Leah Taylor

Unit 12 – assignment 2.
1. Find out how they research and develop their next product.
Aardman researches and develops innovative
digital products using new technology. Partners
include the Intellectual Property Office to
develop the World of Cracking Ideas website.
Aardman have great success with most of their
animation, whether it is a movie or a series
which they have had to of researched and developed an idea before they can take it to the
main screen.
When they first think about creating a new animation weather it is for a movie or a series,
they have to research what they have previously done, to see which ones had the best
success rate, to see what genre of animation they should go down. Once they have an idea
of the genre what they want to use in their next animation then they will start to research
what they could do, usually they have to have some sort of idea of what the animation will
be about, otherwise they will not be able to research anything of importance. They would
also do surveys and questionnaires to see what their costumers most want and what they
like.
2. Explain what a product development cycle is.
Before Aardman can start creating an
animation, they will need to already have
a good idea to go off, they will also need
to know that they have the funding they
will need to create the animation. On a
couple of their other products they have
had funding from DreamWorks and
SONY, these big companies with set a
budget for Aardman to work with, this will give them idea of what they can and cannot do
due to the budget. They first have to research, and idea what they have come up with and
when they know what they are going to do then they can start developing the idea. When
they have the definite idea, this is when they have to get all of the models created this
process take quite a long time because they have to get each character perfect ready to be
put into the scenes, the characters will be already drawn up so the people who are creating
the models have something to look at and something to go off because before creating they
will have to go through lots of brainstorming sessions where they will come up with the
drawings of the characters. So, before moving into the production stage of the creation of a
new product they need to make sure that they have a script of the story and they have a
design of the characters so the people who are going to make these out of clay/plasticine
can start kind of straight away.
Aardman starts off by doing basic research, this research will be on how they are going to
produce the film and if they will have enough time,
they will check their history of what series and films
they have previously produces, to see which ones have
had a lot of success as well as looking which ones have
caused the company downfall, for example where they
partnered up with DreamWorks, this is when they
created Flushed Away, with is film they lost £88 million.
They after they have done all of the research what they will need in order to create a movie
what they think is going to be successful they would have to find all of the correct materials,
so that they can make the characters what will be in the movie. The characters are usually
made out of plasticine, they also use other materials such as resein, milliput, foam latex,
silicone, wood and metal. Wallace & Gromit, were mostly made out of plasticine. Now a
day's they use a softer version of plasticine they what they used when they first started out
because it is a lot easier to mould the characters to make them look more realistic because
they will get the characters looking softer a little bit quicker as it is a lot easier to create the
shapes they want. They also use something called a skeleton which they use under all of the
characters, these skeletons are made out of mild steel plate or stainless steel, Aardman gets
a local model making business to drill the ball bearings and the socket joints in to the plates
which will enable the figures to move so when they are creating the animations it will be
easy for the animators to move the characters to make them look like they are moving and
they also hand cut all of the plates. Aardman also uses some other different materials what
other animation companies would not usually use this is just another thing that sets
Aardman aside from other animation companies. Also, they animate in a different way to
other companies for example in their film "Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists" the
main character’s beard didn’t move, it was in the same position the whole film, where
usually the beard would be moving all over the place, but it is completely still.

3. Explain the diversity of techniques used at Aardman.

Claymation-
A stop-motion animation process using clay or
Plasticine figures that are moved incrementally to
create a lifelike look when the captured film frames
are viewed in rapid sequence.
Clay animation or Claymation, sometimes
plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop
motion animation. Each animated piece, either
character or background, is "deformable"—made
of a malleable substance, usually plasticine clay.
Traditional animation, from cel animation to stop
motion, is produced by recording each frame, or still picture, on film or digital media and
then playing the recorded frames back in rapid succession before the viewer. These and
other moving images, from zoetrope to films to video games, create the illusion of motion
by playing back at over ten to twelve frames per second. The techniques involved in creating
computer-generated imagery are conversely generally removed from a frame-by-frame
process.
4. Explain who are the major competitors.
Aardman only used to use Claymation when they first
started out, this is where they would make lots of
different models to create a scene and then move the
model little by little taking pictures of they every time
they have been moved and then once they put all of
the images together they would have a smooth-
running animation where it would look like the models
are moving, they do not have very many competitors
against them in this department or not any who make
as much as Aardman does. But when the world of
technology started to develop Aardman wanted to get into CG, so when they started to put
more CG into their films then they started to get more serious competitors. When Aardman
worked with SONY and DreamWorks to create films such as "Flushed Away" and "Arthur
Christmas" to bring in more of the CG aspect, many people didn’t like this because the film
didn’t have the Aardman's signature style, and these films didn’t bring in much of a profit
because people didn’t like that it didn’t look like Aardman created them.

5. Research their main customers.

In order for Aardman to reach out to their
customers, they first need to select what type of
demographics they are aiming their animation at,
they need to select this very carefully because
when they know this then they can create and
produce a strong product what they know their
customers will like and when they know their
customers are going to like it then they will profit
off the sales of their products. Also, when they know their demographics they can aim their
animations are the correct age and gender, but now a day's they will make the films aimed
at both genders as if they only aim it at one and not the other they could possible face a lot
of backlash of people disagreeing with what they have decided to do. In the begging
Aardman wanted to aim their animated films at adult, and when they did this it did win
them quite a few awards for example an Oscar, but after a while of aiming their animated
films at adults they decided to aim them more towards children, and now their movies are
very popular with younger children, on average around the age of 5.
However, on some occasions Aardman set up certain events which involves their customers
to help out with the company which involves in Aardman setting up a campaign costing
£75,000 via Kick‐starter website which fans help the company to raise the target fund titled
‘Bring back Morph’ campaign. After eight days, many fans dedicated in donating from £1 to
£5,000 supporting the company to produce new episodes of Morph which Peter Lord was
astounded and appreciated with all the support, he claimed that the funds will be able to
produce 15 episodes of the Morph series.
6. Explain the property rights.
Their creativity – a product for the home, a
piece of machinery, a software
programme, a song, an animated
character, a brand name – is protected by
their Intellectual Property (IP) rights. These
rights identify the creator as the owner of
the idea and enable them to earn money
from it so they can continue to innovate.
Their property rights are under their terms and conditions, this is the same for many other
companies. Property rights means that the property of say the contents in a movie they own
exclusively and no one else but Aardman can use it, another company can use their property
if they ask permission and they can only use it if permission has been granted by people
who own Aardman these people would be either Nick Park, David Sproxton or Peter Lord, as
they have paid a lot of money to have the property rights put on. If someone uses the things
what have property rights on them then there would be consequences which will follow, as
it will be seen as someone breaching the property law, as this other company didn’t come
up with its own ideas and stole it from Aardman without asking for permission.
Having these rights on their products means that Aardman have the ability at any time to
withdraw their products from the public, this includes their series, films and shows, so
anything that they have created they can take away from the public because of these laws.
On the Aardman website it says this under the heading property rights:
“We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our site, and in the
material published on it. Those works are protected by copyright laws and treaties around
the world. All such rights are reserved by us. You may print off one copy, and may
download extracts, of any page(s) from our site for your personal use and you may draw the
attention of others to content posted on our site. You must not modify the paper or digital
copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way, and you must not
use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately
from any accompanying text. Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the
authors of content on our site must always be acknowledged. You must not use any part of
the content on our site for commercial purposes without obtaining a license to do so from
us or our licensors.”
 7. Product Diversity & Services
In the beginning Aardman Animations were a low-
budget company, the company was quite small, with
only Peter Lord and David Sproxton creating small
animations. They first started out with a partnership
with the BBC creating animations using clay for deaf
children, this then continued on to become a series.
They started off being quite interested in animations
and how to animate things, they were also specialised
in plasticine, and were able to create small models. They continued to make this series and
then they went on to create animations for adults. Aardman creates their animations for
both adults and youths and a both genders this makes their audience bigger and will get
more money as more people can watch it.
Not only did they just provide their product services locally within the United Kingdom,
Aardman Animations had also made their move in pushing their services across the globe by
experimenting with different audiences and pushing out what Aardman Animations are
meant to be doing which for one of their animation series, Creature Comforts was a success
around the globe which won them an Oscar and is now currently being developed for the
USA region. This proves that Aardman Animations are unique in what they do by using
plasticine to create stop‐motion animation which many audiences love thus built a
successful reputation for Aardman Animations.
8. Profitability of Product Range
Since Aardman Animation mainly focuses on
Claymation animation, they mainly provide services
for other business companies not only just make
featured films, shorts, or series as this is what
Aardman is famous for: Claymation.
Although they have tried making feature length films
which did not end up where they would like to have
been, they still continue creating kids’ series across
the world for all children of all age to watch with many dedicated reasons such as Morph,
which is directly aimed for children who are deaf that watch television. We can take an
example of this where Disney is well‐known around the world globally and although Walt
Disney original owner of the company was completely dedicated in making fairy tale stories
such as Cinderella as well as modern CG films for children e.g. Chicken Little, Cars, Frozen,
etc. where they are all primarily aimed at children which they had great success despite the
fact that all their films are in CG whereas compared to Aardman Animations, they had a
downfall when they tried joining in using CG for most of their films.
Aardman’s other services include making commercial ads for businesses which they use
famous character models to advertise the company businesses such as for Natwest
commercials, Aardman used Pigby and Friends since Natwest primary iconic image is their
piggy bank which is completely relevant. Another famous commercial made by Aardman
where they made Cadbury’s Crème Egg advert which had a small plot that involved
Cadbury’s Crème Egg coming to life which they have a game of Goo ‘Hurdles’ as well as Goo
‘Hammer Throw’, Goo ‘High Dive’, Goo ‘Velodrome’ and Goo ‘Javelin’ to sell their product to
the consumers. This made Aardman gain more profit from what they primarily create from
the start.
Aardman also hand‐crafts and sell models of their famous characters which they heavily
market out to the consumers such as Wallace & Gromit which Aardman hand‐craft specially
to sell out for the public at an individual price for approximately £50 each which although is
expensive, you are guarantee to get the perfect original model rather than an alternative
company producing poor quality models cheaply which is great for those who are a die‐hard
Wallace & Gromit fan.
9. Research to see if they have any sequels in production.
Aardman and StudioCanal today announce Shaun
the Sheep Movie 2 Directed by Richard Starzak
(Shaun the Sheep Movie, Creature Comforts) and
Produced by Paul Kewley (Shaun the Sheep Movie,
The Farmer’s Llamas). Pre-production will
commence January 2017.
The world’s favourite sheep returns to the big
screen in Shaun the Sheep Movie 2, the sequel to
his hugely successful and highly acclaimed Oscar nominated 2015 cinematic debut. Shaun
and the Flock are back for another epic and hilarious journey, in what will be their biggest
and most exciting adventure yet.
David Sproxton Co-founder and Executive Chairman at Aardman said: “Shaun’s move to the
big screen proved such a success with audiences around the world that he and the flock are
very excited to be embarking on another big screen adventure. Aardman is partnering with
StudioCanal once again to produce another rip-roaring comedy, featuring Shaun and the
rest of the gang in a story that takes them to even greater heights of lunacy. “
Ron Halpern, EVP of International Productions and Acquisitions for Studio Canal adds: “All of
us here at StudioCanal are Aardman fans. To get to see the wonderful way they work in
Bristol as they have for 40 years now through to the first ‘Shaun the Sheep Movie’ was an
experience we will always cherish. Luckily, we get to start again with what will definitely be
another film showcasing Aardman’s unique humour, creativity and craftsmanship.”
Shaun the Sheep Movie 2 continues the production partnership with Aardman and
StudioCanal following the success of ‘Shaun the Sheep Movie’ directed by Mark Burton and
Richard Starzak, which grossed $106 million worldwide and Nick Park’s highly anticipated
new prehistoric comedy adventure, ‘Early Man’, currently in production. StudioCanal is co-
financing and will distribute in its own territories, the UK, France, Germany, Australia and
New Zealand, selling worldwide at AFM.
 10. Explain the meaning of outsourcing and do Aardman do this.
Outsourcing is a business practice in which a
company hires another company or an individual to
perform tasks, handle operations or provide services
that are either usually executed or had previously
been done by the company's own employees.
The outside company, which is known as the service
provider or a third-party provider, arranges for its
own workers or computer systems to perform the
tasks or services either on site at the hiring
company's own facilities or at external locations.
Companies today can outsource a number of tasks or services. They often outsource
information technology services, including programming and application development as
well as technical support. They frequently outsource customer service and call service
functions. They can outsource other types of work as well, including manufacturing
processes, human resources tasks and financial functions such as bookkeeping and payroll.
Companies can outsource entire divisions, such as its entire IT department, or just parts of a
particular department.
Companies which produce products as well as films, shows etc. are looking for the highest quality
but cheapest way and so set a budget in which they use as a guideline. When you buy things the
majority say ‘Made in China’ because of the reason it is cheaper and they can create very
good products. It is the same with Aardman, they are looking to create products cheap and
by sending them abroad it can be done. This can be as simple as some of the stage props
which they want making/buying. China are less economically evolved and so is cheaper for
business which means Aardman and other companies like this can save a lot of money. A
fact I have learned is that due to all of the creating when Aardman want to bring out a new
show they have to go through the stage of planning how it will all be done, buying all of the
products, materials etc. and it can also waste time as well as money and this is one of the
major reasons they began to create CG movies which didn’t go far. They went back to
creating clay stop motion shows which they did themselves but still invested in buying
products from China. Unfortunately, soon Aardman will have to buy from different countries
such as France due to tax credits being lowered in China. In 2011 Aardman threatened to
move overseas as they say animations created in the UK receive government help of about
15-20% tax but UK TV animations receive nothing. They believe this is a massive downfall to
the media industry and think that if they changed their ways like overseas it would be a
tremendous help to UK animation companies.
11. Explain Aardman's Accessibility Policy and how it applies to the website.
Your web accessibility policy may be standalone or integrated into other policies, such as
non-discrimination or equal opportunity policies. Ideally web accessibility should also be
reflected in related documents, such as brand guidelines, coding standards, and project
management frameworks. This helps accessibility to be considered as a core feature rather
than an afterthought. Your organizational policy may be an internal document and not
suitable for the public. To communicate your effort, consider providing a public accessibility
statement that reflects your policy, goals, and achievements.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 is
applicable to all web content and applications,
including on mobile, television, and other delivery
channels. The WCAG Overview provides more
background.
Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0 is
applicable for websites that provide users the
opportunity to generate content, such as adding
comments, posting to forums, or uploading images or
videos. ATAG is also relevant if your organization provides tools, such as CMS's, for staff or
customers to manage websites and content. The ATAG Overview provides more
background.
User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 2.0 is applicable when additional plug-ins, such
as media players, are provided to deliver content or when custom controls are developed to
provide non-standard functionality. UAAG may also be relevant where mobile applications
deliver web content as part of the application, and to the procurement process if your
organization provides browsers for staff. The UAAG Overview provides more background.
Aardman Animations is committed to providing online content accessible to all. Where
possible we provide ‘graceful transformation’ as suggested within W3C’s Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines.
Aardman.com provides clean, readable content with understandable titling to support
navigating through this content. We provide alternative content for images and important
animated elements, such as the site’s main navigation.
We regret the site currently does not provide alternative content for all our video media.
We are always striving to make our visitors’ experiences better, so if you have suggestions
regarding this site please contact us at accessibility@aardman.com.
12. Research "Nathan Love" subsidiary of Aardman in NYC.
Nathan love is a section on their website
where there are lots of projects what they
have done in this, this first one if for a
yogurt, and the animation is promoting
that. It is biased in NYC.
Aardman Nathan Love is the result of a
blossoming kinship between Joe
Burrascano, Peter Lord, David Sproxton, Heather Wright, and Kerry Lock.
"After countless conversations, this group of
visionaries found that not only do they share a
passion for furthering their craft and leadership,
but they also share in their perspective of
running a company that encourages fun and
creativity in a comfortable, down to earth
environment, while creating amazing work."

Aardman, based in Bristol (UK) co-founded and

run by Peter Lord and David Sproxton, is a world leader in animation. The studio produces
feature films, series, advertising and digital entertainment for both the domestic and
international market.

Their multi-award winning productions are novel, entertaining, brilliantly characterized and
full of charm that reflects the unique talent, energy and personal commitment of the very
special people who make up the Aardman team.

The studio’s work is often imitated and yet the company continues to lead the field
producing a rare brand of visually stunning and amusing independent and commercial
productions.