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FilmSkool — a free film school

The Stop-Motion Puppets of Laika Animation Studio!

A close look at the puppets, vehicles and environments Laika built for its films, filmed at a Comic-Con exhibition. Because it is shot at arm's length rather than on a set, you can see the fabrication itself — 3D-printed replacement parts, the scale of the armatures, the finish on things never meant to be seen this close.

Adam Savage’s Tested · 6 min · Beginner · STM · Stop Motion · 2017

What you take away

A stop-motion character is a piece of engineering with a face on it, and the design of the mechanism decides what the performance can do.

Watch it

Filed under

Stop-motion films to study

Oscar winners for animated feature

Zootopia (2016)
Big Hero 6 (2014)
Toy Story 3 (2010)
Up (2009)
WALL·E (2008)
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)
The Incredibles (2004)
Finding Nemo (2003)

Books on animation and design

A stop-motion bench

Sony a7 IV — The all-round full-frame hybrid
Canon EOS R6 Mark II — The affordable full-frame RF hybrid
Nikon Z6 III — Partially stacked sensor, N-RAW internal
Fujifilm X-H2S — Stacked APS-C, F-Log2, open gate 6.2K
Aputure Nova P300c — RGBWW soft panel — windows, screens, neon
Litepanels Gemini 2x1 Hard — Soft panel with a hard mode

More Stop Motion

Adam Savage Learns How Modern Stop-Motion Puppets Are Made — Adam Savage’s Tested · 14m · Advanced
How to Make Wire Armatures for Stop Motion Puppets — Animateclay · 53m · Intermediate
How Animators Created Oscar-Winning Stop Motion In Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio | Vanity Fair — Vanity Fair · 13m · Advanced
The Ray Harryhausen Chronicles (1998) — The JDP Channel · 58m · Advanced
A Grand Night In: The Story of Aardman | Documentary — Aardman · 59m · Intermediate
Andy Gent on Crafting 1,100 Puppets for Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs | D&AD Festival 2024 — D&AD - Creative Advertising, Design and Digital · 10m · Advanced
Behind the Scenes - Animating 1 Frame in Real Time — Andymation · 15m · Advanced
Behind the Scenes of ParaNorman: Hand-Making Characters | LAIKA Studios — LAIKA Studios · 6m · Advanced
Designing the Stop-Motion Sets of Aardman Animation's Early Man! — Adam Savage’s Tested · 12m · Intermediate
Inside the Stop-Motion Technology of Laika's Coraline — Adam Savage’s Tested · 18m · Advanced
Dragonslayer (1981) | Behind the Scenes — DVDXtras · 81m · Advanced
How Stop-Motion Movies Are Animated at Aardman | WIRED — WIRED · 8m · Beginner

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