On the Set - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 221

RH - I do usually feel a strong relationship with my puppets, although I do mentally leave them at work
when I fi nish at night. And I do sometimes talk to the puppets as though they are real, living creatures -
but only under my breath!

TA - When I animate, the instinct kicks in and I simply do what I feel is 'right'. It becomes unconscious
and I fi nd it very hard to cut corners (we've got deadlines to meet!) and not adjust my puppet if I feel it's
in the 'wrong' place. Thinking about the decisions I make every frame and trying to explain the thought
process help me understand the skills that I take for granted, making me a better tutor and animator.

JC - The puppets can suggest things to you. An armature can lend itself to a certain walk, though the
puppet's perceived character is the strongest guide. I constantly mirror the action of my puppets. It's the
best way to think about how they would move, to work out balance and timing. On occasion it is useful
to get someone else to act out tricky moves, and then you can not just feel what your body is doing
within a movement but see it too. It's hard to switch off at the end of the day. I fi nd I work through
movements in my head, often acting them out in the shower the next morning.

Letting a gesture read
Like moves in a dance or words in a sentence, a gesture must be given time and space to
read, otherwise itwillendupasabitofamessmergingintothenextone. This is essential …
gestures often do not make sense until you have gone past them and had time to absorb
the pose or the rhythm. A rhythm isn't a rhythm until a pattern has been formed. Think of
gestures as punctuation in a scene, and many are a 'full-stop' type. Let it register before you are
ready for the next one. If lots of gestures run into each other at the same speed they become
totally meaningless as you do not have time to separate them. The eye needs a few frames
to think about something before it is ready for the next image. Try to avoid any signii cant
gestures in the last couple of frames in a shot, as their shape will be lost in the cut; likewise,
don't do anything important on the
i rst frames of a shot. Let the eye
adjust to what it's seeing, and let the
movement guide the eye to what is
important. While i lming Hamilton
Mattress I drove everyone mad with
'don't forget, i ve frames and a blink!,
but it is good advice. If a character
was to shout dei antly 'go away!' that
is quite a dramatic moment, and you
would not cut one frame after the
last sound. You want to see the
character clearly in that
dramatic moment, and
then relax out of it for a
few frames. The relaxing
is just as an important
part of the pose as is the
storytelling part.

A bad pose with messy lines and shapes and no
weight or movement. It doesn't read as anything.