Hey guys, it's Adam from Tested,
and I'm at Aardman Animation in Bristol England. Aardman is famous, of course, for their unique style of animation that
utilizes modelling clay. Now at the beginning of a feature film project,
they have to mix up sometimes hundreds and hundreds of pounds of modeling clay, and because that clay might be dispersed among
15 different versions of a single character, the color has to match exactly.
In addition, it also has to match with other materials like hard polyurethane and
silicone, and the man in charge of all that is senior modeler and color maestro Jay Smart.
He's going to walk me through the ex food processing machines that he uses to keep the color consistent at Aardman.
Jay, obviously if the animators are animating the characters using modeling clay,
you have to produce a lot of modeling clay.
Can you talk to me about some of the challenges in getting that clay right both in terms of color and consistency?
[Jay] Yeah, sure, so um,
basically, we get it in bar form. As you can feel, it's quite soft and sticky.
[Adam] Oh yeah, it's very soft and sticky.
[Jay] Yeah, so it's no good for the animators really, especially when it's a very hot day today as well,
So they need something slightly stiffer.
So what my job is to do is to make the color first and to make it stiffer,
We use a bit of chalk. [Adam] Oh, so you add chalk into the mix. [Jay] So basically, what we're doing is just adding
chalk, there is- it depends because the bars change. Sometimes they're soft, sometimes they're slightly firmer.
So you've got to play it by ear a little bit, and it's a bit of guesswork
and you can't go back and foresee the animators and make sure they're happy with it. [Adam] So if it's too soft,
You add chalk. What happens if it's too hard? [Jay] If it's too hard, you can stiffen it with things like petroleum jelly- Vaseline,
or linseed oil, which I'm doing at the moment, actually.
[Adam] Now,
consistency is one thing, but color is much more important right? You have to match the color across a
Year and a half of filmmaking. [Jay] Yeah, of course. [Adam] Do you mix the color constantly throughout production?
[Jay] The trick is I try and over-mix sometimes, so I don't have to do it. If you're doing a batch at the beginning
It's not too bad. You've got a bit of leeway.
Once you're into production and you're run out that's got to hit absolutely match straight on. [Adam] And that's a really tough challenge to color match.
[Jay] It really is. [Adam] How do you guys mix this stuff together? How do you mix in the chalk?
I mean you must- [Jay] Well, so I can actually show you. I can give you an example.
[Adam] Oh, please! [Jay] So what we're gonna do here is,
We're gonna do a slightly pink color skin tone
which you run out of. [Adam] Oh I didn't realize we're going to mix this right now
That's awesome! [Jay] Oh yeah, so I've got some ready to go.
So what I'll do
So yeah, I've got actually three colors here
We try and keep it as low as possible, the amount of color. sometimes you get six or seven colors
But we'll stick with three there, and that's it. I'll try and get the color first before I put any chalk in.
So it'll take a few minutes just to kind of mix in. [Adam] Wow!
[Jay] And actually, I write recipes and things a lot of time
but when we get a new batch from the factory,
I mean, their pigment levels change a lot, so the red is- just for kids, the red's red. But for us, you
need to be spot-on so
Generally recipes change. my recipes changed. Generally there is a guideline. Then it's just all by eye really.
Also I find with color, just every room you're in, it changes to a different color. Every light source is different.
Yeah, it's a tricky one, with this machine it can take a lot of chalk, so if you put too much in, I'll just go to
Dust and then it'll just take forever to catch again.
[Adam] Oh really. [Jay] if you whack a load of chalk in there, it will eventually, but
it'll just go like really heavily and really dusty and it can take like an hour or so to kind of catch.
So really do it very slowly, which takes forever.
[Adam] This color doesn't necessarily just have to match silicone, but also the hard polyurethane if necessary. [Jay] Yeah, so it matches the hard polyurethane resin,
Silicone, but sometimes also rubber inks, because this is foam.
Occasionally you have a bit of flesh showing so you can might have to paint a bit of flesh color on there.
so, potentially, four different things.
All having to look the same as well, and absorbing light at the same rate.
So in the hand, it may look different. On screen, hopefully it will look right.
[Adam] Can I see this?
[Jay] Yeah, of course. Yes.
[Adam] Oh, he's just beautiful.
Look at that. oh!
This is silicone. This is hard polyurethane, this is modeling clay, and all their colors have to match each other. That's...
Incredible.
[Jay] so now we're going to, now I'm pretty happy with the color. I'm going to start adding chalk and it'll stiffen up
Just generally add it very slowly, as it can go very dusty. I'll put a little bit at a time so sit back.
[Adam] What is this machine used for normally? [Jay] I believe before chicken run,
It was used as a chewing gum machine, a bubble gum machine. [Adam] making bubble gum.
[Jai] Yeah.
[Adam] oh my gosh.
[Jay] I think before Chicken Run, we generally did things, we had smaller batches,
We did things by hand. yeah, obviously when Chicken Run started,
It was a lot more plasticine, we had to do a lot more loads, so we needed something bigger.
[Adam] How many pounds of clay can you process in this at once?
[Jay] This, this machine here generally
It's about a box, which is about ten kilograms. That's all that isn't hangs [Adam] 22 pounds about here, and how much
Plasticine might you process for an entire feature film
Well some of the lead characters Jerry had about twelve boxes I think I've worked out on this there was about
550 kilograms almost half a ton, I think. [Adam] Wow!
[Jay] In total
[Adam] That's astounding!
That's a lot of just sitting here and mixing. [Jay] Yeah. I think you ought about a ton of modeling clay
And we've used about half a ton for the characters.
[Adam] Do different animators prefer different densities of modeling clay?
[Jay] Yeah, of course
They all have their different preferences, but you have to go somewhere in between
[Adam] Does adding the chalk also change the color slightly?
[Jay] It can, it can be a little bit milky. [Adam] Yeah
[Jay] Obviously, it goes a little bit whiter
so you have to bear that in mind, so when I do my samples always add the chalk to make sure that it matches the
Color as well
[Adam] How did you get the job of being the color matching clay specialist what- what in your past led directly to this?
[Jay] Working from an art background art course
Really just need an eye for color. Yeah, you kind of assume
Everyone's got a life color, but actually you know a few people can do it
There was a lady here before me
But I've been doing it now for about 15 years.
[Adam] Wow! It was one of my first jobs as an assistant animator
For cel animation was mixing the colors beneath, you know whether it was between one, two, or three layers of acetate [Jay] right [Adam] because it's always a different color
Depending and I was the color matcher for about six or eight months, so I have little taste of what you go through here
But the idea is easy
[Jay] It's not as easy as it looks
[Adam] No, it's totally. I mean because
The batches you get from the factory you were just saying aren't necessarily totally consistent
[Jay] No, they do change a lot, so it stands to you already you can't trust the recipe you've made
What was always my eye
[Adam] but at the top of a film?
Do you then?
Make a couple of hundred pounds of the right pigment and then go and mix up the correct color mixture for the silicones all at
Once so that everything matches at the top of show, or is that something that's still an ongoing process [Jay] Now generally
I'll have a two month to three-month persons beginning pen on the size production
This has been quite big so bad
Another model maker Claire do it with me. We've kind of split it. There's a lot of work actually was about three months on this film
Before anything else started [Adam] Wow [Jay] We come in at the beginning do all the color work
Before anyone obviously we can't cast that you can't do anything without it, so
[Adam] How does this clay get delivered to the animators is it in chunks out of this machine?
[Jay] No, so actually we tend not to use this machine. We've got a bigger machine over here
We'll just show you in a minute. This we can do smaller batches obviously on the film
I could do anything up to 12 boxes per color
[Adam] Yeah
[Jay] So I'll generally use this for smaller things like maybe tongue color some eyelids
little bits and pieces. We've got some mud, done some mud color, [Adam] okay [Jay] this is generally for the smaller pieces.
[Adam] The one behind you here is the big machine?
[Jay] Yeah
So this is the big machine. This extrudes so you've got to constantly be here and cut so I've done a few-
[Adam] You want to put- to put me to work? [Jay] to cut [Adam] so it's just going to start coming out of there
[Jay] Yeah, it'll just start coming out of there and you just cut when you feel ready
[Adam] Okay [Jay] Do you want to do it or do you want me to do it? [Adam] This one? [Jay] Yep. [Adam] Okay here we go
extruding simple modeling, haha
Wow
Oh look at that
That is so cool. *Gasps*
Oh It's like making Medusa's wig
[Jay] *laughs*
[Adam] And I put that back in the top [Jay] Back in the top [Adam] you're processing it [Jay] yeah [Adam] oh my goodness
That's got to get tiring after a few hours
[Jay] yeah, it can take a few hours
I mean this stuff the colors right on this. What we've got to do with this
We just got to soften it ever so slightly [Adam] I see and that means you're adding something like petroleum jelly or
Linseed oil
[Jay] Yeah, actually what we're gonna do is- This is linseed oil [Adam] Okay
So this is how much we're gonna put in I generally just do it over the course of half an hour or so
So I put a few drops on at a time
There
[Adam] The it's warm
Yeah they warm up really quickly actually [Adam] yeah [Jay] and it helps the mixing process, [Adam] and is that warmth basically just a process of it being extruded
[Jay] Yeah, I think it's so tight there. You can feel this will get really warm
What under there and that's very warm, [Adam] and that's just the friction Wow [Jay] it's just pushing it through tiny gaps
Before we used to have a bigger open ones which tubes. [Adam] Yeah [Jay] It didn't get as hot, but this is is a smaller tighter
So it can get very hot after a while [Adam] Really
Ah, it smells great [Jay] you feel it working in your shoulders, right? [Adam] This is really- I'm having a great time. This is exactly
[Jay] You get a smell of the linseed?
the smell of the modeling clay
Actually, this color is called spam [Adam] Is it really? That sounds- that seems totally appropriate.
That was a deeply satisfying, thanks for putting me to work, Jay. [Jay] No worries, mate [Adam] I appreciate it