Brief 1 - Networking

This week I got in touch with 12 people who worked in or were associated with stop-motion production. I got in touch with smaller animation companies or professionals as I'd have more chance of getting a response as well as other projects that caught my eye. I mainly searched for people on instagram, going by the #stop-motion or #stop-motion-community hashtags. In my emails to them, I wanted to find out how they made their sets/characters, the materials they used and their construction techniques. 

The result of this was very successful - many of the animators were happy to help. Of the 12 people I emailed, I got 7 responses in the first few weeks. 

• One model maker told me how they made the fur to their animal puppets. They use a technique called 'needle felting', which I was previously unaware of. They gave me a link to a needle felting tutorial. This is definitely a technique I want to try if I'm ever making animals with fur. They also mentioned armatures, and that there was no need for ball and socket armatures or anything heavy-duty if the puppets are not going to be animated for long periods of time. Aluminium wire is just as effective and much cheaper. 
• One set designer got in touch when I asked how they made their set of a woods that featured in an animated music video. The foliage was made from real bark, moss and twigs, and the grass was made from long, green fur. They used living materials as their budget was much smaller due to COVID - it's interesting to see how stop-motion projects are still able to cope.
• On instagram I found someone who also happened to be an animation student. For one project, he made a set in a snowy forest, which had a paper-made aesthetic to it. The fox character was made with a thin wire armature, pieces of sculpted wood and paper for the fur. The sets were made from paper mâché around wire meshes. He sent a lot of insightful behind-the-scenes photos of the set and characters. This helped me to visually see how he worked.
• One stop-motion set builder revealed how they made the fog element for some of their sets. It was created using diffusion sheets held together very tightly between two poles over parts of the set.  However they recommended not using this technique as it created a lot of glare, which was a problem for them to remove. This email helped me understand that even at a professional level, animators still come into contact with a lot of problems that need solving. 
• Another animator told me how they didn't make their sets but worked with CodSteaks who made them. I found out that they are a very large company in Bristol who have helped Aardman make some of their backgrounds. I was unaware of them before.
• I got a response from a director who made adverts for John Lewis and Childline. She was very helpful and said one way to get your work publicised was to work on commissions for charities. She also gave me a few different production companies that may be in need of model makers, and that this was a good way to network with people, and over time it's even possible to build up a career to becoming that of a director. 
• The last people that got in touch were from an animation company in Birmingham called Yaminations. They gave an hour of their time in a zoom call to talk about how they produced their sets, props and characters for films such as 'The Twits'. Before the call, I prepared some questions to ask their director Drew Roper . 
• What materials did you use to build your sets and characters for 'The Twits'?
• Regarding the characters, how are the armatures built and what material do you use to bulk up/shape the characters' bodies?
• What materials did you use to make the props for 'The Twits', especially the particularly delicate props like the bed frames and the furniture?
• When constructing sets, is this stage planned to every detail or is there still a lot of room to include new ideas that may improve the set?
• Do you have any tips for keeping building costs down? For instance, do you reuse sets/props from previous projects/what happens to the sets once you are finished with them?
• Are there techniques for increasing the durability of prop/character parts that need to be animated a lot?

• The call (on 29th January) was very useful. Drew said 'The Twits' was made on a very low budget. The backgrounds for instance were painted in, in 2D, so no sets were built. There was a much bigger focus on props, an example being the bed frame - this was made from K&S tubing (brass tubing), which has strong properties but can be cut/welded easily. 
• In terms of useful skills to have before going into the animation industry, learning to solder is good for rigging and armatures. Otherwise, the best skills are ones learnt from work experience at a production company and to have the right mindset rather than taught skills. He warned us that the animation industry in the UK is very freelance-based, with jobs and work hours changing constantly. Filming for TV can be particularly intense, with anything up to 13 hour work days.
• They use a range of materials. MDF, balsa wood and plywood are the woods they use. For the character's bodies, plastazote, clip foam and silicon are used (which all range in densities).  The more an object needs to be animated with, the stronger the materials they tend to use (eg. ball and socket armatures are used over twisted wire for long-term animated characters). Of course, the heavier the material, the harder it is to animate. 
• For keeping costs down, they reuse props whenever they can (often clients actually request that the props be reused). Cheaper alternatives to silicon for the skin of characters is to use latex rubber and plaster of Paris (only £10). 

What Went Well

• The animators that got back to me were friendly and very happy to answer any questions that I had for them. They gave very good advice and revealed new techniques that I wasn't ever familiar with before
• I got responses from a range of set builders, animators and model makers, which gave me good insight into many aspects of the animation production line
• Instagram was a good starting place for exploring and finding the animators that I could then go on to question about their practice
• I feel I have made a lot of good contacts in the future, especially with companies like Yaminations where I actually had the chance to talk with them

Criticism

• Some of the animators that I emailed didn't respond however it was more people than I was expecting
• I was much more successful at getting responses by emailing the animators. On Instagram however, I had no luck at all by direct messaging people