In 2017 I had finished my film ‘Bitz- the whippet made from random stuff’. Although there had been some disappointments, making the film and trying to get it shown in festivals and screenings had generally been a positive experience. As I covered in my past blog, I decided to put the ‘short film festival’ approach to one side, instead thinking about ways to make an ongoing animation project to share with my online audience and related groups. I had used Kickstarter to help fund the Bitz film, and I wanted (needed) a new project plan to continue to use crowdfunding.

2017, I had finished my 2nd short film, ‘Bitz - The Whippet Made from Random Stuff’. I set myself a 3 month deadline so I could enter it into my local Manchester Animation Festival (MAF). This festival had started in 2015, the year I began animating, and had given me a lot of motivation (you can catch up with my thoughts on this in my earlier blogs). The first film I made in 2016 was not accepted into MAF and I realised that it had a lot of issues - being too long and ponderous was a main issue. With this film I tried to keep it moving along, plus I tried to improve my animation techniques while still keeping my experimental repurposed vibe.

In March 2017 I was about to make a short film in my spare time… ready for the Manchester Animation Festival deadline in June.. The story would be set on a worktop in a shed and star a little dog made from toolbox junk - Bitz the Whippet. The story would be split into 4 main parts; Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer. Each part would begin with Bitz asleep on her shelf, being awoken by something, then engaging with the object. During this interaction, she would become damaged and then fixed before the next sequence…

In March 2017 I had built a shed set in my spare room and I had upgraded the Bitz puppet. I tried to use my limited experiences to make a puppet that would (in theory…) be able to run, jump and fall… To be able to attempt these movements I would need to do something I had not done before - use a stop-motion rig and remove it in post-production. As with all my animation, I stumbled my way through it…

In March 2017, with the kick-starter campaign reaching its target, I began to redesign/upgrade the original Bitz puppet so she would be able to star in a short film. Bitz was the first puppet I built in 2015, and was very experimental and difficult to animate (see my previous blogs!)…but she had a special place in my heart, had helped me build an audience for my work, and I always felt like she had more to offer if given the chance… with a heavy heart I began dismantling Bitz…

In March 2017 I decided to set up a Kickstarter campaign for a short film based on my ‘Bitz’ character. I had tried lots of little animation projects but these were ‘hobby’ projects and this was to be my first foray into ‘crowdfunding’. I chose to develop the ‘Bitz’ project as this was a character close to my heart (my first puppet design) but also because I hoped my followers (and the whippet community) would like Bitz the Whippet products and merchandise. Check out Bitz original kickstarter campaign here.

At the end of 2016 I had been working on lots of different projects, including animating an origami reindeer model I designed years ago. I love origami, and have a few models I often make and leave around when I’m bored on trains or planes or in pubs. As I love my dogs I’d tried to find a nice sighthound model online, but didn’t like any I found… So In November 2016 I tried to design a whippet origami model (with the hope of animating it).

In October 2016 I wasn’t sure what project to do next. I had just had a 6min short film rejected by a film festival and had just made a 1min film that was made for a specific audience, and reasonably well received. I decided to work on a series of short projects for new audiences (using a variety of materials, techniques, and subjects) with the aim of producing a short video each month and seeing where each idea led.

In August 2016, with my short film ‘Paper Airman’ completed and entered into the Manchester Animation Festival (I was yet to find out it wasn’t accepted) I wanted a new project to use for my 4th puppet and a short and simple animation sequence. I looked around for some inspiration…

2016 was well under way and the deadline for the Manchester Animation Festival was only 3 months away… I had my puppet ‘Corky’ and had roughly storyboarded the action. I work from a box room in our house, formerly just a small office space with a desk and printer. Slowly over the months of my animation hobby I had begun to take over this room. My super supportive partner Lucy said she was happy to sacrifice this space as a long term animation (having all my mess and junk in one area was also a positive, I’m sure). So, I started planning and building a filming stage and set for ‘Paper Airman’, my first attempt at a proper short film.

In March 2016 I (successfully) entered my Bitz and Hairwoof puppets (and animations) into ‘The Waterside Open’. The Open is a biennial exhibition at Waterside Arts in Sale, where I live. It was here, 3 months earlier, that I saw the Puppet Masters conference and exhibition, so to have my work shown in the same venue was really pleasing. The quality and variety of the work on show in the Open is staggering and I was grateful to be part of it.

When 2016 began I continued animating the original Bitz puppet for a few weeks, learning as I went along. I had done all I could with this first attempt at experimental puppet building so, alongside these animations, I started building a new puppet. I initially aimed to make some short test clips with my new puppet, then ultimately make two additional characters, sets and props for an ambitious/naive attempt at a short 5min film.

2015, a few months into my experimental animation project - my first puppet and first proper go at stop motion. Thanks to social media (my Facebook page mainly) I had a small audience and some kind words of encouragement to inspire me to keep going with my new found hobby - working on it in the evenings and at weekends, fitting it in around life and work. However, a couple of other inaugural events took place at the end of 2015 that inspired me to plan something bigger…

It was 2015. I had a puppet of sorts (I challenged myself to make it from the bits & Bobs in my toolbox) and I had made a 360° animation showing Bitz, the stuff she was made from and a very simple head and tail movement. After doing this first animation without a suitable camera or proper software, I did some research…

In 2015, with the stories of innovation from the original Clangers still ringing in my ears I embarked on a new creative hobby and a new challenge - making and animating a stop-motion puppet. I wasn’t pursuing career in animation so I decided against watching instructional videos and learning puppet making in a traditional way….

Back in 2015, before I took up animation, I went with a class of young people from Venture Arts (a studio for leaning disabled artists, where I’m an art tutor. More info on Venture Arts) to visit the BBC in Salford. We met with Chris Tichbourne, the director of the 2015 ‘Clangers’ reboot to hear about how they were bringing this classic stop-motion back to our TV screens…