At age 48, Nick Park sits at the top of his field. When it comes to 3D animation, only Tim Burton ("Corpse Bride") and Henry Selick ("James and the Giant Peach") can rival him. Working out of the Aardman Animation studios in Bristol, the soft-spoken, self-effacing clay boffin from Lancashire has garnered praise from all quarters, from Monty Python animator Terry Gilliam to stop-motion godfather Ray Harryhausen, who described Park's claymation as the smoothest ever. Surrounded by his models, Park spoke with The Japan Times on his painstaking filmmaking process.
It seems like you and Tim Burton are the hold-outs on stop-motion animation. How different are your techniques?
Our models aren't as sophisticated as theirs. I mean, we have the same kind of skeletons inside, but whereas his are covered in foam-latex, silicon materials, ours are covered in clay -- it's more kind of squash and scratch. We do use other materials too, like Wallace's torso is harder. It's made of plasticine, then cast in resin. So you don't smudge the tie every time you get hold of it.