THE PROCESS
Our brief for our Stop-Motion rotation was to create a functioning, manipulable cardboard puppet loosely influenced by the traditional Japanese Bunraku theatre puppet, to be controlled by hand via wooden dowels between 2-3 people.
This was the first task I was ever given in this course, so naturally I was extremely excited and motivated to start creating- and it was especially exciting to be working in a group environment. I had never worked creatively with other people before, so I went into the experience with a very open mind and willingness to communicate with my team to produce a great end product. I had also done some reading beforehand so knew the kind of product we were aiming to create, and this research proved very useful in the long run.
After some discussion within our group, we settled on creating a bird, as we agreed its range of motion is much easier to control by 2-3 people compared to some of the other animals we considered, such as a cat – with wings, body, and head to be controlled by hand, and the feet and jaw to be self-standing and able to be manipulated via animation wire. We also decided that the focus of our puppet should be on its’ characterisation and creating humour and emotion through movement – as our skillset would lend itself to a more charming and light-hearted design, rather than a realistic, “serious” one.
We assigned each major limb of the puppet to individuals within our group, and as I had already envisioned how the wings would be controlled, I was naturally assigned to make them. I spent the rest of the lesson creating a small prototype of the wing mechanics, which would be controlled by the “wing bone” and would guide the feathers via some string. (Pictured below)
The final design for the wings was loosely based on this concept – the largest “bone” of the wings was the one to be manipulated by hand, and the rivets between each section meant that when the wing bone was pulled, the rest of the feathers and connecting bones moved with it.
The materials I used (cardboard, cocktail sticks, and string) were extremely beneficial in this process as they were flexible, malleable and surprisingly sturdy as well. The bones could handle a great deal of strain and could be bent quite a significant amount without any sign of breaking. As well as this, I opted to use cardboard with different textures (mainly Amazon boxes, meaning this was a bird from the Amazon!) as I believe this made the wings more visually interesting and played into its “cheap”, cardboard design quite a bit.
The head and jaw of the bird were created by my teammate Gab, who created a makeshift hinge for the lower jaw from a cocktail stick – meaning it could be manipulated without the need for a wooden dowel. This was a good move in terms of streamlining the animation process, making the area less cluttered, and easier to maintain. Our team made the conscious decision to not include a face in our final design as we believe that opened more opportunities for showing his character and emotions in more interesting ways. Relying on facial expressions for conveying character felt like an unjust way to represent his character – we made him extremely posable and able to convey a great deal of emotion from his body movement alone.
His body is comprised of three main sections – the head, the “neck”, and the body. We simply attached these components together with some animation wire and hot glue, meaning he was not fixed at any level and could move freely at any time. This was a very useful decision as during the animation process, we were able to illustrate to one another our ideas for poses easily and quickly. However, him not being able to hold a pose on his own meant someone ALWAYS had to hold him up, which made sense for the brief, but required a great deal of upper arm strength! It also meant that it took a lot of effort to keep him still in between frames, but that was to be expected. We also made the decision to cover his entire body in layers of “feathers” to conceal the three main parts that he was made from, to add volume to his figure and to further characterise him. This was a long process and meant we had to come in for an extra day to film some quick test shots, however, it greatly improved his look and was well worth the time spent. This also gave me some time to further get to know my teammates.
Test Shots
To ensure we were prepared for the week of filming, my teammate Gab and I (as well as some friends from other groups who were interested) came in to film some quick test shots. They were extremely beneficial as they allowed us to get accustomed to using the puppet, and being in the stop-motion space in general.
Test One:
Our first animation test was a quick loop demonstrating our puppet’s wingspan and range of motion. I quickly drafted my idea to ensure everyone was on the same page about the puppet’s movements. I believe this first test was very successful and highlighted the strengths, as well as the limitations of the puppet we created, as well as our creative process.
The puppet itself had a fantastic range of movement that allowed for some striking silhouettes and visual imagery. Controlling the wings, head, and body was a surprisingly easy process, and it allowed us to work effectively as a team (as illustrated above) and discuss ideas quickly and efficiently through the puppet’s movement. However, several times, the wooden dowels controlling the wings, head, and body broke and required some quick-fixing with black duct tape. While this was an issue at the time this was simply the nature of the material that we were working with, so we did our best to combat this wherever possible.
The experience also highlighted several issues with our setup, our puppet and our technique. For example, we did not take enough care in moving around the camera – and we did not take the proper precautions to ensure the camera was secure on the ground. As a result, it is obvious the camera moves around 3 different times in this animation – while it is not noticeable, it was a flaw that we intended to fix for our final animation. We also combatted this issue during filming by utilising the drawing tool to outline the silhouette of the first frame, to then return the puppet to its original position again.
Another minor issue was that our puppet was cut off slightly when he was fully outstretched – something that could have been solved by establishing how high his form would be BEFORE setting up the camera and establishing the framing. This was an issue we fixed in subsequent animations and was, therefore, a good learning experience for us.
Test Two:
This was a much more complex animation that took around an hour to complete, with three of us controlling the puppet and one person taking the frames. All of the issues we encountered in our first test we aimed to avoid in this animation, and we were quite successful in this process.
We only ended up hitting the camera once in this process so the animation was much smoother and cohesive. In addition, we fortified the wooden dowels holding him up with duct tape so we did not encounter any issues of him breaking mid-sequence.
We quickly entered the appropriate roles for this performance, with Gabby taking the role of director as she was able to see the onionskin better than myself, and Salem and Esther holding up the puppet. It was relatively seamless and we worked well as a team in establishing where he would be moving, and we worked entirely spontaneously, without a pre-established plan.
Overall, I am very pleased with this animation and the steps we took to minimize the risks and issues involved in filming.
TRANSFORMATION
Our prompt was to make our puppet go through a “significant transformation” and to explore the idea of materiality with our puppet. Considering the amount of movement and personality able to be expressed with our puppet thanks to its design, I began to explore different transformations that would be striking and visually appealing.
At the same time, in class, we experimented with the technique of replacement animation- which allowed me to think about creating animation from pre-made shapes and moving them around on screen.
I thoroughly enjoyed this method of animation and found it more suited to my skillsets, and I immediately knew that I wanted to incorporate this style of animation within my final project. So, I created some sketches of our puppet being “electrocuted” in a cartoony, slap-stick style shot, inspired by animations like Fantastic Mr Fox. This was a key element for us for our final animation as it allowed for a smooth transition between one transformation and the next, and was visually impressive as well.
After sketching out some ideas and conferring with my teammates we agreed this was a great way to incorporate a smooth transition between transformations as well as look very interesting and striking (no pun intended) as well.
We established a rough outline of what our puppet would be doing and decided between us that the idea of him being in a café, (utilising the café soundscape provided) and accidentally prodding a plug socket and electrocuting himself in the process. We would then modify the puppet to appear charred and burnt and end with him dramatically falling over in a slapstick, cartoony style.
This idea, however, was (according to Chris) “too obvious” of a storyline, and not a significant enough transformation. It was clear we were thinking too much about the story and the gag rather than exploring the concept of materiality – so we changed our approach and tried to think of ways we could change and reinvent him.
Personally, I struggled a lot with trying to get into the “dream-like” state that Chris was discussing regarding shooting our stop-motion puppets. I am a very literal person- I like visual humour in pieces of media, and I also enjoy cartoons like Tom and Jerry for their visual gags as well. It took a great deal of effort to take myself out of this mindset and into a dream-like state to explore different transformations for this task, and in hindsight, I could argue the transformations our puppet ended up going through were still very literal and linear – but the important thing is that I tried my best!
After receiving feedback from Chris, we began to brainstorm different, more abstract transformations our puppet could go through, with less regard for HOW he transforms and more for what.
The first idea that stuck out the most was the idea of shuffling all of the limbs in the bird’s body, inspired by Gravity Falls’ Bill Cipher, the epitome of weird and abstract. A sketch of this concept can be seen in the top left-hand side of the left image.
Part of my inspiration for these transformations was something discussed in Ainslie Henderson’s Stems stop-motion piece, as he discusses the “inherent sadness” there is to stop-motion puppets, as they exist to fill a single role and nothing else. This was a concept I wished to capture in our animation, as not only did our puppet look extremely sad in general, but I felt the same feeling as we began to sculpt and capture our footage. His existence was forced upon by us, and he was being contorted and destroyed beyond repair for the sake of our amusement. We were playing God, and after discussing this concept with my teammates, we decided to make that a key element in our final piece. The catalyst for the transformations would be brought upon by a human via the technique of pixilation, as a cruel yet funny piece that provokes thought about this puppet and the place he has in the world.
Our second idea for a transformation was to break down our puppet into his most basic shapes – circles, triangles, and squares. The thought process behind this was to try and turn him into something so abstract he was barely recognisable as a bird so we could then transform him into something entirely new and different. I sketched out the idea and established his basic shapes so I could then rearrange them into a new animal- and a bunny stood out as being the most attainable based on the shapes we were working with.
This meant we could use the Rostrum camera for the second half of our shooting, which was significantly easier and allowed for a lot more movement, and time to discuss ideas during filming. The shapes being on a flat plane was not only convenient but allowed for more delicate changes between frames, and meant we were not limited by time in any way.
Once our idea had been greenlit by Chris, we were able to begin filming. Throughout this process, essentially all of the work was divided between myself and my teammate Gabby, as we had a third member (and a fourth, but he was moved to a different class on the first day!), but she did not attend any the meetups we organised to film. Having this much work divided between us was a challenge, but we were lucky enough to receive a lot of help from our friends, so this project would have been impossible without them!
Working on the top-down rostrum camera was by far the most fun part of the experience, as it was the joys of stop-motion without nearly as much physical exertion. By the end of the process, we were all exhausted from hunching over a table for several hours at a time, and I ended up suffering some bad back problems as a result. Making sure we had time for breaks and to look after ourselves was a hard lesson to learn but definitely a necessary one.
Reflections
This project was a fantastic introduction to the course as a whole and gave me insights into various skills and animation processes.
In terms of the puppet itself – I believe, given the circumstances, I worked very well in my team, both as a leader and as a team player. At the beginning of the project, it was difficult to get my teammates motivated to work together (I think this was because we had never spoken before, and it was our first day of university!), so I attempted to get the ball rolling, which was a scary thing to have to do, but overall very beneficial to the final project itself. I believe we made some smart decisions in how we decided to approach this project by making allowances for ourselves being new to the medium and focusing on movement that was attainable yet still visually appealing. Keeping our scope small by making a puppet that could be very easily controlled while still experimenting and pushing the boat out with the more high-concept wings meant we didn’t overwork ourselves but still managed to create something great rather than good.
It was a disappointment to have a member of our team not give the same energy and enthusiasm that Gabby and I put into the project, but that only motivated us further to create something good despite the odds being against us. Gabby and I worked fantastically as a team, and I felt like we were on the same page about so much of our puppet’s construction and animation. Working on the multiplane camera with her was an extremely satisfying experience as we were able to discuss ideas on the fly that overall improved the production as a whole. Having additional help from Esther and Salem was also motivating, as being a part of a creative group driven by passion and a love for animating was very rewarding.
Exploring the concept of materiality was very interesting and rather cathartic for me. Chris’ first piece of advice to our group was to not be ‘precious’ about our art, making us rip up some of our own drawings in an attempt to prove this point. While this was a tough pill to swallow, I realise now how beneficial this was to our process, considering our puppet was made from cardboard. It was very cathartic to be able to rip him apart, be rough with his construction, to not focus on details, but rather on the bigger picture. Cardboard as a medium was extremely durable and created a very interesting visual appeal, but meant I was forced out of my comfort zone to create something new and different. As I had never done stop-motion animation before, being able to be physical with the puppet and see it in real life rather than a screen gave me a greater understanding of weight, exaggeration and consistency which I am very grateful for.
Getting into the ‘dreamlike state’ that Chris was aiming for was something I struggled with greatly. I find it extremely difficult to be abstract with my ideas (something I found challenging in my later work, too) as my mind simply is not wired in that kind of way. It was interesting to try a new perspective in creating art, but ultimately, I still feel like we were too linear and obvious in our approach, and, as a result, I will try to approach my next project with a more open mind.
One thing I would change given a chance is the lighting and editing of the second half of the piece – as I had never even set up a camera before this, it took so long to get the camera and lights to look presentable, but it still left a lot to be desired. The lights we ended up using were battery-powered and, as a result, slowly ran out of charge as we were filming, which was a disappointment and meant the piece progressively got darker as we worked. I attempted to counteract this in post-production (as well as attempting some colour correction) but my lack of knowledge on the subject meant the final piece looked unprofessional and strange. I also think the setup of this part of the film was very rushed as we had a very limited amount of time to work, and, as a result, the backdrop looks messy and unpolished.
I also would have loved to have been able to record my own sound effects, specifically for some cardboard rustling. The sounds I used took a long time to find online and were not exactly what I was looking for, but due to time restraints, I simply could not record my own. For future projects, I would love to be able to do this myself, so it will be in the front of my mind for my next piece.
Overall, I am pleased with my ability to jump into a completely new project with enthusiasm, and the positive momentum that working on this piece provided me served me well in my future projects. I believe that considering I had never performed any of the techniques we worked on in this project (stop-motion, pixelation, puppet-making, filming on a set, etc), the end product was clear and visually appealing, as well as very informative on many of the processes that come with stop-motion animating as a whole.