Claymation is in another word, stop motion animation using models.
Who originated clay animation?
"Determined to follow through on his idea, O'Brien engaged the assistance of a newsreel photographer and set out to shoot a brief one minute test film atop the Bank of Italy building in downtown San Francisco. First he fashioned miniature dinosaur and caveman from modeling clay shaped over crude wooden skeletons and then placed the figures in a makeshift setting fabricated from small bits of rock. Hid prehistoric diorama thus prepared, Willis set up the camera and exposed another frame. The movement of each arm, leg or head was sometimes no more than an eighth of an inch at a time, and it proved to be slow tedious work, especially since the malleable miniatures had to be remodeled after nearly every frame. The results were somewhat jerky but the unique illusion of movement served to interest a local exhibitor, Herman Wobber, who saw the reel in the summer of 1915. Wobber, a ten-year veteran of the Alaskan gold rush day and a former partner in a printing and stationary firm, had gotten his start in the infant film business in 1906, opening the first nickelodeon in downtown San Francisco after the great earthquake and fire had devastated much of the city."
excerpted from CINEFEX number 7, page 9
According from the above source, the first recorded use of clay animation is in 1915. The first widely publicized clay animated film is King Kong, also by Willis O'Brien, in 1933.
How is clay animation made?
The technique of stop motion animation involves the manipulation of movement through time. Shooting each frame of film, the animator subtly alters the models position with incremental changes constructing a movement over a sequence of frmaes. When th film is viewed at normal speed the character appears to move of its own volition. Of course the hard work done by the production crew is hidden between and beyond each frame of film to allow the illusion to be complete.
Most characters are constructed from plasticene, foam latex and even artificial fur. Each of the characters has an internal skeleton called an armature constructed from aluminum or stainless steel which feature ball and plate joints. The armature allows the character to be held firmly to the set in normally unbalanced positions. To aid in plotting a character's movement precisely, computer assistant must be used. As the sequence is being shot, it is digitally captured with the previous frame displayed on a playback monitor for the animator to use as a guide. This allows the animator to manipulate the character's movement with accuracy and confidence, as well as to keep check that all elements of the shot do not move accidentally.
Separate areas are required for the art department, an area for character construction and maintenance, set-building and storage as well as the camera and lighting departments.
As computers have developed over the past decade, they have replaced many facets of traditional film-making. Recent technical developments have allowed digital animation to mimic the look of stop-motion animation, but the subtle gestures and performances created through stop motion ensure that it's presence will remain part of film-making culture for many years to come.