Seven things you didn’t know about Aardman Animations

Bristol's Aardman Animations have provided laughter and entertainment to screens large and small with its unmistakable cast of hilarious and endearing characters for decades.

Whether this is with stop-motion pirates, a cheese loving gent and his companion pooch, chickens, mice or even sheep, the witty clay creations have, frame by frame, made their way into hearts across the globe.

Now, as dozens of giant sheep are soon to pop up around the city, we thought we’d take a closer look at Aardman HQ, and learn a few new things we perhaps didn’t before.

Aided by Aardman archivist, Tom Vincent, here’s what we found out:

1. How Aardman got its name

You're more than likely already familiar with Wallace and Gromit – but who is Aardman?

When co-founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton first started their animation partnership back in 1972, one of their first creations was Aardman, a Superman-style character used in an animated sequence for BBC series Vision On. 

In his debut days, Aardman walked across a hole but didn’t fall in. Instead, he picked it up and moved it.

Not so much super hero as start of super self-reflexive animation, Aardman and his twenty seconds of fame had earned the guys a paycheck. But, in order to receive it, they needed a company name. Perhaps he was a superhero of sorts after all.

2. The Aardman building used to be a banana warehouse

Just behind the fancy new Aardman HQ on Gas Ferry Road there are studios where the cameras are kept and the animations are brought to life.

They call it the Banana Warehouse – but this isn't a reference to the wacky animations that take place within. In fact, the building used to be an actual banana warehouse, where the fruit was ripened.

Th bananas came from Avonmouth before being shipped out across the country. Now the space takes in ideas and makes them ripe for animation.

3. Morph has been remastered and you can watch him on YouTube 

Aardman are remastering The Amazing Adventures of Morph from 1980 and 1981 and you can watch them for free on YouTube.

Scanning the original elements in at 2K resolution, our favourite plasticine pal is getting a new lease of life, with Aardman making Morph and his buddies easily accessible in crisp quality, all over the Internet.

In fact, they've created some brand new mini-episodes too. You might catch them broadcast on CBBC this month if you're terrestrially inclined, but you can also check them out on YouTube.

4. Best filming results come from mildly radioactive lenses 

When they first started making films, Aardman were shooting on 16mm Bolex cameras.

Making their way through 35mm and into the digital realm, Aardman now use a combination of new, top-of-the-range kit and vintage movie lenses.

Nat Sale, Studio Manager, tells us that the Canon lenses from the 1970s are considered the “gods of movie lenses”. Sadly, they don’t manufacture them anymore.

The reason? There’s a coating on the front element that has slight green tinge to it, which comes from Uranium. The result is a certain cinematic look that newer, super sharp digital lenses simply can’t create.

5. Academy Awards are not impervious to sweat

Aardman have won a host of Academy Awards including Best Animated Short Film for Creature Comforts in 1990, for A Close Shave in 1995 and for Best Animated Feature Film in 2005 for The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

So, there’s a shiny Oscar standing tall in a cabinet at Aardman HQ and even though a lot of sweat goes into winning one, you better make sure you're not perspiring if you're holding it. A touch of that Academy sheen is missing around old Oscar’s legs, which is why Vincent always has the white gloves at the ready to show it off.

6. Even archivists have to recycle 

Every animation is a creation and even with an archive, not everything made for production will live to see another day.

Consulting with producers and directors, Vincent has to make sure the really good stuff gets kept. Some of it goes on to exhibition while other items wait until they might be called upon to appear again – there are houses from the Wallace and Gromit films that reappear in the Shaun the Sheep Movie, which also helps keep costs down.

But what happens to the items they don’t keep? Vincent assures me that around 90% of the materials get recycled. What he couldn’t confirm, however, was whether or not there’s a giant ball of clay rolling around somewhere in the South West…

7. There's more to it than clay

This might be the biggest bombshell of all: your favourite Aardman characters aren’t just made of clay.

A variety of clay and clay-like materials, from latex and silicone to fast cast resin, are used. The latter can be hardened in a kiln to make the models more durable, which is important when it comes to archive and exhibition: the models they keep and send on tour aren’t always the same as those used in production.

The problem with modelling clay – brilliant though it is for production – is that you can’t stop deterioration over time.

While you are in a learning mood, why not find out five things you might not know about the Clifton Suspension Bridge too?