Basic Puppets Materials

More than one person has asked me what exactly do you need for a simple puppet. The basic materials are foam latex, an armature, faces. The best place for me to buy foam latex is http://www.burmanindustries.com, or http://www.animationtoolkit.co.uk/, both are trustworthy. I prefer foam latex over clay, it's easier to use (after molded properly) although, it is somewhere around 15 - 20 times more expensive than clay, but if it will work for you budget it works best. The armature is sort of tricky, it depends on how much you use the character. For instance, all the puppets on Robot Chicken all have wire armatures, on the other hand with a feature flick like Coraline, all the armatures are ball-and-socket. I usually use a wire armature. You can buy the wire at a reasonable price here on http://www.amazon.com. The best way to make an wire armature is to use a drill to twist two strands of wire to create a heavy duty wire; then tie wires together for arms, legs, etc. Faces are a hard subject to talk about because everyone has there own way. There are three main types of face animation: replacement faces, cut out faces, and one animate-able face (this method was used in Fantastic Mr. Fox). Overall, that's the basics, you can buy most of it on Amazon, thanks for your time!

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Interview with Joseph Wallace, Director and Animator of Psychedelic, Cut-out Stop Motion Music Video for Canadian Artist Parker Bossley's "Chemicals"

Parker Bossley as seen in Chemicals . Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace. “I think the thing I’ve always found wonderful about cut out animation is that it’s one of the most immediate forms of animation,” muses British stop motion animation director Joseph Wallace – currently based in Bristol, UK, where, in January of this year, he founded the stop motion studio Hangar Puppet Animation Studio – in discussion of the medium he employed in his most recent film – the surreal, psychedelic music video for Canadian artist Parker Bossley’s debut single, Chemicals , which has already won a Vimeo Staff Pick. Perhaps more than anything else – perfectly suiting the film’s subject matter –the style and medium allow to film to transcend to time itself, just as Wallace implies, undoubtedly allowing the film to become just that – immediate. Almost so much so one gets the feeling they’re clawing at air in search for a handle on reality as they fall…along with Bossley – also the film’s protagoni...

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Knotjira, a clumsy dinosaur made of wool, as seen in Lost & Found . Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith. “If I had to pick a starting point for my career as a stop motion animator I would have to say it was my obsession as a six year old with a book called ‘Playing with Plasticine’ by Barbara Reid,” Samuel Lewis – a London-based stop motion and 2D animator and director, whose most recent labor of love can be seen in his contribution to the Australian stop motion short film, Lost & Found – tells Stop Motion Geek. Upon reflection, Lewis explains that his love for the medium of stop motion began very early in life, and has merely managed to burn ever brighter in his fervor to master the craft. “I would spend countless hours fixated on sculpting tiny snails, fruit bowls and dinosaurs to the point where I would stay inside on family holidays sculpting a surfer in a beach scene rather than going to the actual beach that was only a short walk away,” Lewis recalls wistfully. “...

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Interview with Mark Smith, Director and Writer of Stop Motion Short Film, "Two Balloons"

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Interview with Bradley Slabe, Co-Director of Stop Motion Love Story, "Lost & Found" (Part 1/2 of Interview with "Lost & Found" Directors)

Knotjira (foreground) and Knitsune (background) in Lost & Found . Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith. The true essence of art – a reflection of life itself – is very much akin to the Japanese aesthetic of “wabi-sabi”: it’s imperfect, impermanent, and, at times, profoundly...incomplete. It is both at once a fundamental truth, and, curiously, more often than not, a thing incredibly hard to acknowledge, to make peace with. Yet perhaps our resistance is justifiable, for once we admit that the world is full of unknowns – unknowns that aren’t ideal, that aren’t perfect – we are just as soon confronted with the actualization of a deep, intrinsic, and very human fear: the fear of a future full of...unknowns that aren’t ideal, that aren’t perfect. Yet it’s the confrontal of that fear that is the most terrifying reality of all, for the moment we make peace with it we have just as soon have acknowledged that our paths in life aren’t in our own hands, or something we can contro...

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A Screen Novelties Christmas Present, to Us!

I check my email and I see... Property of Screen Novelties This gets an ' ohmygosh ' reaction from me; which doesn't happen every day for one who loves his internet tidbits. Oh, I almost forgot, I have been deprived my internet due to an ice storm that happened last morn, just thought I would throw that in there... For those of you who know me personally, you will notice after watching this [Screen Novelties] is breaking new ground. I have been saying that if Screen Novelties works hard enough they will be the next Laika. I believe in you guys! So anyhow check it out right here: http://screen-novelties.com/greetings-from-krampus/#.UrjRCNJDuuJ Screen Novelties website: http://screen-novelties.com/ "A Krampus Christmas" eCard from Screen Novelties on Vimeo .

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Interview with Bram Meindersma, Composer and Sound Designer of Oscar® Nominated Stop Motion Short Film, "Negative Space"

Sam and his father, from Negative Space . Source: Vimeo. Unlike practically every other medium, film has the unique aesthetic of being composed of the elements of sound and image, and, curiously, whenever watching a film, the two blend together into something of an impeccably hybridized concoction. With as much influence as sound has over the audience’s final experience of any given film, composer and sound designer Bram Meindersma’s work on the Oscar-nominated stop motion short film Negative Space – directed by Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter – proves an endlessly fascinating and extraordinary case study, as it uses sound – both its soundtrack as well as every other element of sound design – only sparingly and in subtle ways, one that could almost be called conservative. Yet it is perhaps just that component of its sound design that, at least in part, makes the film such a powerful one. Perhaps the reason why Meindersma’s delicate work on Negative Space is so powerful is i...

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Interview with Tim Allen, Key Animator on Wes Anderson's "Isle of Dogs"

Tim Allen animating on the set of Isle of Dogs . Source: YouTube. “The Wes style of movement has a simplicity & a more experienced animator has to learn to not put in the little tricks or flair that they may have used animating elsewhere,” Tim Allen – an animator whose career spans decades and includes credits on prestigious projects such as Shaun the Sheep , Postman Pat , Fireman Sam , The Flying Machine , Creature Comforts , the Oscar®-nominated films My Life as a Zucchini , Corpse Bride , Frankenweenie , Fantastic Mr. Fox , and the Oscar®-winning short film Peter & the Wolf – tells Stop Motion Geek, describing the metamorphosis his animation style underwent on one of his most recent projects – Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs , currently available on digital and set to be released on Blu-ray and DVD on July 17th. “The Wes style is direct & clear,” he goes on. “I take the old stop motion phrase & embraces it: ‘Less is more’.” "Atari" Isle of Dogs ch...

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A Trip to the Moon!!

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Interview with Robert Shaw, Director, Writer, and Co-Animator of Stop Motion Short Film "The Machine"

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Laika to Concentrate on Making More Features

Laika, the incredibly talented studio currently housing some of the most brilliant minds in the Stop Motion industry, and talent behind films such as Coraline, ParaNorman, and the upcoming The BoxTrolls, announced earlier this week that they plan to convert their spin-off studio, Laika/house, into a studio mainly concentrated on making feature films. Getting rid of commercials complety from their plate. Formerly, Laika/house only produced television commercials and shorts. LAIKA/house President Lourri Hammack, Creative Director Kirk Kelley and Managing Director of Strategic Operations Al Cubillas will lead a new studio specializing in short to mid-form animated content for advertising and broadcast markets. Located 19 miles away from the main Laika production house, the Laika/house facility in Oregon has been responsible to make some of the most iconic branding characters, (i.e. the M&M characters), plus, they've revamped some of the most iconic characters in the com...

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