Inspired by dogs/junk

Or:

Why I made my first puppet so difficult to animate with

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. I thought that learning existing techniques would create pressure to produce a ‘finished product’, or make me feel unready to share any of my progress and results until I had perfected them. I wanted to use social media to share the things I made as I went along, developing my practice along side producing some kind of content. For this to work I thought I needed a unique approach with a sense of invention…

….So, I set myself the challenge of making my first puppet using ONLY the random stuff in my toolbox with a two week deadline. I often keep bits and bobs with the thought they may be useful one day and I loved the idea that something ‘alive’ would come from this assortment of junk. I hoped that seeing little recognisable objects would connect with an audience and play into the tactile quality that makes stop-motion so special. Basically, I thought there might be something interesting in seeing the inanimate become animated.

I consciously decided not to make any drawings or designs and approached this new project as an experiment in ‘form and function’ - the intuitive character design emerged from within the restricted materials and required functionality. I previously spent a lot of my life drawing and creating characters on paper, so this was to be a new challenge and a new approach. The character and puppet armature I invented (originally called Bitza) became known as ‘Bitz the Whippet’, and was inspired by my two dogs.

The original Bitz puppet surrounded by the bits used to make her

Why a whippet? Obviously It was NOT a huge creative leap to make a puppet version of my dogs - they were standing right next to me.

It is interesting though that sighthounds have inspired so many creatives throughout history, with artists of all kinds drawn to their sleek graceful lines and unique proportions. Since I started this project, I’ve found more and more amazing artists and makers who draw inspiration from these unique little guys. Below is a more famous example from portrait artist Lucian Freud, who owned and befriended several whippets throughout his towering career, often painting, drawing and etching them (usually sleeping). He is quoted as saying “I am impressed by their lack of arrogance, their ready eagerness, their animal pragmatism. I’m really interested in people as animals… I like people to look as natural and as physically at ease as animals, as Pluto my whippet.”

Lucian Freud's final work 2012 – an unfinished portrait of his assistant and close friend, David Dawson, with Dawson's whippet, Eli

I chose whippets as inspiration as I was also keen to make some kind of tribute to my beloved friends Penny and Eric. They were very much still alive (and still are), but without being morbid I have owned a few dogs previously and am always aware of how ephemeral a dogs life is - they give us so much in such a short time. I wanted to observe and document my dogs in some small way, as a tribute to them and their impact on my life. This is a reoccuring theme in all my subsequent work and I will talk more about it in future posts…. but basically I bloody love dogs.

Penny in 2015 with the original Bitz puppet

Eric in 2015 with the original Bitz puppet

In simple terms I also chose to make a dog character because I didn’t want to over complicate things (so i believed!) and I thought the restricted materials and innovative approach would make the character unique enough. There is also something in a whippet form that lends itself to being made from mechanical parts. The goofy awkwardness of a whippet personality also suggested lots of movements and scenarios I could try to animate.

So, with little to no experience, I threw myself into animating the original ‘Bitz’ puppet and I quickly realised:

· I had no idea how to animate beyond the very simplest of movements

· I had no knowledge of what equipment and programs professionals used

· A quadruped, like a dog, is very difficult to animate

· A puppet made from metal junk is very heavy and unstable

· Ill informed attempts at inventing joints and mechanisms don’t work very well

· I was completely out of my depth

My results were very, very ropey! (still are!) but I still shared them into the world. This is a 360° animation of that first puppet from 2015.

More about how I took the initial steps/missteps into animation, my steep learning curve and the wonderful support of strangers in my next blog post! Thanks for reading!

Update on my current work

*FILM PRODUCTION* Danny the animator sent the new score- which I love! I asked him to take inspiration from the score from the Jaques Tati film ‘Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot’- Here is a clip from the Tati film (www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwiIYoJx5Es) but I recommend watching the full film if you can. Danny has achieved the effect I wanted really well and I’ll be able to use this to make the animatic for Mory’s film. I’m going to start this on friday, but I may have posted this blog before then, so I’ll share news on that next time. Get a sneak listen of Mory’s theme here

*MODEL MAKING* I have been cracking on with the buildign of the 3 models that need to be sent out in December, plus doing a bit of prep for the other 2. I have made some good progress so I feel happy that they will be ready in good time. I also sold Cora, the last model pre-order for a while. Thank you to her new future owner!

*MERCHANDISE/FUNDRAISING*

I have put all the remaining Otto merchandise into an ‘Otto Supporters Pack’ (Limited edition Gold foil print, sheet music, badge, and pencil sketch). There are 7 available.

5 of the original Whibbit Supporters Pack are also still on sale (Bag, notebook, classic badge, stickers, pencil, print…)

There are now 7 Connie badges left to pre-order. Like my other badges the sale of 25 of these will fund the production of the badges. After that they will be taken off sale till I make a film with the Connie puppet. This is the 5th in the set of ‘Whibbit Run’ metal and enamel badges an I’m really looking forward to getting them into production to complete the set!

There is only one of the Whibbit storyboards for the promo film left. These are hand drawn and are limited edition of 10 - So this is the last chance to get one!

Visit my shop page if you want to order any merchandise.