COMEBACK CREATURES
AMUSE BOUCHE
“There are ten to 15 mouth replacements per character,” says animator Hannah Brooks.” We may use the same one, but manipulate it upwards or downwards. We name them based on the sounds they make. A DST is slightly closed with teeth together. An E is a slightly wider version. MBP is closed. An FV shows teeth, and there are OHs and long OHs.”
POSITIONS, PLEASE!
“The art department builds the sets and we film in a big warehouse. Animators have to wear dark clothing. If we wear white, we reflect on to the set. We can’t be in front of lights and need to be aware of where the camera is. I have a section on the floor that I always need to stand in to avoid interrupting something. Overnight, we cover the puppets in clingfilm.”
TOOLED UP
“The most important tool is your hands. Director Rich Webber wants it “thumb-y”, where there are fingerprints on the puppets. We have a siliconetipped sculpting tool that’s like a pencil, but with rubber on the ends, which is good for getting into corners, and scalpels get out pieces of dirt. We use tons of baby wipes removing dust and debris from the figures and our hands!”
TALKING PICTURES
“The puppets are based on Rich Webber’s drawings. Inside, they have very simple armatures made out of wire and foam. I put the mouths on the characters and take a picture. We use a program called Dragonframe to animate — it has a lip-sync function where you can match all of the pictures you’ve taken with the dialogue.”
TAKING SHAPE
“We change the 5cm mouth for each 20cm character in almost every frame. We take the whole head off by cutting that line on the seam of the neck, pull the mouth off, put the new mouth on, sculpt that in, put the head back on and sculpt around that neckline.��
