Helping Hands

Well, after a full year of work, the underwater film is finally finished. The goal was a film with no tiedowns, and multi-legged puppets and a new flying rig. I would like to thank all the people that supported this film while in progress. Special thanks to Alicia, and to Brett, and to the members of stopmotionanimation.com
Enjoy the short film and let me know if you enjoyed it.
Details:
*puppets have a wire armature with cushion foam buildup and a latex skin
*puppets are about 6 inches tall
*the fish and seahorse use a flying rig to hold them in place
*to animate the creatures that walk I used pins to mark the leg positions in the sand, lifted the puppet, moved the legs, and replaced the puppet.
*total production took just over 1 year
*the set is about 3 feet wide by 2 feet tall by 2 feet deep
*most of the sand was glued in place so I would not disturb it.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• stopmotion
• stop motion
• animation
• puppet
• castlegardener
• underwater
• latex buildup

[Carrotkid]

Wow, awesome work John! I loved the set, lighting, and mood of the film! And the characters were super great as well - must have taken a long time to make - excellent job man!

[castlegardener]

@Carrotkid thank you...it means a lot...yes, it took forever...almost exactly one year of work from day one design to release to public

[NobleDesignMedia]

Hooray! I'm nutz about this film! There's so much great stop mo charm in it. (I'm so stealing your wonderful underwater camera angles) I love all the details and the sophisticated musical choices.

You have such a great way with these creatures, John. Is that due to your extensive underwater photography/diving experiences do you think?!

[castlegardener]

@NobleDesignMedia the creatures and how they walk I see all the time underwater and in my fish tank so I am sure that helped with the realism of their actions.

[gatometalico]

A marvelous piece, once again, John! The music was sync up perfectly with the environment. As for animating, you have challenged yourself like never before, under water.. i imagine there was a lot of rigs arounds....so inspiring, please never stop the art of stop/motion. and thanks for the inspiration once again!! shall not be wasted.

[castlegardener]

@gatometalico a flying rig from the ceiling for the seahorse and fish made from K/S brass tubing

[fingerminger]

Awesome!

[RantzalotSir]

Well done John - your work is way more than amazing. Colour me green.

[stopmotionismyname]

this just amazing

[BagiClaymations]

Excellent work! Beautiful set, puppets and an amazing sound track! :)

[sgtjlopez]

Very cool work with the spindly crabs.  At first I thought your character lost an eye, but it was the camera angle. lol. Great work

[FandSproduction]

Nice work!  I liked it!

[invdrzim]

Fantastic :) I loved the motion of the crabs'. Great scenery. The flower was great, too!

-b

[PLHeidemann]

Wonderfull ^_^