Present Animators (Aardman Animations)

Aardman Animations - Who are they?

Aardman Animations is an animation studio who is known for the films which are made using clay animation, particularly those for Wallace and Gromit. After making a segment called 'Greeblies' in 1975 using clay animation. This eventually became the inspiration for creating the well known clay character, Morph. 

In the 2000s, they created Aardman's first feature film, Chicken Run which was released in 2005, they created their first computer-animated film feature, Flushed Away.  

Aardman made 12 short stop motion animation films which are using Flipnote Studio from Nintendo DSi. A technique the Aardman team used was called pixilation. This was used within Peter Grabriel's 'Sledgehammer' music video. Where there is an effect where he turns into a human puppet by holding certain poses while each of the shots were being framed moving slightly between each of the shots. Although this technique was generally used on a series of different short films which were for BBC Three. 

Many of Aardman Animations films were typically targeted towards the lower age range which would be around children and because of their intricate and realistic character models I believe that is typically one of the main reasons into why their films were and still are so popular. 

Wallace and Gromit are made from moulded clay on metal armatures. From the research in which I have undertaken I have been able to notice that metal armatures are very popular model design for stop motion animation. This is due to the fact of them helping shape the overall structure of the model to then make it look more realistic for the audience. 

Nick Park is a part of the Aardman Animations team and has actually directed a wide range of the popular films. These films can include, The Wrong Trousers, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) and Creature Comforts. Nick has won many academy awards for the best animation. Overall, his work is mainly targeted towards again 'children'. Personally when I was younger I enjoyed watching Nick Park's and Aardman Animation's stop-motion films especially Wallace and Gromit. Since starting this BTEC Level 3 Media course I have found it intriguing to find out that some of my favourite child hood movies have been made using the creative techniques within stop motion animation. Generally this makes me appreciate exactly all the time and effort in which they all put into making these films. 

Here is a video demonstrating exactly how Nick Park and Aardman Animations did the animation for Wallace and Gromit: A Maater of Loaf & Death: