Object animation

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One of many forms of stop motion animation.

Object animation is, as its name implies, a form of stop motion animation that involves the animated movements of any NON-DRAWN objects such as toys, blocks, dolls, etc. which are NOT fully malleable such as clay or wax, and NOT designed to look like a recognizeable human or animal character.

Object animation is considered a different form of animation distinct from model animation and puppet animation, as these two forms of stop-motion animation usually use recognizeable characters as their subjects, rather than just objects like static toy soldiers, or buildable toys such as Tinker Toys, LEGO bricks (Brickfilm), Lincoln logs, Erector Sets, etc.

Since mere objects usually have an inherent emotional "coldness" to them, they aren't often used as sole subjects for animation and are usually combined with other (above mentioned) forms of animation.

An example: A toy car can be animated, but is more often animated with a character easily seen driving the car, as in Will Vinton studio's commercial for Nike with Barbie and G.I. Joe driving away from a confused Ken Doll as Van Halen plays on the soundtrack.

A more recent example of object animation is that used in the Cartoon Network Adult's Swim TV series, Robot Chicken, which combines object animation with a variation of puppet animation, in this case the puppets being made to look like plastic "action figures" from various TV shows, movies, and pop culture.