Every film consists of still images called frames. Most movies display 24 frames every second. That’s fast enough to trick our eyes into seeing motion. When you record a video on a phone or camcorder, the device puts those frames together. 

Stop-motion animation works differently—and much more slowly. The cameraperson snaps one frame at a time. Click! Then animators move the clay figures just slightly. Click! The figures move a little more. Click! 

Repeat that process 24 times and you’ve made one second of video. Vengeance Most Fowl took five years to complete. 

On a live action production, filmmakers have time to experiment and make mistakes. But when one second of film takes a whole week, you can’t afford a redo! Stop-motion animators map out the whole project beforehand. They draw storyboards. They turn those storyboards into an animatic—a hand-drawn rough draft of the entire movie—before their fingers touch the clay. 

And they do touch the clay. Look closely. You might see smudges and prints from the animators’ fingers. That’s part of the charm. 

“I think there’s something that resonates with audiences with stop-motion that they can tell it’s handcrafted,” says Merlin Crossingham. “They can tell that’s the human touch.” 

The result is movie magic. The clay figures move smoothly on screen. Of course, it’s not actually magic. It’s hard work, patience, and skill. 

Claymation bears the fingerprints of its makers. In the same way, Creation bears God’s fingerprints. He gave us His image—and He gives us the ability to create. When we make things, we can glorify the God who made us! What can you create with your hands today?