second; never a rubbery loop.
• The camera moves slowly (easeInOutSine, 2–5 s): orbits, push-ins, a crane to look straight down on what was opened. It breathes; the boil keeps held clay alive.
• Nothing fades in or slides flat from an edge.

Composition and framing

The subject stands in the middle third; the camera looks down 5–30° through a long lens (26°), so the world feels small and close. A form that lands lands above the captions. Use about half the frame and leave a quiet side for a figure or title. Between ideas the camera moves on the set, or the scene cuts to a new set.

Sound

Soft close foley: a pat on each landing, a squelch as a form is squeezed, a wire through a cut, marimba. Narration warm, unhurried.

Components

• compare — Cut in two (react/parts/slice.tsx): A round form sliced across by a cutting wire; the top half corkscrews over and lands beside the other, showing its layers and chambers, and the seeds pop up. Fits: the seeds of an apple, the layers of the Earth, the rings of a tree, a cell
• data — Clay figure (react/parts/figure.tsx): A large figure in rounded clay numerals that drops on with a squash and counts up, with its unit and a short line. Fits: how long, how many, how big: the one figure a sentence turns on
• ground — Clay world (react/parts/world.tsx): A small tabletop set of matte clay under soft studio light, one camera orbiting and dollying, a sun that can circle it; every component stands in it. Fits: every scene, one per scene: tween yaw to turn, dist to push in, sun for days passing, shake on an impact
• link — Rolled coil (react/parts/coil.tsx): A snake of clay rolled out along a path as it is said, its round end leading; with an arrow it points onward. Fits: a stem or branch, a root, a river, a vessel, the arrow of a cycle
• mark — Little clay character (react/parts/critter.tsx): A small clay character with pressed-on eyes that blink and look; it flies in, perhaps looping the loop, and lands with a squash. Fits: a bee, a ladybird, a bird, a germ: the one the story follows
• mark — Splash of crumbs (react/parts/crumbs.tsx): Clay crumbs thrown out in a ring from an impact, each flying its own arc and landing with a squash. Fits: a fruit hitting the ground, a splash, a meteor, a hammer blow
• mark — Clay form (react/parts/lump.tsx): One rounded, hand-pressed clay form, squeezed into being, dropped in with a squash, or re-kneaded into another shape. Fits: a seed, a drop, a cell, a stone, a fruit, a planet, a leaf: anything with a body
• term — Clay tag (react/parts/tag.tsx): A strip of pale clay with a word pressed in, on a short coil from a dot on what it names; it pops on with a squash. Fits: naming a part, a term the narration defines, a small note
• title — Clay letters (react/parts/title.tsx): Thick rounded clay letters that drop on one after another and squash, under a small line naming the subject. Fits: the question a film opens on, a chapter, the last words

Native moves

• Squeezed into being. A form swells from a pinch, overshoots, wobbles and smooths. Fits content like: a blossom opening; a cell appearing; an idea taking shape.
• Re-kneaded into something else. The clay flows from one shape into the next, lumpy half way, changing colour as it goes. Fits content like: a flower's heart becoming a fruit; a caterpillar becoming a chrysalis; ice becoming water.
• The landing that lands. A form stretches as it falls, squashes flat, crumbs fly and the camera jolts. Fits content like: a ripe apple falling; a meteor striking; a heavy fact.
• Cut through with a wire. A taut wire is drawn through, the top half corkscrews over, the inside shows and its parts pop up. Fits content like: the star inside an apple; the layers of the Earth; the rings of a tree.
• Rolled out as a coil. A snake of clay is laid along a path. Fits content like: a branch growing; a river; a blood vessel.
• Days pass as the sun circles. The key light swings round the set again and again, shadows wheeling, while a figure counts. Fits content like: a season of growth; a week of rising dough; a year of a glacier.

Avoid: pitfalls

• A branch in front of the character → put it on the camera's side of its perch; look slightly up.
• A form lands under the captions → land it further back, or tilt the camera down first.
• A pale cut face → two or three clays in clear steps and a dark seed or core.
• A label inside the picture → a tag over the set, on a coil from its point.
• A busy or slow set → five to fifteen forms, one world per scene.
• Every landing jolts → one or two impacts a film; the rest just squash.

Freedom in each work

The story, the set, the clays, which moves, the camera's path, the opening and ending. Three far-apart structures:

• A life cycle: one set through the seasons, ending where it began.
• An inside story: one object cut and cut again, each layer named.
• A little journey: a character lands in set after set (a raindrop from cloud to sea).