All images from Stop Motion by Susannah Shaw. Reprinted with permission.

Working with Modeling Clays

I tended to steer away from techniques that needed a lot of process — a lot of materials. I think that's ultimately why I went for Plasticine — because there's always room for improvisation, no matter how much you plan it. You've got to have your puppet, you've got to know roughly what'll happen because you need your props and the set. But once you're on that stage you can improvise and change your mind a lot. Some forms of animation demand a lot more planning and then you've got to stick to it. It's like living on the edge — once you've started a shot you've got to keep going to the end. You can't say `Oh I'll add a few frames there afterwards to slow it down or speed it up.' You've got to be on your toes the whole time.

The earliest use of modeling clay for animation dates from a few years after the invention of motion pictures with James Stuart Blackton's sequence Chew Chew Land or The Adventures of Dollie and Jim 1910. In the U.K., in the late 19^th century, William Harbutt invented Plasticine, a modeling clay that didn't dry out, but that couldn't melt either. The original recipe disappeared when the Harbutt's factory closed down a century later, but a similar clay is still manufactured in England.

Creating your character from modeling clay alone is probably the cheapest route for model making, but don't be mistaken into thinking because it's cheap it's simple. It demands skilled handling. Working with clay can certainly give you freedom, but this would have to be balanced by the amount of time needed to re-sculpt, and return to your original shape. It means you have the ability to stretch and distort your figure, unhampered by any armature, but the other side of the coin is the uncontrollability of it.

When you are new to the craft it's very easy to lose shape; joints, elbows and knees for instance, can move about disconcertingly. So a character that isn't dependent on sharp edges or definition may be a candidate for clay. Aardman Animation's Morph is made with Plasticine and, as animators find when they come to attempt animating him, nowhere near as simple as he looks.

Plasticine models can be made in a mould. Gumby, Art Clokey's 3D character was originally made with Plasticine rolled out flat and cutout. From the 1950s onwards they started making moulds, into which they poured melted clay. Now he also has a wire armature.

For Plasticine animation there are really very few clays that will do the job. The popular "English clay" is Lewis' Newplast. These clays have a good color range, don't melt (which means they handle well under lights), and have a firm sculpting consistency. Van Aken, the U.S. equivalent, has a brighter color range and will melt and is therefore very useful for moulds, but can get soft under lights.

Richard Goleszowski's Rex the Runt, a semi-flat character, is made in a press mould using English clay (see the section on moulds further on in this chapter). This is a relatively fast way of making a replacement character. Rex was filmed against a 458 glass pane, with the background behind, allowing a greater freedom of movement for the characters, a degree of squash and stretch not before seen, and no rigging problems!

I prefer to animate foam puppets with either replacement faces or mechanical heads. I love the look and feel of clay animation, but the amount of time spent on clean up and smoothing takes away from the flow of the performance.