Stop-Motion Animation

Stop-motion animation is a filmmaking technique in which physical objects, most often puppets or clay figures, are photographed one frame at a time, with the object moved or repositioned by a small amount between each exposure, so that when the resulting sequence of still photographs is played back at normal speed the object appears to move on its own. Practiced since the earliest days of cinema, notably in the fantastical trick films of Georges Melies, and later refined for creature effects by animators including Ray Harryhausen, stop-motion remains an actively used feature-film technique today, seen in the work of studios including Aardman Animations and in films such as The Nightmare Before Christmas.