Creating 3-D Animation : The Aardman Book of Filmmaking

by Brian Sibley, Peter Lord

What do Wallace and Gromit, Godzilla, and Gumby have in common? They're all examples of 3-D animation. From Aardman Studios in Bristol. England, winners of three Academy Awards, comes the most thorough book on the subject, and the first to include complete instructions for making a 3-D animated film.Aardman is one of the foremost 3-D animation studios in the world, acclaimed for its short films, TV series and commercials. The studio has created a host of well-known characters, the most famous being Nick Park's Wallace and Gromit. But the history of 3-D animation spans Hollywood triumphs as the 1933 King Kong, 1991's Terminator II, and 1993's The Nightmare Before Christmas, and includes such creatures as the California Raisins.The main focus of this exciting book is a guide to the processes of 3-D animation, culminating in a practical, fully illustrated step-by-step description of how to create effective characters and sets, and make an entire film. There is no other book that provides this same information in such detail, making it possible for everyone to create their own 3-D animated classic.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Brian Sibley is an English writer, broadcaster, and award-winning dramatist whose work has brought beloved stories to life for readers, listeners, and filmgoers alike. The author of over 100 hours of radio drama and hundreds of documentaries and features for the BBC, he is best known for his acclaimed 1981 radio adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, co-written with Michael Bakewell, as well as dramatizations of C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast novels, and Richard Adams’s Watership Down.
Sibley has also written numerous original plays for radio, presented popular BBC programmes including Kaleidoscope and Talking Pictures, and produced documentaries on figures ranging from Lewis Carroll and Ray Bradbury to Julie Andrews and Walt Disney. His contributions to broadcasting have earned him accolades such as the Sony Radio Award and the BBC Audio Drama Award for Best Adaptation.
In print, Sibley is the author of many acclaimed film “making of” books, including Harry Potter: Film Wizardry, The Lord of the Rings: The Making of the Movie Trilogy, and Peter Jackson: A Filmmaker’s Journey, as well as companion volumes for The Hobbit films, The Golden Compass, and Disney classics. His literary works range from Shadowlands to children’s books like The Frightful Food Feud and Osric the Extraordinary Owl, with stories appearing in official Winnie-the-Pooh collections.
A noted Disney historian, Sibley has contributed essays to The Walt Disney Film Archives and recorded DVD commentaries for classic films. He is the editor of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Fall of Númenor, winner of the Tolkien Society’s Best Book award in 2023.
Sibley has served as President and Chair of The Lewis Carroll Society and is an honorary member of The Magic Circle, the Tolkien Society, and The Children’s Books History Society.

Reviews

[Jesse Bray · Rating 5 out of 5]

An adorable overview of animation done the Aardman way.

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an essential item for any animator or enthusiast's shelf. Written as an introductory piece to Aardman's style of stop motion and cgi, "Cracking Animation" is written with heartwarming sincerity and showcases one of the UK's longest running studios. A must have.

[Gijs Grob · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a richly illustrated coffee table book, written by the founders of Aardman, with contributions of some of their co-workers, like Nick Park. The book is set up as a guide for starting stop motion artists, but rather fails in that respect, as the writers also want to tell something about how they have done things at Aardman. These chapters are in fact the most interesting ones of the book, but at the same time the least insightful for the starting animator. In the end the book is neither fish nor fowl: it's too sketchy for the reader interested in Aardman's history and technique, and it's too vague for the would-be animator. Best chapters are 'The medium', which is an excellent overview of the history of stop motion animation, ending with the history of Aardman itself, and Chapter 6, 'Making a Film', with insightful background information on 'Chicken Run', 'Creature Comforts', 'War Story', and 'Pib and Pog'. The rest of the book is also highly entertaining, but should be seen more as a celebration of Aardman than as a text book.

[Parka · Rating 5 out of 5]

(More pictures at parkablogs.com)

This is sort of a behind-the-scenes book that looks at animation production inside the famous Aardman Studios, creators of successful Wallace and Gromit films, Chicken Run and others.

The perspective is that of Aardman Studios so this book focuses on stop-motion animation. The 3-D in the title means the physical 3D, the actual construction of stuff, as compared to computer generated 3D (only a small section is on that).

The book starts with a long but interesting history of animation, right from the day stop motion was used for films up to the recent releases for Aardman Studios.

The second part jumps into the more technical side of making animation. There are chapters on basic clay animation, model makings, set designs, animating movements and expressions and using CGI. These are all furnished with lots of great pictures and insightful commentary from the staff. It's difficult not to marvel at the ingenuity behind making these animation. There are explanation on the camera tricks used, on how to create enduring characters on paper and in clay, and other production stories.

The final part looks at film making in depth, from scripting to animating, including thoughts given to creating other related content like games and websites. Several films were used as mini case studies, such as the early Peter Lord's Adam, Curse of the Were-rabbit, Chicken Run and other lesser known films.

This is a very insightful book on stop-motion animation, and on how Aardman Studios make theirs. Recommended to fans and enthusiasts.

[Jake Hainey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tend not to like non-fiction or reference books, always preferring novels but having recently completed an Honours degree in animation I was very interested in this book when I found it for a bargain price.
I’ve never been a massive fan of Aardman animations but in terms of claymation you don’t get much better, therefore you would think an educational book from them would be a no-brainer, sadly I didn’t find this to be the case.
The problem I usually have with books designed to educate on a particular topic, is that these books are usually written by people at the top of their fields. These people are able to write in detail to a professional level but often struggle to give basic steps for people with no experience. This is very much the case here, after a few pages of basic exercises the reader is bombarded with tips on how to work at Aardman’s level. Given that Aardman animators have been working since the 70’s to get to their level I find it unlikely that the jump from amateur to pro can be made after ten pages of trial and error.

It’s educational value aside, the book does a good job of telling the history of Aardman and the chapters detailing their work are a good read. The highlight, the opening sixty pages that give a detailed history of claymation, listing several obscure films that I will now definitely track down.

While these are a treat to run through I couldn’t help but feel let down that the book doesn’t live up to it’s purpose and I can’t really recommend it for anything else than the opening essay. If you can get it cheap, it’s worth a look, but I’d refrain from getting it at full price.

[Jeremy James · Rating 3 out of 5]

I debated much on my rating for this book but in the end this seemed appropriate for what I was able to gain from it.

I got this book hoping to find some good step by step instruction into stop motion clay animation. I've long admired the films Aardman has released and with that I started to read. Unfortunately nearly half the book was nothing more than a fairly dry history of animation.

It was beyond this point where I became interested again as they begin talking about equipment and techniques. I really never realized that each clay figure has its own metal armature underneath the clay to make movement fluid and easy. They show, step by step, the making of some of their iconic characters, such as Grommit and talk in depth about motion and studying movement. It also includes a great section that shows step by step, simple, clay progressions that you can follow to practice the craft.

Despite the dry beginning I did enjoy this book as a sort of Claymation 101. In terms of being an in depth tutorial on the subject I'm sure there are better options out there. But in terms of learning a few techniques from one of the greatest studios to produce Claymation films it was surely worth it.

[Jellysix · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was hoping for more straightforward information on creating 3d animation. About 3/4 of this book is a history of animation in general and Aardman studios in particular. It was an interesting book, and I did enjoy it, but it's far from a technical manual, even in the parts where it does get a little technical. So, good for reading and looking at pictures; not so good for reference.

[Karetchko]

This is a fun book for fans of Wallace and Gromit (and other claymation features).

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just the kind of lively, entertaining, insightful book about animation-making you might expect from one of the finest teams of animators in the biz.

[Jeff Youngstrom]

My review from September 9, 2005

[Clare · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blew my tiny 7-year-old mind.