This is the longest piece (1:40) because of the straight video in the beginning.  The actual card animation is around 45 seconds.

Each card stands and moves using a small wire frame.  The clay ‘ball’ is also on a wire frame.  It is green plant wire.  I was going to chroma key out the wire, but decided it looked OK compared to the massive amount of work needed to key it out.  There were a lot of cards to keep track of, but standard baseball actions made the job easier.  During filming, we were each in charge of three or four movements (cards/bases/ball)