Interview with Samuel Lewis - Animator, Character Designer, and Sculptor on Stop Motion Short Film, "Lost & Found"

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. “Eventually this, coupled with a healthy interest in Sesame Street, Trapdoor, Pingu and Wallace & Gromit lead to me studying animation at university and perusing a career ever since.”

Samuel Lewis animating on the set of Lost & Found. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.

Lewis’s first ever experiment with stop motion was created with a Sony Handycam borrowed from a friend to the family, which, Lewis says, “didn’t have a single frame function so you just had to press record on/off really quickly.” In reflection of that foundational time of his childhood, Lewis remarks, “I guess experimentation is at the core of my practice. I love trying out new methods, materials and techniques just to see what happens.”

Perhaps it’s this dedication to experimentation that has fueled Lewis’s fearless approach to trying new approaches to his craft, such as animating on the life-sized set – a sushi bar – featured in Lost & Found, on which Lewis, at times, animated for hours upon hours while sitting on a caster wheel trolley, on which he would roll onto the set to incrementally pose the puppets before then rolling back, out of view of the camera, to capture the frame.

Samuel Lewis fist-bumps with Knotjira on the set of Lost & Found. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.

As well as being the sole animator to work on Lost & Found – a seven-and-a-half-minute short film, no easy undertaking for a stop motion film – Lewis also designed the film’s characters – two lovable stuffed yarn creatures, a fox and a green dinosaur, crafted in style of the Japanese art of Amigurumi. Along with designing the characters of the fox Knitsune and the dinosaur Knotjira, Lewis also sculpted them, to, along with Lost & Found’s armaturist, Scott Ebdon, and crochet artist Julie Ramsden, breathe life into the film’s characters to bring to life the film’s beautifully metaphoric tale of how Knotjira is forced to unravel himself to save the love of his life.

Early concept sketches of Knotjira drawn by Samuel Lewis. Source: Instagram.

Early concept sketches of Knitsune drawn by Samuel Lewis. Source: Instagram.

Lost & Found premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany this February, and will next be screened at the Sydney Film Festival in Sydney, Australia, which will be happening from the 6th to the 17th of June. You can learn more about the Sydney Film Festival by going here.

This is the third of Stop Motion Geek’s interviews with the team behind Lost & Found. The first – our interview with co-director Bradley Slabe – can be read here. The second – an interview with co-director Andrew Goldsmith – can be read here.

Knitsune in the midst of being animated in a test animation. Source: Instagram.

Knotjira being animated in a running cycle for a test animation. Source: Instagram.

In our interview, Samuel Lewis discusses his lifelong path to becoming an animator, as well as what he’s learned from working in the animation industry in Australia, as well as in London and Florence, Italy. Lewis also gives us an in-depth look at his approach to the character design and minimalistic performances of Lost & Found. He also tells us about some of the challenges he faced on Lost & Found and how he remedied them, as well as how he keeps up his morale when shooting five seconds of film a day over the course of a fourteen month shoot. He also shares with us his advice to aspiring animators, along with resources he recommends to use in learning the craft. You can read our interview below in full.

A.H. Uriah: Hello, Samuel! Thank you so much for doing this interview! I’ve been an admirer of your work for quite some time so it’s a pleasure to feature your work (as well as your voice) on this blog! To start out, I’m going to ask a relatively broad question, so feel free to answer it in whatever way you see fit: Can you tell us a little bit about when and how you first became interested in the medium of animation – particularly stop motion? How did you get from your early experiments in the medium to where you are now – the director and animator of many award-winning stop motion short film?

Samuel Lewis: Oh hello! Thanks for having me here. 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. 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. Eventually this, coupled with a healthy interest in Sesame Street, Trapdoor, Pingu and Wallace & Gromit lead to me studying animation at university and perusing a career ever since. My first ever stop motion animation was created on a Sony Handycam that belonged to a family friend and it didn’t have a single frame function so you just had to press record on/off really quickly. I guess experimentation is at the core of my practice. I love trying out new methods, materials and techniques just to see what happens.

Samuel Lewis drinking water on the set of Lost & Found. Source: Instagram.

Knotjira hanging by a thread on the set of Lost & Found. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.

A.H.: Can you tell us about your early endeavors and education in the stop motion medium?

SL: I studied a B.A. of Animation at the Queensland College of Art in Australia and one of my first lecturers there was John Eyley who previously worked at the Hanna-Barbera studios in Sydney. He’s since retired, but I still remember his endless supply of animation anecdotes and great sense of humour.

Samuel Lewis animating Knotjira on the set of Lost & Found. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.

The set of Lost & Found. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.

A.H.: Are there any resources (books, online resources, etc.) you found particularly helpful that you would still recommend to aspiring animators?

SL: Richard Williams book ‘The Animator’s Survival Kit’ is my recommendation for anyone interested in animation as it’s technically dense yet easy to understand and quite entertaining to read. Other than that you just need a lot of patience, practice and collaboration with other animators because it does get lonely sometimes and it’s nice to have people around who understand what it feels like to spend eight hour of your day crafting five seconds of film.

Knitsune being animated in a test animation. Source: Instagram.

Knitsune being animated in front of a blue screen. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.

A.H.: I imagine you worked closely with the directors of Lost & Found (Bradley Slabe and Andrew Goldsmith) to design and sculpt the two main characters – Knotjira (the dinosaur) Knitsune (the fox). Can you tell us about the evolution of the character designs for Lost & Found’s two main characters? How did your interactions with the directors influence the character design?

SL: The core of the character design brief that I received from Bradley and Goldy was that the two characters needed to be created in the style of Amigurumi, which is the Japanese art of crocheting small, stuffed yarn creatures. This naturally led to simplistic designs and I aimed to give both puppets strong silhouettes and large eyes to make their expressions read well on screen. I also drew a lot of inspiration from the well-rounded personalities that Bradley had created for both characters and I matched that with their body shapes. Knotjira is a bit clumsy and goofy so I made them chunkier and top heavy while Knitsune is confident and nimble so their design was sleeker.

Character turnaround sheet for Knitsune. Source: Instagram.

Character turnaround sheet for Knotjira. Source: Instagram.

A.H.: I imagine that knowing that you had to animate the puppets you designed played into the design choices you ultimately made in designing your characters. In Lost & Found, the character design is very minimalistic – the character of Knitsune, has no mouth and both Knitsune and Knotjira have completely black eyes. You also incorporate a material not often seen in the stop motion medium – crocheted wool (which I’m sure proved a challenge to animate). How did you manage to incorporate a minimalistic approach to the character design as well as the woolen element of Knotjira and Knitsune without losing the amount of expression you needed your characters to convey when it came to animation?

SL: You can get a lot of expression from a puppet with only body language and eye movement. One of John Eyley’s favourite sayings was ‘blinking is thinking’ and he encouraged all of his students to watch the silent film greats like Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin and study how they conveyed emotion in a scene without words. It’s a great challenge to figure out how to express sadness, fear, excitement and happiness only using head turns, blinks and arm movements. The character designs for Lost & Found influenced their acting quite a lot and sometimes you had to work within the physical limitations of the puppets.

Samuel Goldsmith animating on the set of Lost & Found. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.

Knitsune (left) and Knotjira (right) in the midst of being animated. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.

A.H.: From what I read, the Lost & Found shoot lasted for four months, and during that entire time you were the sole animator. How many hours a day were you animating and on average how many seconds of animation were you animating a day? I imagine the work can became pretty strenuous, physically and emotionally, after a long stretch of time. As a more general question, how do you manage to keep yourself motivated when on a several month long shoot?

SL: I was initially scheduled to be animating for four months, but the shoot ended up stretching to fourteen due to the complexity of the lighting, rigging, motion control and special effects like water and stuffing. Each day I would cycle one hour to the studio, usually starting around 10-11am and only leave when the shot(s) for the day was animated. On a good day this was about 7pm, but I also had days that turned into nights and I would leave around 1am. Sometimes is got so late that I would sleep on the studio couch and wake up very on time for work. Luckily it was a very comfortable couch. It did get stressful at times, but you can hardly complain when everyone in our small team was doing it just as tough and making big sacrifices. On long shoots like this it gets to a point where you stop counting the days and just focus on planning for the next shot until they’re all done.

The shooting schedule for Lost & Found. Source: Instagram.

Knitsune's armature (left), the fully fabricated Knitsune (middle), and the Knitsune armature fleshed out with foam (right). Source: Instagram.

A.H.: In her interview with the Dragonframe blog, the producer of Lost & Found, Lucy J. Hayes, mentioned that one of the biggest technical challenges that you and your associates faced on the film was the element of wool, wool stuffing, and crochet, which all play a major role in the film. I find it also interesting that you have worked using crocheted stop motion puppets in the past on your music video Time to Go for Wax Tailor. What challenges did the material of crocheted woolen puppets present and what unique benefits did this provide you with? How did you and your associates (namely Julie Ramsden, who was the character crochet artist on the film) tackle this design challenge during animation? Also, how did your approach to working with crocheted puppets differ in Lost & Found from your work on Time to Go?

SL: The main differences between Lost & Found and Time to Go were the scale of the puppets and the filming locations. Knitsune and Knotjira were approximately 20-25cm and animated in a studio setting with controlled lighting, while the quadropus in the Wax Tailor music video was 1m long and animated outdoors in natural light. Crochet puppets are really interesting to animate as you can get incredibly subtle movements just by pressing or squeezing on the wool in a certain way to simulate breathing and there’s a surprising amount of squash and stretch. Julie is such a talented artist and it was a pleasure to work with her on both projects in bringing the characters into existence.

Knotjira in the midst of being animated by Samuel Lewis for the climax of Lost & Found. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.

Knotjira in the midst of being animated by Samuel Lewis for the climax of Lost & Found. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.

A.H.: One thing that was a particularly unusual element of Lost & Found was that you were animating on a full-scale set, on which you used the director of photography Gerald Thompson’s custom-designed motion control software and hardware. Can you tell us about your experience with working in such a large environment for a stop motion film? What benefits and challenges did you find to working on such a large scale? Is it something you would be interested in returning to?

SL: It was certainly a challenge to animate on a full scale set. With miniatures you can elevate everything to a comfortable table height, but that wasn’t always possibly with shots in Lost & Found and I had to animate at floor level on a number of occasions. To do that I sat on a little caster wheel trolley and rolled onto set to pose the puppets and back out to capture the frame. It was actually quite a lot of fun and excellent leg exercise and I’d definitely return to the style, but maybe after I’ve explored a few other ideas that I’ve had in the back of my mind for too long.

Samuel Lewis animating on the set of Lost & Found. Source: Instagram.

Knotjira in the midst of being animated on the set of Lost & Found. Source: Instagram.

A.H.: What’s next for you? Do you have any other elements of the filmmaking and animation industry that you’re interested in exploring, or do you see yourself continuing to do exactly the kind of work you’re doing now?

SL: Last year I moved from Melbourne to Florence, where I was reconnecting with my Italian heritage and now I’m in freelancing in London as a director and animator. I’d love to work on a feature film in the future and collaborate with studios like Parabella, Blinkink and of course Aardman to fulfill a long-standing childhood dream. The industry in Europe is much bigger than Australia and it’s exciting to see everything that’s happening over here. I’m currently directing a music video for Swedish band Francobollo that will be released in early June and I can’t wait to share it. I just hope everyone is prepared for the weirdness we’ve created.



You can explore more of Samuel’s work by visiting his website and Vimeo, as well as his charming Instagram.

You can watch Lost & Found in full – released online as of December 6th, 2018 – by going here. You can watch the trailer for the film by going here. You can learn more about the film by visiting its brilliantly adorable and incredibly insightful Instagram profile, as well its Facebook and website. You can watch the film’s behind-the-scenes featurette by going here.

This article is the third in a series of articles featuring Stop Motion Geek’s interviews with the team behind Lost & Found. You can read the first article in the series – an interview with Bradley Slabe, the writer of the film as well as one half of the film’s director duo – by going here. You can read the second article in the series – an interview with Andrew Goldsmith, the second half of the film’s team of directors as well as the co-editor of the film and VFX creative director – by going here.

You can stay tuned for the upcoming articles and interviews with the rest of Lost & Found’s brilliant team by subscribing to Stop Motion Geek via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our homepage, or by following us on Facebook @StopMotionGeek, or by visiting https://www.facebook.com/StopMotionGeek/. You can also stay up-to-date with the blog by following us on Instagram or @stop.motion.geek.blog.

Knotjira (left) and Knitsune (right) as seen in Lost & Found. Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith.