claymation

Claymation uses plasticine characters and objects in this type of animation.   Claymation is used in the same way that stop motion animation is created by taking the pictures in a sequence and adjusting the clay as you do so and is most probably the main associate of stop motion animation.

Claymation was created around 1908 when the 'Sculpture Nightmare' was found to be a big hit with the viewers and so four years after it was created Claymation became really popular and became more frequent after 1897 when an art teacher invented plasticine which was so much easier to create moving objects. In time animators began putting wire skeletons which made models move like people with more ease for example. Wallace and Gromit use this technique with the wire skeleton frames.

Claymation is often now used in cartoons, TV and advertisements.  One example of a famous claymation is Wallace and Gromit which is a British series consisting of four animated short films and a feature film.  The characters are made out of moulded plasticine on metal armatures.  The characters are influenced on the very stereotypical British, which makes it appealing.  The target audience is mainly teenagers and adults but can also appeal to children. 

I think that it is successful because the concept behind Wallace and Gromit appeals to most people and the claymation technique improves the appeal because the concept may not work if real actors were used instead, for example, the bully dog character in ‘A Close Shave’ (1995)