Stopmotion Puppets

The Colossus

For Coraline I made molds, ran latex, urethane, and ultimately garnered the reputation as “The Hoard Master”.

I ended up taking on any project that required multiple copies. I developed the rig that ran 500 dogs in the “Theater” as well as ran the build crew and wrangled the puppets onset. Yes 500 dogs. 

I designed the process for building 30 rats. Made the molds, cast and assembled the whole bunch. This required the development of a quickly reproduced core and wire set.

The snapdragons were a fun followup the the rats. 20 puppets and again designed the molds and armatures.

 

For Paranorman I supervised the background puppet dept. My team made 20+ puppets with oldschool mechanical heads. None of this newfangeled 3D prototype printed faces on printed head cores (though that is some cool shit) for the likes of us! I did work on a blending of the two techniques, the tall male to right of center in the above photo is the result. A very expressive mouth was the requirement which I think we managed.

For Boxtrolls I again worked in the background dept. Our task largely consisted of making as many different characters using a few different parts, ie, legs arms and bodies as was possible. We made both humans and boxtrolls with this technique. I made the head and molds for this puppet. Note the screws around the scalp, this is a technique to help facilitate the easy removal of the skin for fitting and repair. The screws and corresponding spaces in the skin act as snaps.