Character & Narrative- Meet the Puppet Masters

Meet the Puppet Masters

Since I am doing a stop-motion for this project, I felt getting more information about the field, people currently in the industry and how they started out would be of great use to me when it came to filming and production. This is why I went to a convention talk with "Puppet Masters" from different experienced backgrounds.

These names included; Chris Tichborne, Barry Purves, Brian Cosgrove and Merlin Crossingham. Each have worked in the industry for many years therefore have built up quite an understanding of how it works and have an amazing portfolio to talk about.

First up was Chris Tichborne who had worked on all of the Tim Burton stop-motion animations and showed some of the scenes he actually worked on. He started out talking about how he found his way into the field and how he started out doing little lego animations in his room. This is really something I need to do more of as it all adds to a portfolio at the end and builds up more of a substantial body of work under my belt.

Next was Barry Purves who had been in the industry for many decades and worked on more niche productions of his own as he focuses on acting and how it can be shown within the characters and how the animator is only great if he can show emotion not only on the face but within the body. He also made me think more of the eyes. Eyes are the window to the soul as they say so the same much be for characters as the audience must feel for the character. He gave a tip on using Vaseline on the eyes so they add an extra sparkle when filming. When filming he also said pay attention when there is dialogue so he zooms into their mouths so it feels more like a live action as the voices must be heard so the camera cant be too far away.

Between breaks we went to the museum as they were showcasing some of the Aardman characters and their concept art. This let me see them up close and understand the process they take more. It also showed the concept art and how it was turned into the end result which all let me understand the industry more and see the possibilities, as i've always been interested in concept design as a job.

This was Merlin who still works at Aardman and does the Shaun the Sheep movies. He was one of the most inspirational to me as he posed the most hints and tips to me as well as insights into the Aardman studio and how he got into the job. As you can see from the image behind, he started out doing basic characters when he graduated and grew from there so it gives hope for what is possible for the future.