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BOOKS & Stop Motion ANIMATION - two of my favourite things!

Special thanks to Josh Flynn @sculptdouble for his outrageous puppet & stop motion skills!

Here's Director @lauratofarides and Josh Flynn @sculptdouble acting out a reference video for our stop-motion short film, Brain Space @brainspacefilm 🧠🚀🎥

Before shooting, animators often create LAVs (Live Action Videos) of themselves acting out scenes to get a better understanding of the performance and timings in a shot. They can look pretty goofy and it's best not to follow them exactly but they help to improve the character performance. Filming your own LAV's helps you to embody the movement and feel where the weight and tension in the body is. They also help you to identify, exaggerate and push key poses.

LAVs are a lot of fun to make. Even for serious scenes it can be tricky to keep a straight face. You'll notice we switch roles between shots, that's because we don't have to stick with a character and usually we'd both have a go at playing each part.

There's a LAV for almost every shot in the film but I think Brain Space: The LAV Cut would be quite a ridiculous watch.

Also, I know what you're thinking...was the paper nose cone necessary?

Yes. Yes it was.

#BrainSpaceFilm #StopMotion #Animation #ShortFilm #BehindTheScenes

Here's how we animated the Smoke Bomb shot in our Stop-Motion short film, Brain Space ☁️
Our main character, Rhi, sprints towards the stage only for the Magician to vanish in a cloud of smoke!
This was a challenging shot that required a manual camera move, sliding the camera across the set in increments keeping pace with the running puppet, tilting the angle up, switching to UV lights and finally animating an explosion of cotton, all in camera 🎥
Josh (@sculptdouble ) rehearsed the shot by blocking out the scenes actions. The first blocks tested only the camera movements, timings and focus. Further blocks tested the puppets performance and smoke animation before going for the final take.
The cotton smoke was animated on a pane of clear acrylic that was inserted on set at the moment of the explosion. Swirls of cotton tufts were attached using tacky wax and tape.
We really love the stylistic look of cotton smoke in stop-motion and wanted to use as many tactile, practical effects as possible 🎨

Do you have a favourite practical stop motion smoke effect?

#Brainspacefilm #Stopmotion #Animation #behindthescenes #PracticalEffects

An act of three parts, breaking down the Masked Magician's first reveal in our stop-motion short film, Brain Space.
Here's Josh of @sculptdouble performing in a LAV (live action video) to use as reference while animating. LAVs are a great way to figure out timings and what poses work for a character. The Magician is very theatrical and elegant here, his motions are mysterious, precise and practiced and we wanted to exaggerate his swift sleight of hand. Having a character with no body opened up a lot of opportunities for us to be creative with the characters performance, however the animation rigging used to support the "floating" head and hands had to be removed from the raw footage in post production.
The real magician is @zuhairmehrali who made all of the rigging disappear for the final shots.

I've always loved finding out how magic is done and seeing behind the scenes at how films are made. It's too interesting to be kept secret. 🪄✨️

@brainspacefilm
#Brainspacefilm #Stopmotion #Animation #Behindthescenes #shortfilm

Here's a look at the puppet of Rhi, the main character of @brainspacefilm , our stop-motion short film that was recently long listed for a Bafta!🌟
Her different expressions were created with a number of hand made replacement faces. In the film, Rhi crash lands into her own mind space, her retro space suit protects her through the journey but in reality this puppet survived 5 years of animation production. This puppet is one of a kind and has held up incredibly well.

I need to get some space trousers.

Puppet made by Josh Flynn of @Sculptdouble

#BrainSpaceFilm #StopMotion #Animation #puppetmaking

We hereby pardon this turkey because he's already been carved enough. Happy turkey day to all the pilgrims out there.

#overthegardenwall #turkey #puppet #handmade

We hereby pardon this turkey because he's already been carved enough. Happy turkey day to all the pilgrims out there.

#overthegardenwall #turkey #puppet #handmade

We hereby pardon this turkey because he's already been carved enough. Happy turkey day to all the pilgrims out there.

#overthegardenwall #turkey #puppet #handmade

We hereby pardon this turkey because he's already been carved enough. Happy turkey day to all the pilgrims out there.

#overthegardenwall #turkey #puppet #handmade

We hereby pardon this turkey because he's already been carved enough. Happy turkey day to all the pilgrims out there.

#overthegardenwall #turkey #puppet #handmade

Here’s some work in progress shots of me sculpting the bunny family from the Xfinity commercial directed by @andyandadeena

#sculpting #puppetmaking #handmade

A new stop motion commercial working with the amazing directing duo, Adeena @adeenagrubb & Andy @andyrbiddle . I made 9 rabbit puppets with the assistance of Rachel @tenderbeingdolls, and a countless number of perfect little costumes were made by Kat Probert. The puppets were redressed and recycled in different shots to increase the number of characters and give them their unique looks and personalities. Each bunny had a name, but I couldn’t keep up with them. They kept multiplying!

Congratulations to the whole crew on such a speedy team effort. Here’s a full credit list.

Directors: @andyandadeena
Production Company: Blinkink @blink_ink
Executive Producer: @elliegoodwin
Head of Production: @alexhalley
Producer: @rebeccablittle
Production Manager: @charlie_on_set
Client: @xfinity
VP, Content Production: Ashley Henderson
Head of Content Production: Amy Wertheimer
Senior Producer: Dana Eisenberg
Creative Director: Adam Samara
Creative Director: Michael Camarra
Senior Art Director: Brittani Kelzenberg
Senior Copywriter: Dean Coots
Concept Artist: clement_danveau_art
Concept Artist @camille.perrin.art
Concept Artist: @barbaraofthesun
Character Designer: @felicie_haymoz
Storyboards: @thelifeoftotti
Animatic: @jacobmwolf_illustration
DOP: @malcolmhadley
1st AC: @tonash1
1st AD: Mark Lacey
Gaffer: Pearce Crowley
Spark: @sparkyjoshy
Spark: Ryan Monteith
Spark: Max Milner
Moco Op: Justin Noe
Stop Motion Animator: Steve Warne
Stop Motion Animator: Kim Keukeleire @kimkongdotcom
Puppet Build: Nathan Flynn @sculptdouble, Rachel Brown @tenderbeingdolls
Puppet Costumes: Kat Probert
Puppet Maintenance: @emmaniemis
Stop Motion Rigger: @robin_the_rigger
Art Director: @rosie_tonkin
Art Department: Luke George
Art Department: @emmarosedademaker, Gordon Allen, @rosie_tonkin, @anitavere, @lulusenft, Emma Nemis, @connorchungart, @areeyas_creations
Runner: Hannah Cooper
Runner: @chairmanbuu
Runner: Tijen Mustafa
VFX Supervisor: @alasdairbrotherston
Location & Camera Equipment: @claphamrdstudio
Post Producer: @charlie_on_set
Lead Compositor: @alasdairbrotherston
Compositor: Luke Simpson
Rotoscoping: Team Digital

#stopmotion #animation #puppetmaking #rabbits #handmade

What a wonderful harvest.

Enoch was the largest puppet that we made for the Over the Garden Wall anniversary film, seen towering over the other pumpkin people in the Pottsfield parade.
I made two interchangeable versions of the knot at the top of his head. One has a black cat sticking out. Is the cat Enoch? We’ll never know.

#overthegardenwall #enoch #pottsfield #stopmotion #puppet #handmade

What a wonderful harvest.

Enoch was the largest puppet that we made for the Over the Garden Wall anniversary film, seen towering over the other pumpkin people in the Pottsfield parade.
I made two interchangeable versions of the knot at the top of his head. One has a black cat sticking out. Is the cat Enoch? We’ll never know.

#overthegardenwall #enoch #pottsfield #stopmotion #puppet #handmade

What a wonderful harvest.

Enoch was the largest puppet that we made for the Over the Garden Wall anniversary film, seen towering over the other pumpkin people in the Pottsfield parade.
I made two interchangeable versions of the knot at the top of his head. One has a black cat sticking out. Is the cat Enoch? We’ll never know.

#overthegardenwall #enoch #pottsfield #stopmotion #puppet #handmade

What a wonderful harvest.

Enoch was the largest puppet that we made for the Over the Garden Wall anniversary film, seen towering over the other pumpkin people in the Pottsfield parade.
I made two interchangeable versions of the knot at the top of his head. One has a black cat sticking out. Is the cat Enoch? We’ll never know.

#overthegardenwall #enoch #pottsfield #stopmotion #puppet #handmade

Very pleased to say that Greg & Wirt raised £6,320 for @thegrandappeal , helping children and their families at the Bristol Children’s Hospital.

A big thanks to Alan Thorpe @alan.thorpe , Dan Ojari @ojaridan , Mikey Please @mikeyplease , Patrick McHale @someb_ooks and the team at The Grand Appeal for making it happen.

And thank you to all the bidders for supporting such a good cause. 🐸🍂

Only a few days remaining to bid on Greg & Wirt. The auction ends at 7pm (GMT) on Monday the 3rd of Novemeber. Each sculpture features signatures from Over the Garden Wall creator, Patrick McHale @someb_ooks , plus Dan Ojari @ojaridan and Mikey Please @mikeyplease , the directors of the 10th anniversary short film “An Elephant Never Forgets”.

Thanks to everyone who’s bid so far, raising money for @thegrandappeal , supporting children and their families at the Bristol Children’s Hospital and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at St Michael’s Hospital.

Feel free to spread the word to help reach Over the Garden Wall fans around the world. 

Happy Bidding. 🍂

#overthegardenwall #thegrandappeal #greg #wirt #charity

We're teaming up with @thegrandappeal to auction these unique sculptures of Greg & Wirt for Charity.

 Last year, we were part of a great team at @aardmananimations that produced a stop-motion special for @CartoonNetworkOfficial to celebrate Over the Garden Wall’s 10th anniversary. We’re excited to auction these hand-crafted sculptures of Wirt and Greg to help raise vital funds for sick children at Bristol’s Children’s Hospital. 

Thanks to Aardman, Over the Garden Wall Creator Patrick McHale (@someb_ooks), Directors Mikey Please (@mikeyplease) and Dan Ojari (@ojaridan), and the Grand Appeal team for making it happen.

The auction goes live on Sunday the 26th of October. Visit the Grand Appeal website to learn more. Link in my bio.

#overthegardenwall
#charity #thegrandappeal #greg #wirt