Clay painting
Encyclopedia
Clay painting animation is a form of clay animation
, which is one of the many kinds of stop motion
animation. It blurs the distinction between clay animation
, cel animation and cutout animation
.
Clay painting animation (which is also a variation of the direct manipulation animation
process), is animation where clay is placed and flattened on a flat supporting surface and moved like "wet" oil paints as on a traditional artistic canvas to produce any style of images, but with a clay 'look' to them, filmed frame-by-frame by an animation camera (shooting from above, an in a traditional animation stand
) after each small adjustment of the clay images.
The clay-painting process has also been used as a background, photographically combined with other forms of animation, and even live action.
-nominated film The Creation (1980) and then in her Oscar-winning Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase filmed in 1992.
A variation of this technique was developed by another Vinton animator, Craig Bartlett, for his series of "Arnold" short films, also made during the 90s, in which he not only used clay painting, but sometimes built up clay images that rose off the plane of the flat support platform, toward the camera lens, to give a more 3-D stop-motion look to his films.
Gratz has also collaborated with other animators such as Portland, Oregon's Joanna Priestly to produce films that animated 3-D objects on the flat animation table. An example is Priestly-Gratz's Candy Jam film, made in the mid-90s, which can also be defined as object animation
.
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
, which is one of the many kinds of stop motion
Stop motion
Stop motion is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence...
animation. It blurs the distinction between clay animation
Clay animation
Clay animation or claymation is one of many forms of stop motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually Plasticine clay....
, cel animation and cutout animation
Cutout animation
Cutout animation is a technique for producing animations using flat characters, props and backgrounds cut from materials such as paper, card, stiff fabric or even photographs...
.
Clay painting animation (which is also a variation of the direct manipulation animation
Direct manipulation animation
One of the many forms of stop motion, but certainly blurring the distinction between stop motion and regular flat animation.Direct manipulation is a simplified variation of graphic animation which involves the frame-by-frame altering a single drawing or graphic image, while taking a frame of film...
process), is animation where clay is placed and flattened on a flat supporting surface and moved like "wet" oil paints as on a traditional artistic canvas to produce any style of images, but with a clay 'look' to them, filmed frame-by-frame by an animation camera (shooting from above, an in a traditional animation stand
Animation stand
An animation stand is a device assembled for the filming of any kind of animation that is placed on a flat surface, including cel animation, graphic animation, clay animation, and silhouette animation....
) after each small adjustment of the clay images.
The clay-painting process has also been used as a background, photographically combined with other forms of animation, and even live action.
In America
Pioneering this technique was one-time Vinton animator Joan Gratz, first in her OscarAcademy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
-nominated film The Creation (1980) and then in her Oscar-winning Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase filmed in 1992.
A variation of this technique was developed by another Vinton animator, Craig Bartlett, for his series of "Arnold" short films, also made during the 90s, in which he not only used clay painting, but sometimes built up clay images that rose off the plane of the flat support platform, toward the camera lens, to give a more 3-D stop-motion look to his films.
Gratz has also collaborated with other animators such as Portland, Oregon's Joanna Priestly to produce films that animated 3-D objects on the flat animation table. An example is Priestly-Gratz's Candy Jam film, made in the mid-90s, which can also be defined as object animation
Object animation
Object animation is a form of stop motion animation that involves the animated movements of any non-drawn objects such as toys, blocks, dolls, etc...
.
In Russia
In the Soviet Union, the technique was made famous by Alexander Tatarsky with films such as Plasticine Crow (1981 http://animator.ru/db/?ver=eng&p=show_film&fid=4932) and Last Year's Snow Was Falling (1983 http://animator.ru/db/?ver=eng&p=show_film&fid=4741). Typically, the technique was used to animate stories where the narrator wasn't sure of the story he was telling, and so characters and landscapes would morph into different shapes. Currently, Tatarskiy is head of Pilot Animation Studio, one of the biggest animation studios in Russia. Each episode of their current project, the patriotic series of animated short films "Mountain of Gems", starts with a complex clay-painting animation about the culture associated with the story and where they are located in Russia.http://www.multiskazka.ru/captionsExternal links
- Kim Noce's film After (watch a clip for free)
- Clip of the clay paintings at the beginning of Pilot Studio's films (10 mb)