Clay Animation

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What Does Clay Animation Mean?

Clay animation is an early form of video animation that is still popular today. It consists of using clay pieces as characters and background objects in video animation and moving or "deforming" them between frames to create continuous video motion.

Clay animation is also known as claymation.

Techopedia Explains Clay Animation

Before the rise of advanced computer animation technologies, claymation and related physical animation models were the standard for physical animation or 3D animation. Cartoon drawings were often used for 2D animation. This physical animation industry thrived throughout the 1970s and 1980s and into the 1990s as the dominant model until the emergence of computer-generated imagery (CGI) and virtual animation.

Clay animation has many benefits. It preserves a unique authentic look for physical animation. It can also be done with limited resources. However, one of its disadvantages is the labor-intensive process of repositioning clay objects between frames. Industry experts estimate that a 30-minute clay animation video contains thousands of frames, each of which requires small tweaks to the physical clay models.

Even though CGI and virtual or digital animation have largely taken over from physical animation, clay animation still exists and is used for some kinds of projects. For example, smaller studios without access to virtual animation tools may use clay animation. Some projects may use it as a retro or artistic choice. In some cases, designers combine clay animation with high-tech computer animation tools.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.