Clay Animation Essay

Clay animation dates all the way back to 1897 with the invention of Plastiscine. Claymation as we call it is one of many forms of animation where each character is made of a malleable substance usually molded around a wire skeleton. Clay is one of the most basic forms of animation but has been used in such diverse projects ranging from feature films, TV specials, Short films and even commercials.

Producing a stop-motion animation using clay is extremely laborious. Normal film runs at 24 frames per second, with the standard practice of "doubles" or "twos” 12 changes are usually made for one second of film movement. 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.

When filming Clay

Such as Frank Zappa’s 1979 Baby snakes which capitalized on clay’s distinct characteristics.

Clay animation can take several forms

"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 Eliot Noyes, Jr. and Ivan Stang 's animated films. 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.

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. 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