Stop Motion Set and Puppet Design
Completed for Advanced Cinema Production: Animation and the Emerging Media Senior Capstone ('23)
After storyboarding the short film, each character was designed based on the fabrication methods used by major stop motion studios.
Having never digitally sculpted a face, the modelling process was the most daunting part of this project. Several YouTube tutorials later, the final sculpt was completed in Maya.
Starting with the base sculpt, expressions for the mouth, eyes, and eyebrows were sculpted onto blend shapes. Then, the original face was morphed with sliders, referencing multiple blend shapes to create a single, new expression. These were made to be printed on a resin printer, which would more aptly capture small details and avoid the noticeable layering of filament printers.
Due to issues with the availability of the resin printer — and numerous print failures — only a limited number of face plates were successfully made.
Everything, aside from the armature for the human puppet, was made by hand. Each face plate was hand-painted, along with each set of eyeballs for the human and cat. A cardigan and a pair of striped socks were knitted using extra thin yarn for the human puppet, and a shirt, jeans and scrunchie were hand-sewn. The jeans were then distressed using a Dremel. Embroidery floss was pulled apart and then woven together to make miniature friendship bracelets, and extra thin jewelry wire was used to make earrings and a necklace. The head, carved out of EVA foam, was poked full of holes which were then rooted with individual strands of embroidery floss and sealed with fabric glue. Eye sockets were created using epoxy putty, and the eyes were able to be positioned using a needle thanks to the small hole in the pupils.
The cat puppet was created using needle felted wool over an aluminum wire armature. Eye sockets were made within the wool of the face so that eyes with different dilations could be placed within them. Blinking was achieved with strategically placed pieces of black felt.
The set was constructed using plywood and old carpeting. It was made with two of its walls on hinges so that they could be folded down for camera access. Puppets would either be tied down through holes drilled in the carpeted floor, or suspended with a helping hand from beams that made up the set's "ceiling".
After being painted, lace curtains were sewn, and each piece of furniture was hand-made and then colored with wood stain. A cat scratcher was made with felt and a dowel wrapped in thin twine. Each painting on the wall was hand-painted, and each poster was created digitally, printed out and then roughened up with sandpaper. Post-it notes were stuck on the wall to fill the empty space; flat headed pins were cut and used as thumbtacks. Small knick-knacks were placed about to save time and add to the hand-crafted, scrapped-together feel of the environment. Finally, wire fairy lights were fitted with origami lanterns made from tissue paper. This, combined with a light shown through the copy paper behind the window, made for subtle set illumination.
As part of a presentation given on the set and puppets, a short, last-minute reel was made to show them in action. This included timelapses of the set being turned around and of the animation process, as well as a short, very rough animation test. Due to the aforementioned complications with the resin printer, the face was purposely left out of frame.
