# 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).