Robert Eastwood

Aardman Animations
The History of Aardman Animations
Aardman Animations were founded in 1972 by Peter Lord and David Sproxton. Peter and David
started by experimenting with animation techniques on a kitchen table. They decide on clay model
animation best. Aardman animations have become synonymous with 3-D stop-motion animation
after working with Nick Park. They have won academy awards and have been successful in producing
TV series, Internet animations, advertisement and even music videos. The stop-motion style is
painstakingly slow to make and two seconds of footage made in one day would be considered good
work. From the start Peter and David were interested in developing an adult audience for model
animation. Conversation Pieces commissioned by Channel Four Television in 1982 enabled the pair
to develop its innovative technique of animating puppet characters to real-life conversations. With
films like Early Bird (set in a local radio station) Aardman demonstrated that real people could be
characterised with insight, humour and sensitivity. Aardman
Animations first success came in 1977 when the company made
the childrens television character Morph. Then Nick Park joined
the studio in 1985 and he thought of classics such as A grand day
out, Wallace and Gromits first adventure and later on Creature
Comforts. In 1986, Peter Gabriel suggested that they collaborate
with director Stephen Johnson and the Brothers Quay to create a
new rock video. Sledgehammer went on to collect almost every award that year.
In 1990s Wallace and Gromit returned with two films, The wrong trousers and A close shave. In
1998, Aardman won a BAFTA for Stage Fright, an 11-minute short film commissioned by Channel
Four Television. The studios first animated television series for youth and adults, Rex The Runt,
created and directed by long time Aardman associate Richard Goleszowski, was first shown on BBC2
in 1998. In autumn 2002 Aardman released Cracking Contraptions, a series of 10 x 1 minute Wallace
and Gromit films. The films debuted on the Internet and were viewed by hundreds of thousands of
people world-wide. All 10 films were then shown on BBC1 over the 2002 autumn and Christmas
schedule. In June 2000 Aardman Animations produced Chicken Run with the American studio
DreamWorks and they also got help from DreamWorks when they made 2005 film Wallace and
Gromit The curse of the were-rabbit. After this film for which Aardman Animations won a Bafta and
an academy award; DreamWorks and Aardman parted. Also in 2005 a warehouse that had
Aardmans animations archive in was set ablaze by an electrical fault meaning 30 years of props of
Wallace and Gromit with their models, scenery and awards destroyed in the fire. They also have
made the animated show Angry Kid which is the only series Aardman does on the internet. Then in
2008 Aardman made Wallace and Gromit A matter of loaf and death was broadcasted on Christmas
day and had 16.15M viewers watching it and received a BAFTA and so far every single Wallace and
Gromit film released has won a BAFTA. Later that year the studio partnered with Tate Museums and
Legacy Trust UK on a major filmmaking project, a challenge to get children across the UK to come
together and contribute ideas for an animated movie via a successful online community. The Tate
Movie Project was the first of its kind, and on the films release in 2011 set a new Guinness World
Record for the Largest Number of Contributors to a Film Production. The project won a number of
innovation and interactive awards including BAFTA for Best Interactive. The company now holds
three unbeaten world records. In 2013, another first for the company, the Thrill-o-Matic, an original
Wallace and Gromit theme park ride opened at Blackpool Pleasure Beach as the company continued
to develop and realise the commercial potential of their properties through promotions, exhibitions
and live events. 2013 saw over 80 giant Gromit sculptures decorating the streets of Bristol for 10

Robert Eastwood
weeks in the Gromit Unleashed trail. This was one of the highest-profile charity arts-trails the
country has ever seen. The phenomenon boasted an eclectic line-up of artists, celebrities and
fashion designers who created designs for the 5ft Gromits, attracting over 1.2 million visitors and
reportedly contributing a massive 120 million to the Bristol economy. The trail culminated in an
exhibition in September, and a thrilling auction, led by TV celebrity auctioneer Tim Wonnacott,
which raised a huge 2,357,000.00 for Wallace & Gromits Grand Appeal and Bristols Childrens
Hospital. Aardman are currently working with Sony and are still making films with a new film
coming out in 2018 called Early Man. In March 2015, an exhibition celebrating the art of Aardman
opened at Art Ludique in Paris ahead, of the company celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2016.
They have also made some games in the past for CBeebies and BBC such as the looking game. They
also do adverts; I remember the Claymation advert called The decision that was made for Change 4
Life. Other companies that want adverts include McVities, Chevron, Hersheys and Kellogg and
Aardman make around 75 adverts a year.

About Nick Park, Peter Lord and David Sproxton

Nick was born in Preston and is a filmmaker of stop motion animation and is well known for making
Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep and went to the National Film and Television School where
he made Wallace and Gromit: A grand day out. Peter Lord was born in Bristol and he graduated from
the university of York where he and David Sproxton founded the Award-winning Aardman as a lowbudget studio making short films and trailers as well. David Sproxton went to the university of
Durham, this is where he started becoming an animator.

Jobs at Aardman
There are many different jobs you could get at Aardman such as:

Animator: There is a lot of work for an animator so Aardman may need help from strong clay
animators that are creative. The animator would need to includes a basic portfolio and
character designs and storyboards.
Assistant Animator: To be an assistant animator you would have to have the ability to make
and sculpt models and to demonstrate animation.
Storyboard Artists: These artists should be able to communicate emotions and feeling
through staging, character design and enthusiastic storytelling.
Layout Artists: To be a layout artists need to have a cinematographers eye and a basic
understanding of film-making. Layout artists would be asked to do a portfolio which has
drawings in them which shows off staging, lighting, perspective and composition. You could
also be asked to sculpt, paint or do some photography.
CGI Animators: For this job you would need to be able to do scenes where you utilise 2D and
3D tools and also to have an artistic sensibility towards modelling, animation and lighting
while using 3D tools. They would have to use traditional animation as well as 3D; with it
being traditional you would have to use techniques such as follow through, stretch and
squash. If you wanted to do this you would have to use some popular 3D computer graphic
packages and programs such as 3D Studio Max, Maya or Softimage. It would also be good to
know how to use creative programs such as Photoshop.

Robert Eastwood

Financial Aspects of Aardman

Before making anything Aardman needs to make sure they have a funding company which enables
their animations to happen such as Sony or DreamWorks. Once they are told by the funding
company their general budget they will then start designing the character models as well they do
this on storyboards and the script before moving it to the production stage. Aardman will start off by
doing basic research on the films there have made that have done well and films they have done
which have failed them, an example of this is Flushed Away which lost 88m million where as a film
that did well for example Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit made $192.6 million.
Then they would find the materials they need to create the animations; they will mainly need
plasticine as well as other materials such as foam latex, wood, metal, resein, milliput and silicone.
The latex would cost with all the additives around 160. Aardman also have a headquarters in
Bristol where they create and
handle all their films, commercials
and series and the headquarters is
valued at around 8,000,000.
Aardman also has around 250
employees because they need all
of these people to be able to
make all the commercials and
series and films they make each
year.

Technical Creation
Stop Motion is a technique that manipulates the object to appear as if it was moving but this is
actually done by the object moving very slightly between all the individual frames; this is what
creates the illusion that the clay is moving. Aardman needs to create body parts and needs to move
each body part such as legs, mouth, arms and head.

Aardman Public Limited Company

Aardman us classed as a PLC which means they are a public company that offers shares to the public
which can then be acquired by anyone.

Company Structure
There are several members within Aardman that creates all of Aardmans visions:

David Vinicombe and Michael Salter- Story Team

Gareth Owens-Series Producer
Matt Purgaus- Assistant Editor
Jay Clarke- Story Artist
Matt Perry- Art Director
Phil Lewis- Production Designer
Steve Pegram- Producer
Mike Shorten- Prop Designer