Study On The Application And Development Of Clay Animation

Clay animation is a branch of stop-motion animation, with history of over a hundred years. The quality of being plastic leaves broad creative space for animators to display their rich imagination. Over the years, clay has been employed as a main material in slumberous excellent stop-motion animations. Compared with2D animations and3D computer animations, the clay’s unique texture can bring a more real visual experience to audience, whose artistic charm is an enduring appeal.Today, in China, theories related to clay animation are relatively less than that of other forms of animation. Therefore, through extensive reference of historic materials, this paper aims to systematically make a synthesis, comparison, analysis and summary of clay animation. Besides, with the integration of theory and practice, some production problems can be solved. The research cannot only fill in the gaps of theories but contributes instructive significance to the practical shooting production.The paper is aimed at researching on the application and development of clay animation. First of all, through the introduction to the concept and history, the special art language of clay stop-motion animation would be generalized. Secondly, a comparison and contrast among clay animation and other animated forms in such areas as colors and action design would be made, in order to make a conclusion of essential factors needed for a successful production of clay animation. Thirdly, the analysis of new technology on clay animation could provide a theoretical basis for its amateurs and professionals. Moreover, through the analysis of domestic and foreign lip-sync animation, new production methods has been found; besides, through the analysis of liquid animation from home and abroad, production methods for static and flow effects have been sought and discussed. Lastly, the paper will also explore the development of clay animation, further stress its irreplaceable position, along with the exploration on the possibility of the combination of clay animation and3D computer animation so as to infer the development trend of clay animation in China and summarize its artistic value and development direction.