Claymation History: 9 Notable Claymation Films

Claymation, or clay animation, is a labor-intensive art form that uses flexible, plasticine figures in the creation of stop-motion animation. After artists have created characters and sets from clay or other materials, the filmmaking team places the models on set and captures a frame of film.

With extreme precision, the filmmakers will make minor adjustments to the models and the set according to the action occurring in the scene. Then they will recapture the figures in a frame and repeat the steps again. Claymation filmmakers generally make between twelve and twenty-four adjustments like this to capture a single second of film. (Film typically runs at twenty-four frames a second.) The idea is that when you view the film frames in succession, the characters will ultimately move as though by their own forces.

Claymation evolved from humble beginnings in the early days of cinema to feature-length films by the end of the twentieth century.

• Circa 1800 to early 1900s: Plasticine clay came into use at the turn of the nineteenth century and quickly became the preferred building material over modeling clay for its long-lasting, malleable properties. Although claymation played a minor role in special effects for silent films of the 1900—as seen in The Sculptor's Nightmare (1908)—by 1933, the art form took center stage in the creation of the live-action film King Kong (1933). After claymation brought the king of the jungle to life, the process fell into obscurity for several decades.
• 1950s: Claymation innovator Art Clokey revitalized the art form with the creation of his green and stretchy, human-like character, Gumby. The children’s show Howdy Doody (1947–1960) first introduced Gumby in 1953, but the character quickly rose in popularity, warranting his own series. Gumby and his pony pal, Pokey, subsequently became icons of US pop culture. Riding Gumby’s success, Clokey also created an animated children’s series, Davey and Goliath (1960–2004).
  
• 1970s: In 1976, clay animator Will Vinton coined the term “claymation” with his innovative techniques—bringing clay animation back into the spotlight in short films, music videos and most famously, The California Raisins television commercials of the late ’80s.
• 1980s: Legendary artist Nick Park joined Aardman Animations, an English animation studio, in 1985—where he began to develop the idea for the beloved characters Wallace and Gromit, who became popular in the 1990s after Park debuted A Grand Day Out (1989).

The following claymation films represent a variety of filmmakers and techniques in the genre:

1. 1. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964): The now-holiday classic debuted as an NBC stop-motion animated television event. The Christmas special was well received and Rudolph soon joined the company of other beloved animated (although not stop-motion) holiday characters like Charlie Brown and the Grinch, made famous by their respective holiday films, A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (1966).
2. 2. The Clash of the Titans (1981): For this film, claymation artist Ray Harryhausen used traditional stop-motion techniques to provide the film with an iconic movie monster as his rendition of the mythical Kraken.
3. 3. A Grand Day Out (1989): This comedic short film depicts the first of many cinematic adventures of Wallace—a quirky, good-hearted inventor who constantly ends up in danger—and Gromit, his loyal beagle sidekick who bravely gets him out of it. In this film, cheese enthusiast Wallace decides the best place to find cheese is the moon, so Wallace and Gromit build a rocket to fly there.
4. 4. The Wrong Trousers (1993): Wallace and Gromit are joined in this short by a mysterious penguin named Feathers McGraw. Gromit is suspicious of their new flatmate and eventually unravels the penguin's plot to hijack Wallace’s “techno trousers” invention in a daring jewel heist.
5. 5. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993): In this Time Burton movie, the local hero of Halloween Town, Jack Skellington, stumbles upon a magical door that transports him to Christmas Town. Jack is so fascinated by the idea of Christmas that he tries to bring the winter holiday back to his homeworld.
6. 6. A Close Shave (1995): In this short film, Wallace and Gromit have started a window-washing business and Wallace falls in love with a local wool shopkeeper named Wendolene Ramsbottom. Wallace and Wendolene hit it off until Wendolene’s diabolical pet, Preston, frames Gromit for rustling sheep.
7. 7. Chicken Run (2000): This animated comedy—a full-length film collaboration among production companies Aardman Animations, DreamWorks Animation, and Pathé—is the highest-grossing stop-motion animated film of all time. An animated spoof of the classic film The Great Escape (1963), the movie follows chickens plotting liberation from their nefarious owner, Mrs. Tweedy, who is conspiring a profitable entry into the chicken pot pie market. They employ the help of stunt rooster Rocky to teach them to fly the coop and win their freedom.
   
8. 8. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005): In the eccentric duo’s first feature film, Wallace and Gromit run a pest control company. In an attempt to protect the town's vegetables from unruly rabbits, Wallace concocts a plan to brainwash the local rabbit population with his new invention, the “Mind Manipulation-O-Matic.” Wallace attempts to use the gadget to dissuade the caught rabbits from further pillaging local produce, but things do not go as planned.
   
9. 9. Coraline (2009): This stop-motion animated film directed by Henry Selick (and based on Neil Gaiman’s novella of the same name), tells the story of a girl who adventures through a portal into a vibrant world where she meets button-eyed ragdoll versions of her parents.
   

The models and sets may have increased in complexity over the decades, and the camera equipment might now be more advanced; however, the template for the creation of claymation films has remained relatively unchanged throughout the twentieth century. Here is how to create a claymation film:

1. 1. Create a flexible outline. Construct a basic blueprint of the story, illustrating the plot and movement you wish your stop-motion animation to take. Since this art form is so tactile, allow yourself the freedom to let your imagination take charge.
2. 2. Know your frame rate. Most films feature twenty-four frames per second. Utilizing some of the same techniques borrowed from celluloid (cel) animation in traditional 2D animation, claymation can reduce the frame rate to roughly twelve frames per second by repeating static shots. Backgrounds, lighting, and movement of the clay figures must stay cohesive to avoid continuity issues in the final cut.
3. 3. Create your characters. Using traditional plasticine clay to create your characters is not a requirement, but if you choose clay for your medium, form your clay around an armature. An armature acts as the skeletal structure of the character and will help it to hold consistent shape and movement from frame to frame—potentially saving you time and enhancing the fluid motion of your animation. You can create your own armature with wire. Or find a kit online with manufactured joints that mimic organic movement.
4. 4. Shoot still frames. As a claymation artist, you are the puppet master. Focus on every detail when shooting singular frames to create seamless scenes and eliminate the chance of continuity errors that will bring your scene back to square one. Since the claymation process requires roughly twelve frames per second of film, the movements of your figurines need to be slight enough to create the illusion of fluid motion.
5. 5. Compile, edit, and learn. After compiling final shots, edit them into a short film. Claymation is a time-consuming and challenging art form. The lessons you learn throughout the process will help you hone your craft and potentially lead you to become a better claymation artist.

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