Animators use county chickens

The genius behind Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run have modelled their latest creations for a cereal advert on a rare poultry collection in south Shropshire.

Representativs from Aardman productions visited the Wernlas collection in Onibury, near Craven Arms, on a number of occasions to study the feathered friends for a new multi-grain Kelloggs cereal advert.

Shaun Hammon, owner of the rare poultry collection, said the animator from the company videoed various breeds of chicken and then came back a second time after viewing his findings to study the movements further.

"He said they make wire structures and then build up the muscle and study the skeletal structure.

"The man got very excited by the Andalusian Blue because of the colours of the bird. He also looked at a Light Sussex and a Welsummer and they all appear in the advert which was aired at the weekend," said Mr Hammon.

"We get a lot of professionals from different industries visit us. They don't always say who they are but lots of scientific studies take place here. The visit from Ardman was a really interesting fun one though," he added.

A spokesman from Aardman said the process at the rare breeds farm would have been the same as animators used for Chicken Run.

"Nick Park and Peter Law who produced the film studied a lot of chickens in different situations to look at their mannerisms and make sure it looks realistic on screen," he said.

"The animator will watch the different breeds of chicken carefully because they all have different mannerisms. It has to be as convincing as possible because the last thing we want is someone ringing up and saying 'An Andalusian Blue would never strut like that!'" he added.

By Catherine Roche