Getting Personal - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 82

with technique and a single-frame movie camera, I began to think about performance. Two years of
drama in high school helped me a bit in preparing my animation. I studied acting and performed in
musical theatre in college.
KD - I was beside myself with excitement. I love the studio set-up, the lights, the camera, the sets and
the puppets. The puppet survived the fi lm but not for much longer afterwards. It was shocking when
I looked back. I wanted to animate like the greats, and was cheesed off that I couldn't. I found it diffi cult
to remain patient and calm.
RC - The fi rst real puppets I ever animated were very well made by Ernie Farino (a respected Emmy-
winning special effects supervisor). They were armatured and cast foam rubber. I was able to get refi ned
motion from them. I had worked out almost all of my timings ahead of the shoot, mainly because it was
to a song. If I wanted the sweep of the arm to be one-and-a-half seconds, I knew I had to break that
motion/distance into thirty-six individual movements (at twenty-four frames/second), allowing for any
ease-in and ease-out. It worked well.
DC - It showed me how diffi cult it is to re-create realistic movement with a tiny plastic man. I enjoyed
building up the action and trying to get to where I wanted with no experience or animation training. I
liked the challenge and my little friend is still with me agreeing that everything since him has been better.
AW - Other animators told me to work on twos but I shot on ones. I almost died from the stress
beforehand. I was shaking. Afterwards everyone came to see it. I don't remember how it felt during the
animation. My brain switched off. The rest of the world and time disappeared. Afterwards everyone said
'Welcome to the team. Now go and buy some vodka'.
SB - I fi rst properly moved a puppet at college. I didn't plan it properly (again) and it came out rushed
and nothing like what was in my head. Only one bit worked - the puppet (a bogey man made entirely out
of pipe cleaners) fell over and his hat came off, he picked it up and put it back on his head. Surprisingly
that simple gesture gave him more life and character than anything else in the fi lm
RH - I fi rst moved a puppet before my degree, and was generally quite disappointed with the results.
When I started animating at Cosgrove Hall after my degree, I felt much more comfortable with stop
motion, and found a connection with the puppets that I hadn't felt before.
TA - My fi rst stop motion was a tense experience. I felt nervous, like I was guessing, plus my handmade
character could snap at any point! Each move of the puppet was small back then as I was afraid of
moving it too much and ruining everything. Thus my animation looked tense and stilted. It wasn't fun to
watch or to do! I was too scared of making mistakes to try anything bold. Liberation came in the form of
trying bigger movements and learning at certain points I could take the puppet right off set midshot.
I kicked the camera tripod and 'adapted' that into my fi rst animated camera move! I felt free to play and,
hey, animating became fun!
JC - When I got to animate a puppet I was surprised at how hard it was to control the movement. It was
all jerky and much too fast. I was disappointed with the end result but also excited by the possibilities.
DS - It was magical to get the rushes back and see everything moving. Seeing the little models move
about and come to life was great inspiration to do more.