4. Aardman Case Study

Aardman are one of the worlds number one animation companies, they produce a huge amount of animation that we all see on television and in films. The Aardman company have lots and lots of different job roles to make their productions successful. These include Animators, Assistant Animators, Storyboard Artists, Layout Artists and CGI Modellers.


Animator

Stop Motion Animators bring models or puppets to life, animating them one frame at a time to create a performance and provide the action outlined in the storyboard. They follow a brief from a Director, Animation Director/Supervisor or Studio Director, and may also refer to established characterisation developed by a Director or Key/Senior Animator.

 Assistant Animator

 Assistant Animators in stop motion animation support the Animators and help the work of the department to run smoothly. They must make sure that the models or puppets are on set, completely equipped, clean and ready to shoot. They need to ensure that the costumes, props and sets are correct and that continuity is maintained.

 Storyboard Artists

The storyboard artist’s job is to provide a visual representation prior to the filming of a feature film or television production. Taking the script or teleplay, the storyboard artist will interpret the objective, whether it is to tell an effective story or represent a product for sale, and deliver a storyboard: a collection of visual scenes which will show the director how he/she may be able to shoot the project


Layout Artists

A layout artist collects and assembles type styles and images, such as illustrations, photographs and drawings, to create a visual design in a computer or on paper. The layout artist is one of several types of commercial artists known as graphic designers who deliver ideas and information through visual communications.


CGI Modellers


Modellers build three-dimensional computer models of everything that is needed for a CGI project. Further on in the process, Riggers will rig the models to enable them to be animated and Texture Artists will apply texture which will be further enhanced at the lighting stage when tone and depth are added.

How They are Made

Aardman animations are always from clay, or plasticine, and to animate with this takes a huge amount of patience. To create even a short 5 minute production with clay you would need to invest a huge amount of time, for example, their feature film Wallace and Gromit The Curse of the Ware-Rabbit which took a total of five years to make, including planning, filming and all editing. That is a huge amount of time for a film. They actually used a total of 300 man crew with the majority of those being animators, but some of them would create the body parts and others would assemble the sets and get ready to film. Obviously they would then take images with a camera while moving the objects ever so slightly and then to put them all together to create a moving image. As easy as it sounds it is actually an incredibly difficult task to do, and can be easily messed up by moving something wrong, or dropping something. It can be very temperamental and is one of the more stressful lines of work in the business.

6. Charity Research

RSPCA - The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is a charity operating in England and Wales that promotes animal welfare. This would be a good charity to base our animation on because it is easily relatable to children and would appeal specifically to that audience. This is because children are generally more interested in animals and also interested in animation so the two will work together. The over riding message the charity RSPCA sends across is that hurting any animals is wrong, which would reinforce the audience's views, therefore gaining more donations.

NSPCC - The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is a charity campaigning and working in child protection in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands. This could be good for an animation because it                 can be easily linked to children, so they will perhaps feel more obliged to donate. 

MAKE A WISH - The Make-A-Wish Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in the United States that arranges experiences to children with life-threatening medical conditions. In order to qualify for a wish, the child must be between the ages of 2 and a half and 18 at the time of referral. It is the child's physician that ultimately decides if a child is eligible. This would also be good because it is aimed at children and would appeal to them specifically.

SAVE THE CHILDREN - The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, is an international non-governmental organization that promotes children's rights, provides relief and helps support children in developing countries. To make people donate to their charity they often use children as the icon of the advert, this makes the audience feel more emotionally connected to the charity therefore making people donate money. 

HELP FOR HEROES - Help for Heroes is a British charity launched on 1 October 2007 to help provide better facilities for British servicemen and women who have been wounded or injured in the line of duty. This would be a good charity to do an animation advert for because with animation you can include things that wouldn't be appropriate if it was a real life image of video clip.  This means we could make more emotive imagery without making it too inappropriate.




Chosen Charity - Save the Children.

We have chosen to make a stop motion animation for the charity, Save the Children. This is because the charities aim is to aid children that are currently suffering in third world countries from poverty, conflict and diseases. The target audience for this charity is any person over the age of 18 in any first world country around the world, this means that they will be able to obtain more donations from a wider audience range. However, by making the animation child friendly the younger audience seeing it would share it with their parents, therefor increasing the number of donations. The logo for Save the Children portrays what looks as though it is a cheering child, which shows that the charity makes children happy. The circle symbolises the world, and that every child in the world is being thought about and that they try to help as many as they can. Also the colour red is often linked with the themes of love and compassion, which again reflects the charity in a very positive manner.