Aardman Case Study

In this report I am going to be researching Aardman and their development

over the years. I will be looking at their most famous movies, shows and
animations. I will be analysing the different job roles within the company and
how they contribute.

About the company&History

Aardman animations are a company based in Bristol, UK and can also be
known as Aardman Studios, Aardman Animations Ltd. Or just Aardman. Their
profession is in animations and the creation of them. When Aardman really
became a big computer animation company was when they released
Flushed Away in 2006. Before this film, the company was based around clay
stop-motion films including the big hit programme Wallace and Gromit.
They always created clay and plasticine animations before computer
technology improved and they created a short film called Owzat in 1997. The
now huge company was founded in 1972 by two men named Peter Lord and
David Sproxton who had the idea of producing a worldwide known famous
animation company. After becoming a success, Aardman have made
approximately 971.8 million from their films, which is on average 162 each.
The name Aardman that is now what the company is called was taken from
a short film that the company made in 1972 called Vision On. The services
they offer are of short animated films whether they be clay stop motion or
computer animated shows, the majority of them being computer generated
due to advanced technology. As I stated before, the company are a Bristol
based one but due to the company being so well known not only in the UK,
they now have a studio in NYC called Aardman Nathan Love. The
company creates animations that could appeal to both adults and children
but mainly children as they have created BBC animations and CBBC ones
such as Shaun the Sheep. As the company grew and now they are known
all over, Aardman produces Television animations for adverts like Change 4
life, Booking.com, Sudafed, Bloo and many more. They created their first ever
music video for the song My
baby just cares for me by
Nina Simone in 1987. One of
their recent big films they
produced was the Croods
which came out in 2005 by
the company DreamWorks
which worked together with
Aardman to produce this.

The two creators became friends in school when they came up with this idea
and started off by creating short animations for deaf children in partnership
with the BBC. Not only have Aardman created short clay motion films but also
big hit films and television documentaries.

Animated and clay stop motion TV shows

Over the years Aardman have become more and more famous for their
work, starting out as just a small company in England to becoming a known
worldwide company with high demand. Their very first appearance on
national television was the Vision On show I mentioned earlier when they got
into business with the BBC and started to get known. Here are a few
examples of some shows they have created what they areMorph
They then experimented with clay stop motion by making the short film
named Greeblies in 1975. They then took inspiration from
this animation and turned it into a more well-known one
called Morph. Morph was a show that featured on the
BBC that was specifically designed for deaf children who
wanted to watch the television still. The character was fun
and very appealing to both deaf and non-deaf children so
it kept them engaged. Morph would literally morph into
balls and other shapes to move around and climb levels so
it was very interesting to watch. Unfortunately, most of the
Morph characters and set was destroyed in an
unexplained fire at the warehouse in 2005. They brought
out more episodes in 2014 after setting up a fundraising campaign for the
public in order to gather the money to do so.
Wallace and Gromit
The first Oscar that the Aardman Company won was for Creature Comforts
by the Parks short film. It was after that Aardman created Wallace and
Gromit and this was what really brought the company to fame because the
show because known worldwide for this show and they continued to make
more. However, when they rose to
fame Aardman continued to bring out
clay stop motion movies for many
famous companies as well as the
Wallace and Gromit films which were
A grand day out 1989, The wrong
trousers 1993 and then A close shave
1995. This was just the beginning of their

career as they continued to produce animated films. The Wallace and

Gromit animations feature four 30 minutes episodes and one feature film
which came out in the year 2005 and it was called The curse of the WereRabbit.

Shaun the Sheep

Shaun the sheep is a CBBC based show
that aired in the year of 2007 and is loved
by many children. It is a non-dialogue
show which features a sheep called Shaun
who is very clever and bright and lives on
a farm. The inspiration of Shaun the Sheep
came when the character featured in a
Wallace and Gromit episode and then
was made into a show about himself. The
show is entirely clay made and edited to be realistic. Besides Shaun being a
sheep and him having other sheep companions there also features human
characters, one being the farmer. In 2015, a movie was released called
Shaun the Sheep the movie and later on a Christmas one called Shaun the
Sheep the Farmers Llamas.

Jobs within Aardman

Aardman is a company based in Bristol which produces animation movies
and shows and requires a lot of teamwork in order to produce the highest
quality of work. There are many jobs going within Aardman and each
contribute highly to the production of it. The jobs within the industry includeModel Makers- These are the people who carefully and precisely hand craft
the characters to the ones designed to ensure they are at the best quality.
Artist- This is a job in which the artists work in the department to create the
props and scenery which will be used for the filming of shows, such as Shaun
the Sheep.
Riggers- These are the ones who ensure that after filming there is no shadows
or obvious clips that show the metal bars holding up the sheep and so they
edit all of the work and take them out.
Animator- The animator is the one who captures the shots and checks that it
is all done correctly.

Director- The director monitors the production of the animations and will
speak with the animator beforehand to tell them exactly what scene they
are capturing, what it is about and how the characters will show.
Assistant Animator- An assistant animator has to work with the animator
themselves and change anything to do with the characters, such as
movements and mouths. They will have some different ones set up ready to
change for scenes.
Story writers and editors- These people have the job of creating the
storyboards and preparing the planning. They get briefed by the producer
and directors and are then left to plan each scene within the animations.

Production of the characters

There are many steps in order to produce and
create an animation. Depending on which
company they are working with, Aardman has to set
a budget and plan how they will create it before
they go ahead with it. They must plan what the
animated movie is, what it will be about, the name
of it etc. and just general research. They need a
script and some kind of idea on what the characters
or models are going to look like so that they can
start creating them. Aardman must look at how they
will benefit from taking part in this, including if there is
chance on them losing any money or not making a profit. The company
DreamWorks and Aardman both paired up as I said before, to create flushed
away in which they lost 88 in the making of it. When coming to create their
characters for the films they need to decide how they will be aesthetically
and buy the materials. Generally, handmade models for clay stop motion
films are made using many materials. These consist of: resein, latex, wood,
metal, milliput, silicone, foam latex and the major material Plasticine. I used a
video on YouTube to help me with the research and I found one which was
behind the scenes of Shaun the Sheep. I
noticed the first step was writing the script
and it does take a long time. They have to
plan every small detail within the
movie/video so that nothing goes wrong.
The next step is to make the models by
gathering all of the materials in which they
use. The company will have a team of staff
who create the models by following the
planned models. The plasticine that the

company uses have changed recently as the one they used before was hard
and difficult to mould whereas the new one isnt, this is called Peter Pan
Plaything. They then have to create the furniture and the set. Everything they
make is made to look real and they add a lot of detail into the props. The
materials they use is almost anything based on what they are making due to
the fact to make it look real. The characters are held up by metal sticks
where they are moved like a profit. To ensure that it isnt on the actual movie
they have to edit out that and take away any shadows. The next step is
animation. On this step the producers have the set all ready with the
characters in for the shots. Before they proceed a director will come in and
explain what the scene will feature and where the characters should be
looking etc. The shots are filmed with the correct lighting and a canon
camera. The step after is all about the story and the editing of the clips. The
director and editors will aim at shortening the clips down to the shortest they
can be still keeping the crucial bits of the show in it.

Services they offer

Aardman originally had the idea of what animations they would be creating
and for which purpose. They had the plan that they would create animations
aimed at adults such as Angry Kid. They did do this for a short while but once
they became noticed by the BBC for their work they partnered up with them
and began to create a television show called Morph specially designed for
deaf children. Over the years their company rose to fame and is now offering
a wide range of services. They began to work with Disney where they
created some films, only soon to realise they didnt get the reaction they
hoped. They then went back to just creating their own shows and making
more of their existing ones. Although Aardman didnt originally want to
create childrens animations, the BBC definitely set them off and got them
noticed. Some of the services they offer are feature films which are films that
follow on from previous shows they have made. They also create series,
specials and shorts for their own company but take offers up by other
companies wishing to work together. Advertising is something they now
contribute to and is on high demand due to their animated advertisements.
Aardman have also started to create apps, games and interactive shows
that people can use for entertainment purposes.

Here is an example of a structure diagram I found of Aardmans step by step

process in which they create animations.

Sources
http://www.aardman.com/our-services/
http://www.aardman.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aardman_Animations
http://www.aardman.com/the-studio/history/
http://aardman.nathanlove.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sproxton
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Lord
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzC9O7WtELY
http://www.filmclub.org/behind-the-scenes/details/258/behind-the-scenesat-aardman-animations