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Clay animation is one of many forms of stop motion animation. Stop motion (or frame-by-frame) animation is an Animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually Plasticine clay. Plasticine, a brand of Modelling clay, is a Putty -like modelling material made from Calcium salts Petroleum jelly and aliphatic acids Clay is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained Minerals which show plasticity through a variable range of Water content, and The portmanteau term "Claymation" is a registered trademark in the United States, registered by Will Vinton in 1978 to describe his clay animated films. A trademark or trade mark, represented by the symbols ™ and ®, or mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Will Vinton (born 1948 is an American director and producer of animated films While the word is not considered a genericized trademark, it has become a trademark which is often used generically in the US to refer to any animation using plasticene or similar substance. A genericized trademark (also known as a generic trademark or proprietary eponym) is a Trademark or Brand name that has become the colloquial List of generic trademarks See also Genericized trademark The following list contains marks which were originally created and used as Trademarks but which Plasticine, a brand of Modelling clay, is a Putty -like modelling material made from Calcium salts Petroleum jelly and aliphatic acids

All traditional animation is produced in a similar fashion, whether done through cel animation or stop-motion. The bouncing ball animation (below consists of these 6 frames Traditional animation, also referred to as classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation, is the oldest and historically the most popular Stop motion (or frame-by-frame) animation is an Animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own Each frame, or still picture, is recorded on film or digital media and then played back in rapid succession. Digital media (as opposed to analog media) usually refers to Electronic media that work on digital Codes. When played back at a frame rate greater than 10-12 frames per second, a fairly convincing illusion of continuous motion is achieved. Frame rate, or frame frequency, is the measurement of the Frequency (rate at which an imaging device produces unique consecutive images called frames The While the play-back feature creating an illusion is true of all moving image (from zoetrope, to films to videogames), the techniques involved in creating CGI are generally removed from a frame-by-frame process. A zoetrope is a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures A video game is a Game that involves interaction with a User interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. Computer animation Computer-generated imagery (also known as CGI) is the application of the field of Computer graphics or more specifically 3D computer graphics

A clay animation scene from a Finnish TV commercial.
A clay animation scene from a Finnish TV commercial. [1]

Contents

Technique

In clay animation, which is one of the many forms of stop motion animation, each object is sculpted in clay or a similarly pliable material such as Plasticine, usually around a wire skeleton called an armature. Stop motion (or frame-by-frame) animation is an Animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own Plasticine, a brand of Modelling clay, is a Putty -like modelling material made from Calcium salts Petroleum jelly and aliphatic acids As in other forms of object animation, the object is arranged on the set (background), a film frame is taken and the object or character is then moved slightly by hand. Object animation is a form of Stop motion Animation that involves the animated movements of any non-drawn objects such as toys blocks Dolls etc A film frame, or just frame, is one of the many single photographic images in a motion picture. Another frame is taken and the object moved slightly again. This cycle is repeated until the animator has achieved the desired amount of film. The human mind processes the series of slightly changing, rapidly playing images as motion, hence making it appear that the object is moving by itself. MIND ( Moving In New Directions) (est 1975 is an alternative education high school in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. To achieve the best results, a consistent shooting environment is needed to maintain the illusion of continuity. In Fiction, continuity (also called time-scheme) is consistency of the characteristics of persons plot, objects places and events seen by the reader or This means paying special attention to maintaining consistent lighting and object placement and working in a calm environment.

Production

Producing a stop motion animation using clay is extremely laborious. Stop motion (or frame-by-frame) animation is an Animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own Normal film runs at 24 frames per second (frame/s). With the standard practice of "doubles" or "twos" (double-framing — exposing 2 frames for each shot), 12 changes are usually made for one second of film movement. For a 30-minute movie, there would be approximately 21,600 stops to change the figures for the frames. For a full length (90 min) movie, there would be approximately 64,800 stops and possibly far more if parts were shot with "singles" or "ones" (one frame exposed for each shot). Great care must be taken to ensure the object is not altered by accident, by even slight smudges, dirt, hair, or even dust. For feature-length productions, the use of clay has generally been supplanted by rubber silicone and resin-cast components. One foam-rubber process has been coined as Foamation by Will Vinton. However, clay remains a viable animation material where a particular aesthetic is desired.

A sub-variation of clay animation can be informally called "clay melting". Any kind of heat source can be applied on or near (or below) clay to cause it to melt while an animation camera on a time-lapse setting slowly films the process. An animation camera, a type of Rostrum camera, is a Movie camera specially adapted for frame-by-frame shooting Animation or Stop motion Time-lapse photography is a Cinematography technique whereby each Film frame is captured at a rate much slower than it will be played back An example of this can be seen in Vinton's early short clay-animated film, Closed Mondays, (co-produced by animator Bob Gardiner) at the end of the computer sequence. James Robbins (Bob Gardiner ( 1951-04-21 &mdash 2005-04-21) was an Animator who helped pioneer what would become known as Claymation. A similar technique was used in the climax scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark to "melt" the faces of the antagonists. Raiders of the Lost Ark (also known as Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark) is a 1981 Adventure film directed by Steven

Types

Clay animation can take several forms:

"Freeform" clay animation is an informal term where the shape of the clay changes radically as the animation progresses, such as in the work of Eliot Noyes Jr and Ivan Stang's animated films. Rev Ivan Stang (born Douglass St Clair Smith August 21, 1953 in Washington D Or clay can take the form of "character" clay animation where the clay maintains a recognizable character throughout a shot, as in Art Clokey's and Will Vinton's films. Arthur C (Art Clokey (born Arthur Farrington October 12, 1921, Detroit Michigan) is a pioneer in the popularization of Stop motion Clay

One variation of clay animation is strata-cut animation in which a long bread-like loaf of clay, internally packed tight and loaded with varying imagery, is sliced into thin sheets, with the camera taking a frame of the end of the loaf for each cut, eventually revealing the movement of the internal images within. Strata-cut animation, also spelled stratcut or straticut, is a form of Clay animation, itself one of many forms of Stop motion animation Pioneered in both clay and blocks of wax by German animator Oskar Fischinger during the 1920s and 30s, the technique was revivied and highly refined in the mid-90s by David Daniels, an associate of Will Vinton, in his 16-minute short film Buzz Box. Oskar Fischinger ( 22 June 1900, Gelnhausen, Germany — 31 January 1967, Los Angeles) was an abstract animator Will Vinton (born 1948 is an American director and producer of animated films Short subject is a format description originally coined in the North American Film industry in the early period of cinema.

Another clay animation technique, and blurring the distinction between stop motion and traditional flat animation, is called clay painting (which is also a variation of the direct manipulation animation process) where clay is placed on a flat surface and moved like wet oil paints as on a traditional artistic canvas to produce any style of images, but with a clay 'look' to them. Clay painting animation is a form of clay Animation, which is one of the many kinds of Stop motion animation One of the many forms of Stop motion, but certainly blurring the distinction between stop motion and regular flat (drawing or "cel" animation

History

Pioneering this technique was one-time Vinton animator Joan Gratz, first in her Oscar-nominated film The Creation (1980) and then in her Oscar-winning Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase filmed in 1992.

Already 1972 animated André Roche in the Cineplast Films Studio of Marc Chinoy in Munich (Germany) several films for a serie named Kli-Kla-Klawitter for the Second German TV-Channel ZDF, for a german language teatching serie for foreign children and another one for a traffic education serie (Herr Daniel paßt auf = Mr. André Roche, born on August 22, 1952, in Gap France is an artist an illustrator and an author of comics and Children's books. Daniel cares of).

A variation of this technique was developed by another Vinton animator, Craig Bartlett, for his series of "Arnold" short films, also made during the 90s, in which he not only used clay painting, but sometimes built up clay images that rose off the plane of the flat support platform, toward the camera lens, to give a more 3-D stop-motion look to his films. Craig Michael Bartlett (born October 18, 1956 in Seattle Washington) is an Animator best-known for creating the television series A photographic lens (also known as objective lens or photographic objective) is an optical lens or assembly of lenses used in conjunction with

Some of the best-known clay-animated works include the Gumby series of television show segments created by Art Clokey, and the TV commercial made for the California Raisin Advisory Board by Vinton's studio. Gumby is a dark green Clay humanoid figure who was the subject of a 233-episode series of American Television which spanned over a 35-year period A television program (US television programme (UK or television show (U Arthur C (Art Clokey (born Arthur Farrington October 12, 1921, Detroit Michigan) is a pioneer in the popularization of Stop motion Clay A television advertisement or television commercial (often just commercial or advert (US or ad (UK is a span of television programming produced The California Raisin Advisory Board (or CALRAB) is most notable for the use of The California Raisins to market their namesake product Raisins It Clay animation has also been used in Academy-Award-winning short films such as Closed Mondays (Will Vinton and Bob Gardiner, 1974), Creature Comforts (Aardman, 1989), and all three Wallace & Gromit short films, created by Nick Park of Aardman Animation. "The Oscar" redirects here for the film see The Oscar (film. Creature Comforts was originally a 1989 Short film made in United Kingdom about how Animals feel about living in a Zoo, and later became Aardman Animations Ltd, also known as Aardman Studios, is an Academy Award -winning British Animation studio based in Bristol, Nicholas Wulstan "Nick" Park CBE (b 6 December 1958 is a four-time Academy Award -winning English filmmaker of Stop motion Aardman Animations Ltd, also known as Aardman Studios, is an Academy Award -winning British Animation studio based in Bristol, Aardman also created The Presentators, a series of one-minute clay-animation short films aired on Nicktoons. The Presentators are a series of one- Minute, 3D computer-animated shorts made by Aardman Animations for Nickelodeon, featuring three animated (mentioned Nicktoons are animated television programs airing on the children's television channel Nickelodeon and its many spin-offs Some clay animations appear online, on such sites as Newgrounds. Newgrounds is a Website headquartered in Glenside Pennsylvania, United States and created in 1995 that primarily hosts Adobe Flash animated films

Several computer games have also been produced using clay animation, including The Neverhood, Dark Oberon, Clay Fighter, Platypus and Primal Rage. A video game is a Game that involves interaction with a User interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. The Neverhood (released in Japan as Klaymen Klaymen) is a 1996 PC CD-ROM Claymation ClayFighter is a Fighting game released for the Super NES in 1993, and later ported to Mega Drive/Genesis in 1994 This article talks about the Platypus game For other uses see Platypus (disambiguation Platypus is the name of a horizontal scrolling shooter Primal Rage is a Versus fighting game developed and published by Atari Games in 1994 as an Arcade video game. Television commercials have also utilized the clay animation, such as the Chevron Cars ads, produced by Aardman Studios. A television advertisement or television commercial (often just commercial or advert (US or ad (UK is a span of television programming produced This article is about the Chevron promotional animation for the manufacturer of racing cars see Chevron Cars Ltd. Besides commercials, clay animation has also been popularized in recent years by children's shows such as Bob the Builder and The Koala Brothers, as well as adult-oriented shows on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim lineup, including Robot Chicken (which uses clay animation and action figures as stop-motion puppets in conjunction) and Moral Orel. Bob the Builder is a Children's television character created by Keith Chapman. The Koala Brothers is an animated Children's television show that features the adventures of two brothers Frank and Buster as they seek to help their Adult Swim, (usually stylized swim with its signature square Brackets, is an adult-oriented Television network sharing channel space with Cartoon Robot Chicken is an Emmy -Award Winning American Stop motion animated television series created by Seth Green and Matthew An action figure is a posable character Figurine, made of Plastic or other materials and often based upon a movie, Comic book, Video game Moral Orel is an American stop-motion animated television show currently airing on Adult Swim.

Flushed Away is a CGI replication of clay animation. Flushed Away is a 2006 computer animated British Film directed by David Bowers and Sam Fell. Computer animation Computer-generated imagery (also known as CGI) is the application of the field of Computer graphics or more specifically 3D computer graphics

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ ANI-MATO J-E Nystrom: "Case study: Chicken in Clay" (1997)

References

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