Research on Aardman

Aardman Animations

http://www.aardman.com/about-us/history/

Aardman Animations is an animation company that was founded in 1972 by David Sproxton and Peter Lord. Aardman are known as a world leader in model animation. The two had begun to know each other when they were at school. They had been doing animation during their free time and used a camera that belonged to David’s father. There first project was to produce something for a show called ‘vision on’. They had used cell animation to create a short piece which featured a character called Aardman who was the first character they had created. BBC had bought the film which is the reason that in1972 the company was founded.

After graduating from school they moved to Bristol where they created the character Morph which was used for the children's programme 'Take Hart'. Morph made his first appearance in 1976 and the Amazing Adventures of Morph was screened in 1981.From the start Peter and David had always thought in building up an adult audience for animated films. They had created two short films BBC Bristol called Down and Out’ and ‘Confessions of a Foyer Girl’. BBC had decided to ignore it in 1978 however couple years later it was seen by channel 4. Also with films like Early Bird Aardman had shown that real people could be characterised with understanding, humour and sensitivity.

Peter and David had met someone called Nick Park while they were at the National Film and Television School while he was doing some work on his student film on his student film. The saw his work and then he had gone on to joining Aardman full time in 1985. One year later Peter had decided that they produce a new rock video with director Stephen Johnson and the Brothers Quay called sledgehammer. The music video had gone on and won many awards that year. The company was asked again in 1989 by channel 4 to produce five 5 minute length films. The series was a big success and it had looked at the world of animation by using real characters and voices. it had features many pieces of work such as Nick Park's Creature Comforts, Richard Goleszowski's Ident, Barry Purves Next, and Peter Lord's War Story and Going Equipped. The series had went on and in the year 1990 had Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

1933 was a great year for Aardman as they had won an Oscar award as well as over thirty different awards worldwide. A 30 minute film called The Wrong Trouser created by Nick Park is now seen as one of the most successful animated films ever made.Aardman had gone on to create their first full length film called chicken run which was funded by DreamWorks. After its release in 2000 the films reviews and box office spot was outstanding. Chicken Run had gone and grossed over £220M at the worldwide box office.

To mass critical acclaim and outstanding box office results, Wallace and Gromit's first feature film The Curse of the Were-Rabbit was released by DreamWorks in October 2005. The film topped the box office charts in both the US and UK and garnered many prestigious international awards including the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film and a BAFTA for Best British Film. As the studio's reputation has grown both in the UK and overseas, so has the demand for its commercials work. Aardman produce approximately 75 commercials each year, using a wide variety of animation styles. As well as working in stop frame, productions in CGI, Flash and mixed media are thriving. From Peter and David's tabletop beginnings, Aardman has grown into a major, world class studio. Their work continues to be innovative, entertaining, brilliantly characterised and full of charm, reflecting the talent, energy and personal commitment of all the people who comprise the Aardman team

Process of making an the animation

http://www.telepathy.co.uk/aardman/culture/tour/model.html

The company first start off with a 2d design of the model they would be designing and from the model they begin adding clay and sculpt their model to make it 3d. They then add fine tuning to make it look much better. They then can use the model after adding pieces and materials creating a puppet which can then be animated. Many different materials are used to create the model such as clay, rubber, foam latex and many more depending on the character you are going to create. Armatures are used by the company which are made by plates and drilled balls linked to rods to create a metal skeleton. Know Aardman use armatures in almost every single one of their characters apart from small puppets. Also morph was one character in the Aardman Company who had never had an armature used on and is made out of solid clay.

The company give their characters head that are made out of clay and there reason was that it makes it easier to move around and animate the facial expressions. For the way the animation talks, different types of methods are used. If the character has a minimal amount of expressions the person who is animating may sculpt the mouth shapes on the puppet's head whereas there is a lot of speech needed there would be separate mouth sculpted for each letter of the alphabet and then the animator would replace each mouth so that he could attain different word shapes. The company do not create sets and props unless for props such as hats and suitcases and other props which are able to be animated. They get companies who specialise in making sets and props to make it for them. Once the creating of the model is done they go on to the studio and start to animate.