Film Production Company: Aardman

Full name Aardman Animation Studios LTD or just Aardman is a animation studio that specifies in stop motion and clay animation. Based in Bristol, Aardman is behind characters Wallace And Gromit, TV series Creature Comforts and film Chicken Run. Since founded in 1972 Aardman has released 5 films, 12 television shows, 47 animation shorts and many commercials. Aardman has entered into the computer animation market too with films such as Flushed Away. 

Stop motion is an animation technique where physical objects are made to look like they move through taking photos of them whilst moving the object in small motions. The photos are then put together in a continuous sequence. The video on the right shows how stop motion can be used through making a short film using the stop motion with lego. This process can take a long time and require a lot of patients as every single action wanted (i.e. walking, facial expression) by the director has to be handmade and then slowly moved after each photo has been taken. For example Nick Park (creator of Wallace And Gromit) said it the filming rate was about 30 frames per day when doing Wallace And Gromit. This is the reason such lengthy gaps between Wallace And Gromit episodes.

Clay animation is a form of the stop motion animation. However instead of using physical objects like lego as characters or backgrounds. Instead a plasticine clay is used to mould and create unique characters. Clay is also very good for the movements required in stop motion. Each object or character is sculpted from clay and using a exoskeleton of wire to keep the clay upright. Wallace And Gromit (right) are made of this clay. Aardman use this clay for all of its productions stop motion productions.  

Aardman was founded by Peter Lord and David Sproxton in 1972, making tv series for deaf children with the BBC. This helped create morph, a simple clay character. Aardman then went on to make music videos for Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer and other artists. Aardman then went on to work with more animators. Nick Park joined Aardman through all the projects Aardman was getting and eventually Wallace and Gromit were created, as Park had slowly been working on the pairs first adventure "A Grand Day Out" before joining Aardman. Aardman helped finish the long stop motion process with him. The pair were a hit and sparked three more adventures. Park also got released another project of his, Creature Comforts, winning an Oscar. The Wallace and Gromit films also won Academy Awards.

In 1997, Aardman teamed up with Dreamworks creating its first movie, "Chicken Run". The deal between the two companies lasted for ten years. In that time Aardman and Dreamworks made Chicken Run and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit. Using the stop motion animation its known for. However Aardman made Flushed Away, unconventional to the stop motion they were known for. Flushed Away uses a lot of water, too difficult to be clay made and real water could easily damage the clay models. So the film was computer animated, still with the same design as the the clay figures. The films complications led to a split between Aardman and dreamworks. Today Aardman still makes small stop motion films for adverts and campaigns. A fire destroyed many props, character and awards the company received, slowing progress on the company. However the creations Aardman has created will live long in the memory for people around the globe.