Studio Research: Aardman and Nathan Love

We all know Aardman for it stop motion masterpieces like Wallace and Gromit, Morph and Shaun the Sheep, however, the studio also creates a range of 2D animations, mostly for commercial purposes, but it is 2D nonetheless. This actually came as quite a shock to me, as I wasn't actually aware that Aardman did any 2D work at all.



However, they do, and having a look through it I feel that even though it's commercial work, it actually appears to be quite narrative based or character driven, which is something I am definitely interested in. Although, I must admit, the thought of working commercially does put me off slightly, as I really dislike the idea of commercial work despite knowing that it pays the bills. Having said this however, it would be great experience and would definitely boost my portfolio.

This studio is very clearly extremely successful, and I feel that may be down to the studio specialising in an area of animation that isn't as popular as it used to be, which is stop motion. Within the UK there aren't that many studios which focus on stop-motion, preferring 3D over other formats. I also feel that they've done so well because they create such a large range of work and a variety of different work on commercials to feature lengths.
Their success is evident in the fact that they have currently branched out to New York with their studio Nathan Love, which focuses more on commercial work and creates more 3D work than stop-motion.



Seeing commercial work being done in this way has made me think about what work I would be willing to do and whether or not I could potentially find work within the commercial realm that I would be happy doing. Nonetheless, if push came to shove I wouldn't turn down work regardless, however, I'd be happier working in the entertainment industry rather than the commercial one.