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Artistic Technique

Claymation

Media and Time-Based Techniques

Claymation is a specific form of stop-motion animation in which figures are sculpted from a pliable, clay-like modeling compound, most often plasticine, and reshaped incrementally between individually photographed frames, letting the animator alter a figure's expression, pose, and even its physical form far more freely than a rigid puppet allows. The technique, and the term itself, is closely associated with animator Will Vinton, who registered "Claymation" as a trademark in the late 1970s, and it later reached wide popular recognition through the work of Aardman Animations, including the Wallace and Gromit films, which combined the technique with detailed puppet armatures beneath the clay surface.

Connections

Associated With

Animation, Art Forms

claymation is a technique of the animation art form.

Film, Art Forms

Claymation is produced and released as film.

Stop-Motion Animation, Artistic Techniques

Claymation is a specific material application of the broader stop-motion animation technique.

Sources
Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationClaymation, Wikipedia summary lead
Quote, Claymation, Wikipedia summary lead
Claymation, sometimes called clay animation or plasticine animation, 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.
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Frequently Asked Questions

Is "Claymation" a generic name for any clay animation?

No. Claymation is a trademarked name tied to Will Vinton; the generic term for the technique is clay animation.

No. Claymation is a trademarked term tied to the studio of animator Will Vinton, whose Will Vinton Studios produced the Oscar-winning short Closed Mondays in 1974 and the California Raisins commercials from 1986 to 1998. The wider technique, animating a deformable substance such as plasticine frame by frame, is more accurately called clay animation or plasticine animation; Aardman Animations, whose Wallace and Gromit films and Chicken Run (2000, the highest-grossing stop-motion film in history at release) use exactly this technique, is a separate studio from Will Vinton's and does not use the trademarked name for its own work.
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