If you look at jobs, which require a great combination of passion, creativity, and skills, then the art of animation will be included in this list without any argument. The animation comes with a variety of types and forms, giving this field a great essence of diversity and creativity. The animators are able to develop great ideas, which are brought to life, and their great work allows people to see and enjoy a variety of animated characters, which cannot be seen in real life. So, the field of animation comes with endless possibilities and boundless creativity. It is important to know that animation style comes with 2D, as well as, 3D animation styles. The other famous styles for animation are traditional, motion graphics, and stop motion animation. It is up to the choice of the content creator and animation artists to use any styles as per requirements. If a 3D movie is being made, then 3D animation will be used. There are various other reasons to consider as well. In this paper, the focus will be given to Claymation, one of the famous animation types under the category of stop-motion animation (GameDesigning, 2020).

Understanding Claymation with its History, Technique and Popularity

It is important to know that word Claymation has been made by conjunction of two words, clay and animation. This term is actually named Clay Animation, but it has been referred to as Claymation too. It is one of the types of stop motion animation which is used to make movies or videos based on Claymation software. In an animated video with Claymation, the characters, objects, and even backgrounds are made with clay pieces. It is vital to mention here that before the essence of computer animation technology, the animation like Claymation has been a major source of making stop motion animated movies with 3D. The great thing about Claymation is its flexibility and variety to provide a range of advantages. A unique and authentic look is preserved by it to show physical animation, which looks so beautiful on the screen. The other great thing about Claymation is that even if there are limited resources, it can still be managed as compared to other techniques, which are more costly. However, it can also be a difficult art to master because its process is very difficult to handle. Its process is labor-intensive as clay has to be repositioned for objects during the frames. The experts have said if there is 20 to 30 minutes' Claymation video, then it will have thousands of frames, and every frame will require some tweaks for physical models of clay. So, it is evident that Claymation technique is wonderful to use, but at the same time, it is difficult one to handle (Techopedia, 2019)

It’s time to look at its history like when it started, who were the pioneers, and how it gained popularity with the passage of time. One should know that actual clay is not used in this Claymation technique, rather Plasticine Clay is used to making physical models. The history books revealed that Claymation terms were coined and propagated by one of the famous animators, Will Vinton. It is vital to remind here that the Claymation technique may not have been made possible if Plasticine was not invented back in 1897. So, its essence was started then, but the popularity of the technique started in the 1950s when there were popular TV series, and credit for them goes to Art Clokey. One famous series was “Davey and Goliath” using the essence of eponymous characters and the other series was "The Gumby Show". However, still, it was just the start of its popularity, which peaked in the era of 1970s, when Will Vinton came up with his great ideas of Claymation. It is important to know that from the 1950s to the era of the 1970s, Claymation vanished from the scene as class cell and Disney animations started to get more popularity and enjoyed success. However, this success was short-lived because Claymation again started to get popular due to its great variety and creativity (Schindel , 2018)

The art of Claymation started to get attention from content producers, and its resurgence was at its peak in the 1980s. It was the era when famous characters Gromit and Wallace were created in an animation film. Even it is said that if someone had not seen the beauty of these characters, then they actually never had the real experience of Claymation. Both characters were so popular at their time, and a new movie came out in 1989 with the title “A Grand Day Out”. This movie was instrumental to the technique of Claymation as its success was paramount, and content producers and animated filmmakers started to give serious attention to Claymation. Another classic movie of this era was “Creature Comforts” having the characters of zoo animals. When Claymation history and movies are discussed, then one cannot leave the name of Nick Park, who contributed so much with so many classic Claymation films. “A Grand Day Out” one of the famous films was created by Nick Park. He continued his great work in this field and one more classic movie was created back in 2000 with the name “Chicken Run”. This film enjoyed great success at the box-office. It is important to mention here that “Chicken Run” was one of the highest-grossing films in the history of the Claymation field, earning significant revenue of $224m. This success laid the real foundation for Claymation, and no one could stop it until now (Pebble Studios UK, 2017)

One should also know that Claymation observed its start in 1907 with the film titled “The Sculptor's Welsh Rarebit Dream”. It was mentioned earlier that Will Vinton played a great role in encouraging filmmakers to use Claymation, and he introduced the beauty of it. 1978, Will Vinton released a documentary titled “Claymation: Three-Dimensional Clay Animation” which revealed the technique and uses of Claymation magic being created on the screen. This documentary was not only informative; it was funny and engaging as well. This short documentary is a good one to watch to see the work of Will Vinton. He was able to develop his own techniques in Claymation and produced a variety of content with those techniques. There are various films on the credit of Will Vinton such as "Claymation Christmas Celebration" (1987), "Claymation Comedy of Horrors" (1991), as well as, "Claymation Easter" (1992) (Schindel , 2018). It should also be mention that Will Vinton also created famous TV commercials for the California Raisin Board. The success and popularity of Claymation can be measured by the fact that movies made with Claymation won Oscars as well. In 1993, the Oscar was won by Wrong Trousers, and in 1995, the Oscar was won by A Close Shave (Bloch, 2006)

Conclusion of Claymation

After looking at the history, techniques, and elements of the Claymation, it can be said that in stop motion animation, the Claymation has been the most successful and popular type of animation. The colors, beauty, and characters created by the Claymation on the screen look wonderful for the audience to have a great experience. This field has a history of more than one century, and still dominating the animation field in so many ways.

References of Claymation

Bloch, M. (2006). A History of Clay Animation. Retrieved April 3, 2020, from https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=116413&page=1

GameDesigning. (2020). The Different Types of Animation. Retrieved April 3, 2020, from https://www.gamedesigning.org/animation/different-types/

Pebble Studios UK. (2017). A Brief History of Clay Animation. Retrieved April 3, 2020, from https://www.pebblestudios.co.uk/2017/08/30/a-brief-history-of-clay-animation/

Schindel , M. (2018). Stop-Motion Clay Animation: A History and How It Works. Retrieved April 3, 2020, from https://reelrundown.com/animation/clay-animation-claymation

Techopedia. (2019). Clay Animation. Retrieved April 3, 2020, from https://www.techopedia.com/definition/31072/clay-animation