The factory that made Lewis Newplast, the modeling clay used by Aardman, shut down in March 2023; Aardman purchased enough remaining clay to cover the upcoming 2024 Wallace and Gromit film.
We use a variety of materials in our workshop, plasticine, silicone/rubber, resin, foam latex, sculpey, milliput, and the list goes on, according to the requirements for particular characters.
“The way we make the chickens on this is a very different way than we made the chickens on the first film.” The puppets now use silicones and polyurethane plastics in addition to plasticine.
According to The Telegraph, the British animation studio was facing a crisis. Aardman uses a particular brand of clay to build its models, and supplies are running dry. “This Plasticine-like substance is an animator's dream: it's easy to mould, yet keeps its shape under hot studio lights,” explained The Telegraph.
The Clay in Stop-Motion Animation at Aardman Studios
What claymation company is running out of clay?
Aardman Animations, the studio behind films like Chicken Run and Wallace and Gromit, is running out of clay – a crisis that could put the “stop” in stop-motion.
The factory that made Lewis Newplast, the modeling clay used by Aardman, shut down in March 2023; Aardman purchased enough remaining clay to cover the upcoming 2024 Wallace and Gromit film.
While there is some use of CGI, Dawn of the Nugget retains Aardman's trademark stop-motion, clay animation. Sculpting those birds takes time and patience. For crowd scenes, more than 800 chicken wings were made and more than 150,000 feathers were hand painted. Most of the clay puppets each have a set of 14 mouths.
The section of the Telegraph story that was highlighted in the viral tweet was about how the studio only has enough clay for one more Wallace and Gromit movie — which, it turns out, isn't quite true. Aardman released its own statement on X on Monday, thanking fans for their concern but telling them not to worry.
It was reported that there were fears over the future of the Aardman characters, since the Lewis Newplast clay, which is the material used by Aardman to create characters like the eccentric cheese-loving inventor Wallace and his loyal beagle Gromit, would no longer be available.
When producing their claymation-style feature films or Wallace and Gromit & Shaun the Sheep animations, Aardman Animations goes through 100s of pounds of modeling clay.
In order to commercialize his invention, he presented it to the Faber-Castell company in 1887, which had back then the name "Kunst-Modellierthon" (known as Plastilin), where it is still sold nowadays under the name "Münchner Künstler Plastilin" (Munich artists' Plastilin).
Aardman Animations, maker of stop-motion films in the Wallace & Gromit franchise, has released a statement correcting a previous report that the studio was nearly out of clay: “There is absolutely no need to worry.”
The chicken models, previously made entirely out of clay, have also benefited from a makeover. Like many of their Hollywood peers, they now boast silicon bodies, which are fitted over digitally designed, 3D-printed armatures (the heads and faces are still sculpted from clay).
Earlier this year, the only factory making the plasticine used by Aardman for beloved stop-motion projects such as the Wallace and Gromit shorts and this year's much-anticipated feature Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, closed down.
Flushed Away was the third and final animated feature Aardman produced with DreamWorks, and the first Aardman project made entirely in CGI animation as opposed to stop-motion.
Aardman Alternative is a British-American animation studio and production company which provides animation for adult and teen movies, shows and specials.
Wallace & Gromit is a British claymation comedy media franchise created by Nick Park of Aardman Animations. The series mainly consists of four short films, a feature-length movie, two TV shows, four video games and multiple other multimodal releases and spin-offs.
Ray Harryhausen (born June 29, 1920, Los Angeles, California, U.S.—died May 7, 2013, London, England) was an American filmmaker best known for his pioneering use of stop-motion animation effects.
Having bought what it could, The Telegraph reported, the studio had enough clay left to make only one more film, a new “Wallace and Gromit” feature coming next year. But no, the studio's foundations are not crumbling. Aardman Animations said on Monday it had plenty of clay to keep molding.
First, the movie Coraline isn't a regular animation. It's stop motion animation and is made from clay. With this being such a time-consuming and tedious process, Coraline took four years to make.
