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. Pioneered in both clay and blocks of wax by German animator Oskar Fischinger during the 1920s and 1930s, the technique was revived and highly refined in the mid-1990s by David Daniels, an associate of Will Vinton, in his 16-minute short film "Buzz Box".Īnother clay-animation technique, one that blurs the distinction between stop motion and traditional flat animation, is called clay painting (also a variation of the direct manipulation animation process), wherein clay is placed on a flat surface and moved like wet oil paints (as on a traditional artist's canvas) to produce any style of images, but with a clay look to them.Ī sub variation clay animation can be informally called "clay melting". 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. Clay can also 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. "Freeform" clay animation is an informal term referring to the process in which the shape of the clay changes radically as the animation progresses, such as in the work of Eli Noyes and Ivan Stang's animated films. Nevertheless, clay remains a viable animation material where a particular aesthetic is desired. Feature-length productions have generally switched from clay to rubber silicone and resin cast components: Will Vinton has dubbed one foam-rubber process "Foamation".
The object must not be altered by accident, slight smudges, dirt, hair, or dust.
Shooting a 30-minute movie would therefore require making approximately 21,600 stops to change the figures for the frames a full-length (90-minute) movie, 64,800-and possibly many more if some parts were shot with "singles" or "ones" (one frame exposed for each shot). With the standard practice of "doubles" or "twos" (double-framing, exposing two frames for each shot), 12 changes are usually made for one second of film movement. Normal film runs at 24 frames per second (frame/s). Producing a stop-motion animation using clay is extremely laborious.
Upon playback, the viewer perceives the series of slightly changing, rapidly succeeding images as motion.Ī consistent shooting environment is needed to maintain the illusion of continuity: objects must be consistently placed and lit. Each object or character is sculpted from clay or other such similarly pliable material as plasticine, usually around a wire skeleton, called an armature, and then arranged on the set, where it is photographed once before being slightly moved by hand to prepare it for the next shot, and so on until the animator has achieved the desired amount of film.