On the Set - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 220

the surface was. An agreeable commercial to work on, but after I'd crawled my way into the
huge set wearing tile-protecting rubber kneepads, some technician had to follow me polishing
the l oor again. CG would do it so much more easily today, but we wouldn't have had such fun,
and would the boat have had the same physicality? CG might have saved my knees, though.
Another challenging commercial saw me having to balance a toy elephant on a huge ball and
appear to walk the ball up a large slope. Balls of any kind are notoriously hard to control, as
they roll about. Having an elephant balanced on top seemed a recipe for disaster. I decided
I wanted to have the elephant secured on the top of the ball by one foot and then fake some
leg movements that would give the impression of it turning the ball as it walked up the slope.
By securing the elephant, this meant that the ball itself could not revolve, so we shaved a tiny
slither of the base, and inserted a good strong magnet in its base. The slope was metal, so this
ball was quite happily located, but I still needed to give the impression of it spinning. So we
came up with a pattern of circles lined up with the direction of travel, so you wouldn't notice
whether they were spinning or not, but then we made a big star shape that sat over the shape
of the ball which I animated frame by frame as it 'rolled' up the slope. The illusion was perfect,
and the ball totally controllable. It's probably having to think totally outside the box when
faced with things like this that make animation so exciting. Just a trivial problem, but great fun
to solve. Since then I always shave a bit of the bottom of wheels, or balls, so that they rest l at
and do not roll away when I'm animating, and if some motion ef ect is necessary I just move a
hub. Simple and ef ective.
Is working with puppets a two-way relationship?
JD - Well, I once swore at a puppet when the tie-down broke and the puppet fell off the animation table,
but I usually don't talk to them. Since I am the 'actor', the puppets sometimes mirror my poses if they are
humanoid. It is not unusual for a puppet to suggest other poses and lead the animation in a new direction.
TB - There is room for improvisation. Beginning a scene, I stay until it is fi nished. If I can't, I'll take
copious notes of what was happening (I can also see the playback the next day), so I can continue with
the performance the next day.
RC - As far as the character guiding, I'd say that is in the prep, and knowing your character; after that,
it's being true to it. I never felt I was animating a part of the performance that wasn't true, and the
character was letting me know. We often tend to animate certain things the way we would do them, but
perhaps with a bit more fl ourish (if appropriate), as long as it's right for the character.
DC - Yes! Sometimes it's hard to suddenly talk to real people. 'A cup of tea! Do I want a what? Where did
you come from? … When!'
AW - I always feel like the character is guiding me. I always stay in the scene at night.
SB - I animate pretty loosely so there are times when the puppet is guiding me. This doesn't always work
out for the best, but I fi nd if I have too much of a rigid plan it'll start to go wrong as the puppet will bend
or move in a way I hadn't predicted.