Have you ever wondered how animations like Chicken Run and Shaun the Sheep achieve their charming style and become massive successes? These beloved creations use an animation style known as Claymation. Also known as clay animation, Claymation is a type of stop motion animation created using moldable characters and objects made of clay or plasticine. Feature films and TV shows created using this style of animation turned out to be huge financial successes and found their way into the hearts of millions of viewers. In this article, we will explore this captivating type of animation and take a look at some feature films and TV series created using Claymation.
How is Clay Animation Created?
Claymation is one of many forms of stop motion animation. In this type of animation, characters, backgrounds, and other props are placed in desired poses within a set to be photographed. Since stop motion animation is meticulously created frame by frame, animators continuously move and mold characters into the desired pose for the next frame and take pictures of the set each time. This process is repeated until the resulting string of photos creates the animation sequence.
How Are Claymation Characters Created?
Claymation characters are created using wires that form an armature and clay or plasticine to cover the armature and act as moldable skin or sometimes clothing. The wire armature is easily bendable and can be adjusted to achieve various poses. These wires that act as the holding structure are also used in clothing and any part intended to be deformed.
How is Facial Clay Animation Created?
There are various methods to achieve facial animation in Claymation and they often require a ton of work. In order to create facial gestures, deforming the face shape is not enough and different types of mouth shapes should be created as well. These mouth shapes can be achieved either with molding the clay or with the use of stickers. Another method used for facial animation involves using various head objects. In some projects, there are dozens of heads created for different face and mouth gestures, and replaced on each frame to facilitate and accelerate production.
Is Creating Claymation Animation Difficult?
Claymation is a laborious and time-consuming type of animation. Creating character puppets requires mastery of various technical skills. Lots of mechanical objects with the ability to move and rotate in different directions are created for Claymation feature films. The animation process itself takes a lot of time, with some full-length Claymation feature films taking years to be recorded.
Is Claymation a Popular Way of Creating Animation?
Due to the difficulty involved in creating clay animation, it is not a widely used method of creating animation. Some stop motion feature animations are created using other materials instead of moldable clay. Rigged puppets are not necessarily made out of clay anymore. Plastic, metal, aluminum and every material that can be found in creating puppets or even mechanical robots have found their way into stop motion animation.
3D Printed Objects in Claymation
The advent of 3D printers in recent years helped animation studios with asset creation for Claymation animations. Filmmakers print multiple 3D faces, body parts and scene objects using 3D printers like. These removable parts reduce the animation work required for Claymation.
Examples of Claymation Animated Movies
Claymation has been around for a long time, but feature-length films created with this technique are relatively recent. We will explore some noteworthy films created with this type of animation.
Chicken Run
Published in 2000, Chicken Run is the first feature-length animated movie created using Claymation. The movie was a massive success in the comedy genre with $220 million in international sales. The animation production started in 1998. Around 200 people worked on the film, nearly 80 of them were animators. Chicken Run: The Dawn of The Nugget is the sequel to the original Chicken Run which was produced in 2023, is also an Aradman studio’s production.
Coraline
Created in 2009, Coraline is a 100-minute Claymation feature film produced by Laika Animation in the United States. The movie was based on a novel of the same name. Coraline was filmed in a 13,000 m² warehouse, highlighting the huge setup and costs required to create this type of animation. 3D printers also facilitated the production. Thousands of 3D printed parts, from faces to props, were used in the production of Coraline.
Shaun The Sheep
Shaun the Sheep is a popular British TV series animated using Claymation. Aardman has been behind the production of Shaun the Sheep since its beginning in 2007. The show has aired over 6 seasons and over 100 episodes. Shaun the Sheep has been nominated for twelve awards and has won seven including five Emmy Awards. Its charm and unique style have made it a beloved series among audiences of all ages.
Frankenweenie
Frankenweenie is a 2012 Claymation film created by Walt Disney and DreamWorks. The Claymation work for the Oscar-nominated film was produced by Mackinnon and Saunders in the UK. Over 200 puppets were designed and created by Mackinnon and Saunders for the film. The horror stop motion movie Frankenweenie grossed over $81.5 million. The film was animated by a team of skilled animators in Tim Burton Productions in collaboration with Disney.
Wallace & Gromit
Wallace & Gromit is probably one of the largest Claymation franchises in the stop motion industry that began in 1989. It consists of several short films, two feature films and multiple animated series produced for web and television. Wallace & Gromit is owned by the British company Aardman Animations. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, released in 2005 was the second feature-length Claymation movie created by the Aardman. The movie was a success commercially and won dozens of awards including Academy Awards for best animated feature film and BAFTA Award for Best British Film.
Leading Claymation Studios
As we said earlier, due to the difficulty and the complex nature of Claymation, there are not too many studios working on this type of animation. However, there are a few notable ones that produce high-end Claymation. Here we list three influential studios in Claymation and stop motion in general.
ZAardman
Aardman Animations Limited is a British animation studio founded in 1972. Aardman produced some of the most successful claymation films and TV series such as Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep, Flushed Away, and Arthur Christmas. Aardman can be considered the most important Claymation production company in the world. They have won dozens of awards for their work, including four Oscar Academy Awards.
Aardman’s Clay Shortage Problem
A major problem clay animation studios are facing is the lack of clay supply. Newclay, which was the main producer of clay for this type of animation, announced that it was closing its business in 2023. This raised concerns over the projects Aardman was producing, since Newclay was their primary source of clay, and apparently, there weren’t other reliable supply sources. Aardman purchased the entire stock of clay produced by Newclay to finish the ongoing projects.
Laika
Founded in 2005 in Oregon, Laika is an American animation studio that has produced some major hits using stop motion and clay animation. Laika is known for its famous films such as Coraline, Kubo and the Two Strings, ParaNorman, and the Boxtrolls. The studio has been nominated for numerous awards including the Best Animated Feature award by the Academy Awards and multiple others by Golden Globe and Annie Awards.
Mackinnon and Saunders
Mackinnon and Saunders are a renowned name in the Claymation industry. The UK-based company designs and creates puppets for various stop motion projects. Fantastic Mr. Fox, Corpse Bride, Frankenweenie, and The House are notable projects they have produced puppets for.
Conclusion
Claymation is a fascinating type of animation that involves a laborious, costly, and time-consuming stop motion animation production. Due to the difficulties involved in supplying materials and creating physical characters and objects, it is not widely adopted. There are only a few renowned studios that work exclusively on this type of animation. However, the charming look created for Claymation puppets using plasticine and other materials creates an exciting opportunity for storytelling. This passion for storytelling and also the huge financial success of some Claymation feature films is still the financial motivation that has kept Claymation studios running.
