This metal armature, left, became the final praying mantis puppet on the right when encased in a cast foam latex exterior. All elements were constructed by Tom Brierton. Photo courtesy of and © Tom Brierton.

Stop-motion puppet animation is surely one of the most unusual art forms in the world. In cel animation, one must master drawing and performance. In computer animation, one needs to acquaint themselves with the technicalities of the mouse and keyboard, as well as performance. While these two animation disciplines require talent and drive to achieve successful animation, stop-motion is unique in the animation field in that it encompasses a number of disciplines to achieve a final end. Design, armature machining, sculpting, moldmaking and casting, painting and detailing, lighting and cinematography, and of course, performance animation, are the primary skills required to master this wonderfully magical art form. While it certainly isn't necessary for a single individual to master all of these disciplines (and there are few stop-motion animators who have), there is no reason why one cannot attempt to do so, and have fun in the process.

I have designed this article as a cursory description of the stop-motion process. It will deal with the necessary disciplines for creating a stop-motion puppet. The disciplines include: design of the puppet, armature machining, sculpting, moldmaking and casting, fabrication and detailing. I will be leaving out discussions on character animation as that process is an article in itself. I have also written in a cursory fashion, because, quite frankly, a single book could be written on every step of the stop-motion process. It is beyond the scope of this article to attempt to write a volume on each discipline. For the uninitiated, they can perhaps walk away with a better understanding of stop-motion, and use the following information as a point of departure for their own animation endeavors. As stop-motion legend Ray Harryhausen once told me years ago, "self-experimentation will be your greatest teacher." I would like to pass on his wise counsel, with the assumption that those who read this article will like-wise, take this information and experiment for themselves.

Design With Attitude
Many puppet animators start with an idea for a creature to animate. The puppet can be inspired from an animal, art, mythology, a book, music, or one's own imagination. Regardless of the source, the ultimate objective is to translate the idea of your creation to the actual tools necessary for creating the puppet. I am very fond of the minotaur, a monster from classical Greek mythology, but up until recently, I had never created one as a stop-motion puppet. Determined to do so, I proceeded to research the problem. Research is usually the first step, particularly if one is creating a creature that actually exists in real life, such as animals or insects. Since the minotaur is a hybrid animal incorporating the body of a man and the head of a bull, I searched for photographs of human males and of bulls. Since the minotaur was supposed to have been a dangerous animal, bloodthirsty and violent, the idea was to design the character so that it is indeed imbued with these attributes. To design the minotaur with skinny legs, a pot belly and short stubby horns would hardly qualify it as a frightening monster. Consequently, the solution decided upon was to design it with a hulking body: huge arms, rippling with muscles and veins, sinister deep-set beady eyes and long, sharp horns. In short, try to design the character you want, by incorporating into its design physical attributes that would heighten and augment what you wish for the creature to convey. If animated properly, its performance will even magnify its appearance. This principle of creature design plus character animation is, in some ways, rather similar to the film music principle, which states that if, for example, two lovers are kissing, then coupling that image with romantic music will heighten the affectation (emotion) of the scene. Conversely, the image of a valiant, but slain warrior, combined with 'sad' music, will impart a feeling of sorrow. Design your character around the 'affectation' of how you want the viewer to react to it. Since I wanted the viewer to react to my minotaur with fear, I designed it accordingly.

Finally, once I felt that sufficient research had been done, and enough photos and reference material had been collected, I proceeded to draw up dozens of design concepts in pencil, pen and ink, and color renderings. The next step is designing the mechanics of the armature.