Bubbles Burst claymation sequence for Les Claypool and Sean Lennon

I did the claymation sequence at the end. There's a bit of back story in this NPR piece:
NPR interview with Sean Lennon

Direction, Animation, Camera, Compositing
Webster Colcord

Design, Sculpture, Fabrication
Damon Bard

Additional fabrication
Mike Murnane
Ralph Cordero
Fon Davis
Eliot Sirota
Sabrina Wichner
Keri Palmetto

Rigging Assistance
Justin Kohn

Rig Removal Assistance
Raj Solanki

Special Thanks
Ivan Landau
Erin Colcord

Below is the animatic:

And here's timelapse of drawing the animatic:

New Clay Animation for Primus

In between and around Ted 2 duties and starting on a new CG project at Atomic Fiction, and back-and-forth between L.A. and Oakland, I contributed to a new clay animated music video for Primus.  The band was happy with the way the Beats Antique/Les Claypool "Beezlebub" video turned out and asked Ivan Landau about doing another.  Unfortunately I was too busy to take it all on, but my friends Edgar Humberto Alvarez and Scott Nordlund stepped in to work on it.  Below are my three main clips, then the final video.

Les Claypool music video clay animation clip 01 from Webster Colcord on Vimeo.
Lighting, sculpt, rigging and animation: Webster Colcord
Miniature Upright Bass by David Waddle


Les Claypool music video clay animation clip 02 from Webster Colcord on Vimeo.
Lighting, sculpture, compositing and animation: Webster Colcord
Assistant animation: Keshav Abrol


Les Claypool 360 spin clay animation from Webster Colcord on Vimeo.
Lighting, sculpt, and rigging: Webster Colcord
Miniature Upright Bass by David Waddle
Animation by Kim Blanchette


Les Claypool music video clay animation clip 03 from Webster Colcord on Vimeo.
Lighting, camera, sculpt, rigging and animation: Webster Colcord
Miniature Upright Bass by David Waddle

A little behind-the-scenes timelapse below...


set construction of "candy cave" from Webster Colcord on Vimeo.

In the L.A. studio

Working on a couple of small claymation projects for a short while, at my home studio in L.A., before starting on the next big CG project...

clay-on-glass rooster element

Shot some clay-on-glass animation today for a personal project on a spare stage at Shadow Machine. This is an element that will be composited into a live action shot for a documentary. The smudges on the glass won't show up because it was shot frontlight/backlight, which means that there's a perfect silhouette for each frame of the animation.


clay-on-glass rooster element from Webster Colcord on Vimeo.

California Raisin refurbished

I just finished cleaning up this old California Raisin for display. Sorry for the poor quality of the photo, I'll try to take a better one and replace it. If memory serves, I built this particular puppet and animated it in the last shot of this PSA for the Public Library: Raisin Rap

That's my hand that comes down and stamps the book in the last shot. All of the Raisins for the PSA were made using existing molds from "Meet the Raisins" - this Raisin is "BeBop." Vince Backeberg fabricated all of the legs for the Raisins, I think. I also animated the shot where "Red" says "Check 'em out." Hal Hickel, Larry Bafia, Brad Johnson and the late Bruce McKean also worked on the PSA. Sir Mix-a-Lot did the music.

Boris Karloff sculpt

This is an old sculpt that I dug out and photographed today, it's Boris Karloff from "The Black Cat." It was done in Sculpey and very tiny - about 3/4" high.