Aardman Animations

Aardman Animations, is a British animation studio which is in Bristol. The studio is famous for films which uses stop-motion clay animation techniques, especially those that feature Plasticine characters, for example Wallace and Gromit, shaun and angry boys.

Wallace and Gromit are movies that use a technique called stop motion animation. It is a story based on plasticine models that make the characters come to life. The animated characters are shot one frame at a time which creates the illusion of movement when all of the frames are played as a continuous sequence. Then are moved slightly, to give the impression of movement in the final film. He uses clay because it is easy to manipulate for different expression and movement but some use movable dolls. This technique may duplicate frames sometimes to be used in similar movements. A film has twenty four separate frames. A typical Wallace and Gromit film takes around 30 frames per day. It makes a lifeless objects come to life. Here is a video of behind the scenes of Wallace and gromit

Before the 80’s animation techniques were divided into two categories which was drawn animation and model or stop-motion animation. It involved photographing a series of two dimensional images such as drawings and sometimes cut-out shapes. Both techniques developed quickly in the early years of cinema. Stop motion helped reduce the work required to produce drawn animation as it eliminated the need to redraw the backgrounds and all the characters again. This type of technique seems to suit all ages depending on the story line but preferably younger children.

In stop motion animation it is life like and feels more in depth of the character and the surrounding but as a contrast it may have some disadvantages causing some limitations as time is the essence in productivity and it takes many hours of work producing limited footage. It is very time consuming.

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