Stop motion animation.

WHAT IS…
Stop motion animation?

Stop motion animation is an animation

technique to make a physically
manipulated object appear to be moving
on its own.
In Stop motion animation, clay is often
used to create the objects and characters
because they are easy to reposition and be
re-molded. However, this type of
animation using clay is called, clay
animation or clay-mation
 Stop motion animation has a
huge history in the film
HISTORY. industry.

It is often used to show the

illusion of magic.

One of the most significant

animations in the history of
animation is ‘The humpty
dumpty Circus’ (1898) and ‘Fun
A brief

in a bakery shop’ (1902) Many

Fun in a bakery shop.

critics called it a ‘modeling
extraordinaire’
 The first woman animator is
Helena Smith Dayton. She
HISTORY.
began experimenting with
clay stop motion and
successfully released her first
Clay-mation film in 1917,
‘Romeo and Juliet’ by
William Shakespeare.
December of 1916, brought
A brief

the first of Willie Hopkins's

Fun in a bakery shop.

54 episodes of "Miracles in
Mud" to the big screen.
 Over the years, stop-
HISTORY.
motion animation has
changed dramatically and
clay mation is very rarely
used, only in children’s
cartoons is where you
would see them mostly.
A brief

Fun in a bakery shop.

 How it’s done
- The aim is to make a materially manipulated
object appear to move on its own.

- The object is moved in small increases between

individually photographed frames, creating the
illusion of movement when the series of frames is
played as a continuous sequence.

- Clay figures are often used in stop motion for

their ease of repositioning. Motion animation
using clay is called clay animation or clay-mation.
 Post it notes 

EXAMPLES.
of modern stop motion animation…
This one has to be my favorite stop motion
animations. It’s directed by bang-Yao Liu and is
called ‘Deadline’. I can imagine that this would
have been very time consuming!
Cut out animation
Dharma – Boom Boom

Boom Boom – another, colourful and modern

stop motion animation. The simplness of the
props used caught my attention. It clearly means
that you do not have to be the greatest artist ever,
but having a great imagination will make an
interesting animation.

Coloured paper cut outs 

Wallace and Grommet
A legendary animated British
feature length film by Nick Park
from Aardman animations. All
the characters are made from
moulded plasticine modelling
clay on metal armatures, and
filmed with stop motion clay
animation.