Claymation or stop motion animation
In Claymation the characters are made of a soft material such as special clay or plastesine, with a wire skeleton inside. The characters and the backgrounds are three-dimensional. The characters are moved very little for each frame shot.
The camera can be placed on any angle and can even be moved for travellings, panoramics etc. with the help of special mechanisms that control it's movement.
Aardman studios are very famous for their claymation animations.
Aardman studios: “Ident” 1989 (stills)
Aardman studios: “War story” (stills)
Jan Svankmayer used the claymation and stop motion technique to create very artistic animations that combine clay figures and animated objects.
Jan Svankmayer, “the dialogue” (stills)