Claymation Shader - Drop Deadstream
For Abertay's Summer Shorts 2026 program, I'm working as 3D Lead. The project aims to combine 2D and 3D animation, as well as mimicking a claymation style with digital tools, so my focus is in the technical aspects of lookdev, as well as developing techniques to allow seamless integration of 2D and 3D assets.
Initial claymation tests in Unreal Engine. This shader combines normal and displacement noise as well as fingerprint textures to mirror the way clay changes subtly when being animated.
In pipeline tests, Blender ended up replacing Unreal. This is the first test in Blender of the claymation rendering system, using a sphere mesh.
Further iteration on the character proxy model. This setup varies the settings of different items to ensure minimal clipping even with mesh displacement. Eyes and mouth are excluded to allow 2D assets.
First test of a system which allows hand-drawn expressions to be swapped out on planes in front of a 3D face.
The same system implemented onto the model with rough expressions - this went on to guide both the rigging and lipsync processes.