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My goal in choosing the topic of puppets, or rather felted puppets in particular, for this course module is to improve my skills in both creating and animating figurines and puppets in the future, as I have taken quite a liking to the world of stop-motion.

This is also a reliable skill I believe I should have, given that I have not tackled the process of puppet-making that much in my entire stay at Teesside. I believe going through all these courses in these three years, one of the major focuses and takeaways I should be getting is to develop new and improving skills regarding animation in all kinds of fields and improve my general knowledge of it. In this context, I have chosen to tackle the skill of felted puppets.

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For this particular research, I plan to focus on these specific tasks:

1. The most crucial of them all is to explore the creations of the industry and well-renowned creators of said topic. This way, I will familiarize myself with the industry norms and how professionals tackle such commissions and big projects.

2. I also plan on researching and diving into specific case studies, which I already have chosen titles in mind. I plan to use these case studies to analyze the intricate details of how each of these puppets is crafted for each of these different animation projects and films. From major blockbuster films down to simple online projects.

3. Lastly, one of the most challenging parts of this research is doing the practical. This will be directly linked to my short film project module where I am in charge of making two separate puppets. This will be the first time that they've had to personally make puppets to this degree, so it'll be quite a hefty task.

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Following up on the previous topic, this 2022 film titled The House, directed by Emma de Swaef and Marc James Roels, Niki Lindroth von Bahr, and Paloma Baeza, features a collage of very different stories that all center around a single recognizable location by the end of the film. Each director was tasked with their segments of the film which is divided into three separate parts, and the interesting part about this film is that it all revolves around one single house. The film itself is very suspenseful as it includes themes of horror down to future dystopian realities, and the studio behind it, Nexus, does an excellent job of portraying every single story's theme with its animation skills.

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As a suggestion from my module instructor, I found a very interesting and well-known animator in the field of felted puppets and stop motion. Anna Mantzaris has created many felted puppet focused animations and won dozens of awards based on these creations. It just so happens that after reviewing her works extensively on her web page as well as online, I noticed her style is rather similar to one of the topics I've chosen for my case studies later on.

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My name is Chuanpu (Daniel) Wang, and I work and specializes in fields of both 2D and Stop-Motion animation works and short projects and have been training myself in the form of now attending the third year of a professional animation course to better my understanding of animation principles here at Teesside University in Middlesbrough.

Since I arrived at Teesside, I have gone through numerous challenges that have broadened my view on the world of animation and the inner workings of their industry, from learning principles such as squash and stretch to experimenting and completing projects through professional industry-standard software and programs including Toon Boom Harmony.

I had multiple works completed individually and accomplished through working with like-minded individuals from my course as I ventured through my course.

I aim to specialize in the field of stop-motion while also mastering and implementing traditional 2D animation principles together to have a better grasp on the world of animation.

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For our short film projects, I was in charge of being the group director and also creating one of the essential components of the animation featured in our coursework, this being the puppets we will use to animate. There are two types of puppets being made for our project, one is a big dragon and the other is two knight puppets with pretty drastically different designs.

Additinally, I will also be in charge of the last part of the project which is the final post-productions. This includes audio mixing and video editing.

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Puppets in Stop-Motion, why is it crucial?

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Puppets in Stop-Motion, why is it crucial?

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Stop-motion puppets are the items that create a baseline and foundation for the animated films and sequence itself, since in a stop-motion film, the puppets are the main actors on the screen. Similar to how 2D animated films have characters animated digitally, puppets in stop-motion films give way to a lot of possibilities and freedoms that otherwise live-action films have trouble recreating. The process of animating in stop motion is more compared to 2D, they can still utilize the main animation principles, including squash and stretch secondary movements. Additionally, the existence of these puppets also adds a layer of realism animations that digital 2D works would lack.

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Following from the previous section, stop motion along with 2D both have the luxuries of making their characters appear in a wide range of shapes and types. Although these days such alterations in live action can be achieved with CGI and other makeup, there's still a distinct difference between the work done in stop motion.

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During the research process of this module, I've come across a multitude of puppets ranging from the foxes in Mr. Fantastic Fox to the entire claymation-focused productions of Aardman Animations with Wallace and Gromit or their Chicken Run series, or the skeleton puppets from the Tin Burton film, Nightmare Before Christmas. Every puppet can be defined as a specific art style unique to their studios or their creators, such that seeing the puppets on screen can immediately jolt the memories of viewers who are familiar with a specific studio's films. Other examples also include various types of puppets that Nexus Studios were tasked to work with which were featured in The House film.

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Although I had seen various stop-motion films in the past before coming to Teesside, I never had a true appreciation for the various aspects of such films until I began participating in the process of animating itself. I found myself drawn to the concept of stop-motion animation and puppets in general. One film that drew me to the world of felted puppets was one shown to me in our second year, titled "The House".

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As a rather famous American film director, I have seen various Tim Burton animated films in the past, even before my Teesside University stay. Even outside of the world of stop-motion animation and claymation, and seems to give his life action projects an equally animated and almost cartoon-like look. Although this does veer off of the felted puppets side of things, I do so believe he's an excellent example to follow.

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Aardman Animations it's also an animation studio I was quite familiar with before Teesside and has surprisingly been a staple of my childhood that I grew up watching, I remember watching the Wallace & Gromit films which were very entertaining and I've always wondered how it is they achieve such a style of animation. Aardman Man Animations makes excellent use of the claymation technique that's more drastically different compared to the previously mentioned Tim Burton.

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The film Coraline is also something that drew my attention when learning about it during my studies here as I previously I have never heard of the film. After watching through the film through my second year for some simple research, I've come to really appreciate the amount of work studios such as LAIKA put into such films such as Coraline. Considering stop motion being a traditional version of animation, there is a lot more work that needs to be put in to every single frame. Such as, there is dozens of faces in shaped hands that needs to be made for a single character for a few seconds of animation. This makes sense why people would appreciate these films for the masterpieces they are. Coraline also conveys a lot of dark themes in the film and it's impressive how it's not overshadowed by the cartoony look of said puppets.

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Although I am not familiar with the animation studio of LAIKA mentioned previously above, I have however seen this film of theirs mentioned here called Boxtrolls. It has a more PG rated story and less dark than a film such as that of Coraline, but that does not discard the amount of effort put into this film nonetheless. I remember when researching upon this film, there was a scene within the runtime that showcases an entire dance sequence which really captivated me, especially when they discussed the behind the scenes work for that particular scene.

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Outside of the realm of stop motion animation, the works of Hayao Miyazaki also really inspires me both as the animator and the director for all his Studio Ghibli films. I do believe even though these are two vastly different animations processes given one is digital and one is practical, the creative process behind most of his works can directly translate into inspirations for my own work. Of all of his films, I personally really resonated with the film of House Moving Castle.

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I used online sources such as YouTube for tutorials on how to feel puppets at the start. There were numerous of them, but this video was the one that I found most useful. It details everything from the simple character height measurement to the wire rigging, increasing the durability of the puppet with solidifying clay, and the process of felting itself. It didn't take long for me to pick up on all the tips and tricks that the video suggested and the step-by-step guide that it provided, I implemented the skills I learned on the first puppet and eventually after readjusting the puppet-making process, used this video to make the second puppet.

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I first ordered a felting kit online and got to work doing some initial tests on how the felting works thanks to the video mentioned in the previous section. I first started by doing several tries and attempts of the felting techniques itself, and at the beginning, I was relatively bad at it and it took me a lot of tries to properly get the whole process down. I also had to try out felting a thin piece of felt because they will come into play later when making the helmet for the veteran knight as it's supposed to act as a feather.

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First Time Attemping Wiring Rigging for Felting

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Rigging and Building the Foundations (Continued)

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Rigging and Building the Foundations (Continued)

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Afterward, I followed the technique they displayed on the YouTube tutorial of assembling the wire rigging for the felted puppet. The tutorial details that it's better to strengthen the initial rigging for the wires by tightening three to four different strips of wires and twisting them to form a tighter and stronger strip. This also took me several tries to replicate because of how we needed to merge several of these kinds of strips of wire. The rigging, for their hands themselves, is made separately and taped on.

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The Helmet Concept would not work properly with a Felted Head.

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Mistakes that I made during the process of making the puppets, one of the major ones being that initially it was supposed to have a felted head shape as a base so that it could be easier for the helmet to be swapped out. The issue became present when I came up with a new plan to design the puppets without the mechanic of swapping off armor, as now, since it needs to have the helmet removed, it would make the heads appear more wobbly and unnecessarily loose. So the top parts with the black felt were later taken off.

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In charge of the puppets and also crafting the set piece for our short film project, I used my time at the workshop to use phone blocks to shape armor sets for both of the individual knight puppets. The shapes of the more royal and luxurious veteran nights would have pieces with painted color and golden shines, while the rookie knight would have a much faded and dull palette.

Ultimately I decided instead of making the armor also out of felt material, I would use the foam in the workshop. Only does it provide a better visual look. It also complements the felted base of the puppets since usual puppets also use more than one material.

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Final Solution + Product (Buckethead III)

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Final Solution + Product (Buckethead III)

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This is the first puppet I made in the entire felting process, which would be the rookie knight. This night features a very simple cylindrical helmet that's supposed to resemble the shape of a bucket to show how poor and poverty-stricken he is. The decision to make most of his pallets grey and dark brown is so that it contrasts greatly with the later design of the veteran night with his shiny armor. The leather armor this knight has on is made with an even thinner foam sheet that I painted over.

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The animators and the creators behind the puppets work in separate studios, and hence the ones in charge of making the puppets for this film are handed off to Mackinnon & Saunders. The puppets they made are all very professional and take the form of how they are done, usually with dozens of faces, hands and distinct body movements, and surprisingly I have seen their works before which just happens to be the film Mr. Fantastic Fox that they also worked on. There were accent creations that are an excellent example to follow because the film features three separate stories, and they've had to alternate between creating cartoon-like human proportions over to anthropomorphic sized animal characters. What really was impressive was how in the second story within the three, they feature rat characters mainly, but as the story went on they slowly transformed into part bug-like creatures. This is an aspect of the film that I felt like they had to get really innovative with such a combination.

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The second focus I've chosen for The Cave study features the film Isle of Dogs. This film was made by a studio I'm not previously familiar with named 3 Mills Studios, based in London. But they have done a spectacular job nonetheless after I viewed the film during research. The film follows an interesting reinterpretation of the real Japanese island with the same name, whereas the actual island has no mentions of overcrowding dogs, Wes Anderson spun a story of how a part of Japan exiled most of their dogs onto this trash-filled island. What follows is an intriguing narrative of how a boy goes to Set Island to search for his dog that was sent off along with all these other canines.

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"Don't Hug Me I'm Scared" - Blink Industries

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"Don't Hug Me I'm Scared" - Blink Industries

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My final case study features an online series that goes by the title of Don't Hug Me I'm Scared (abbreviated to DHMIS), which first began as a YouTube series available online before getting renewed for a second season after popular requests on television. To regular viewers of animation, the story of Don't Hug Me I'm Scared can't be confusing upon first viewing, as it's vague with some of its parts, and a lot of it is left off to interpretation shifts between multiple themes, genres, and animation styles. The animation studio behind Don't Hug Me I'm Scared is known as Blink Industries, believe the series is a significant hidden gem because of just how genius it is once you understand the hidden story behind the entire narrative. There's also a scene in a particular episode of the first season that blends, 2D, 3D, live-action, and stop-motion altogether to convey the message of how the characters in that particular episode discover how they have broken the 4th wall and realized they are in an animation.

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Stop motion animation features mostly humanoid characters, so I do believe when it comes to the Isle of Dogs it's a rather special case, given that how most of the cast are dogs, hence the name. And human characters in the film were made by Andy Gent and his team at Arch Model Studio Ltd, stationed in London. Although with them, I don't believe that they had too much of a problem, given that they've probably created dozens of animal creatures in the past, which means with so many dogs in a single like a very difficult task for animators in general. So to pull off a film such as The Isle of Dogs is a very impressive feat for 3 Mills Studios.

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Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling are the ones who were in charge of designing the puppets for Don't Hug Me I'm Scared. Although the series throughout both seasons take drastic shifts with their way of animation constantly to depict various forms of horror, and trauma, along with other deep themes, the execution of their puppets along with the animation is superbly done. The reason is that at first you are not put on guard at all, given the characters within this animation look very similar to that of the style of The Muppets, but as early as the first season, it suddenly shifts towards full-on violence, horror and even gore by the end of the series. So not only does it throw the viewers off guard, but it also presents itself as being uncanny since the style of the puppets goes against the sceneries and actions they were put in. I believe this fits perfectly with the direction of the show they went with.

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And finally both my knights were ready for use in our short film project. The two knights along with the dragon that was made by our other group member would be the main stars for the project.

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Over half of our team were in charge of shooting the shots for our stop motion animation, so it was good that my results for the knight puppets that I learned from online and all the research I've done for this module paid off because they were easily utilised and positioned for shots. With little to no issues with it breaking or being damaged because of the strong foundation and rigging plus the very flexible body from the wires.

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Thankfully, our short film project was a success even with some mishaps in the middle from other group members. We were able to animate the sequences based on how we envisioned and thanks to our storyboard creator and plus how the dragon puppets made by our other member was just as functionable as the two puppets I made which made the entire filming process that much easier.

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My Personal Evaluation on my Progress and how it helped

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My Personal Evaluation on my Progress and how it helped

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Personally, although I managed to learn quite a lot of new things with a skill that I was very foreign to at the start of this entire journey and module, And was proud of how I managed to overcome the hurdle that was the skill of felted puppets. I do still feel like for this module I should have broadened out my skill sets a bit more than just limiting it to felt puppets, As I don't believe I did enough for my 3rd-year module for professional industry practice. Although I did learn the skill, The felting techniques were utilized enough since it was only two puppets, and all I needed to do was feel the very base of the puppies it wasn't as intricate compared to the case studies I did such as the house and their creations.

But this is still a very rewarding experience because, with this newfound knowledge that I have the patience and skills to adapt to new forms of animation and puppet making, I will be able to bring this into my final semester for my 3rd year and improve on this skill and to learn even more down the line and create a more impressive final year project to close off on my bachelor years.

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Anna Mantzaris. (n.d.). Anna Mantzaris. [online] Available at: https://www.annamantzaris.se/ [Accessed 10 Dec. 2024].

‌DZED Systems (2016). Introduction to Stop Motion Animation - Dragonframe. [online] Dragonframe. Available at: https://www.dragonframe.com/introduction-stop-motion-animation/ [Accessed 13 Dec. 2024].

‌Robinson, C. (2022). Styles In Animation: Why Felt Feels Right. [online] Cartoon Brew. Available at: https://www.cartoonbrew.com/stop-motion/styles-in-animation-felt-stop-motion-215313.htm l [Accessed 05 Jan. 2025].

‌Fitzpatrick, O. (2022). Creepy Stop-Motion Films and Why We Love Them So. [online] Collider. Available at: https://collider.com/creepy-stop-motion-why-we-love-them-coraline-corpse-bride [Accessed 05 Jan. 2025].

‌Fernandez, J. (2021). A Look Into Tim Burton’s Creative Process. [online] Medium. Available at: https://jaf765.medium.com/a-look-into-tim-burtons-creative-process-dc36bb2cfbfb [Accessed 05 Jan. 2025].

‌Johnson, E. (2023). Unleashing Creativity: The Fascinating World of Stop-Motion. [online] The Film Fund Blog. Available at: https://www.blog.thefilmfund.co/the-unconventional-world-of-stop-motion-animation-movies/ [Accessed 05 Jan. 2025].

‌Skwigly Animation Magazine. (2022). A conversation with the talents behind ‘The House’. [online] Available at: https://www.skwigly.co.uk/the-house-interview/ [Accessed 02 Jan. 2025].

Basu, R. (2022). Behind the Scenes of The House, Netflix’s New Ode to Stop-Motion Animation. [online] Eye on Design. Available at: https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/behind-the-scenes-of-the-house-netflixs-new-ode-to-stop-motion-animation/ [Accessed 05 Jan. 2025].

‌Sharf, Z. (2018). ‘Isle of Dogs’ Behind the Scenes: 27 Animators Construct World. [online] IndieWire. Available at: https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/isle-of-dogs-behind-the-scenes-animators-wes-anderson-1201939778/ [Accessed 05 Jan. 2025].

‌Royal Television Society. (2022). Meet the minds behind Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared: the new puppet show that will give you nightmares. [online] Available at: https://rts.org.uk/article/meet-minds-behind-dont-hug-me-im-scared-new-puppet-show-will-give-you-nightmares [Accessed 05 Jan. 2025].

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Final Solution + Product (Sir Spoiled'alot)

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Final Solution + Product (Sir Spoiled'alot)

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And final puppies I made for this project are the so-called veteran knight that adorns shiny blue and gold armor of the same material that was used to craft the rookie knight, which are the foam blocks. The foam blocks were originally grey, so after shaping them I had to use blue and gold paints to give it the palette I assigned it with. This puppet's design is supposed to be more clean and more intricate compared to the one that came before it.

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My Sketch Feeaturing the two Knights and the Dragon

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Initially in our group, we all came up with sketches regarding the chosen idea of this story between the Dragon and Knights. The sketch featured in this specific section is the one I drew for my interpretation of the Knights to which the main concept artists for our group later worked off of. Initially I envisioned a little chubby form for the character as shown in the sketch, but later considered an alternative when our concept artists finished with his work, given that it will be harder to operate during animation. The overall design still was based off of the sketch I made here.

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Final Designs from our group member Lewis Powell

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This is the final refined concept arts our main 2D animator for our group made while using my sketch as a reference and base. Lewis Powell was the one who produced the sketch and this gave a very great guidance for me to build the puppets.