A History of Clay Animation

Clay Animation isn't a new technique at all, technically, clay animation began a short time after the invention of a clay-like substance called plasticine. Plasticine was invented in 1897, and one of the first actual films to use clay was in 1902 using clay for lightning sculpting. This was one of the first steps into clay animation, but it took six more years to actually make a film that used clay animated sculptures. This happened in 1908 when "A Sculptor's Welsh Rarebit Nightmare".

However for almost 70 years Clay animation didn't really start becoming popular, however in the late 80's it began to turn into a large-scale phenomenon. Gumby was one of the first superstars to be made out of clay. Even now, people still can't seem to get enough of him. He is a true legend that just keeps reincarnating. He really makes up a large part of clay animation's history. Now that there is so much technology available, clay animation has really been made much simpler to do and accomplish than it was in it's beginnings.