Fish replacements (waiting for the varnish to dry on the other 5 sets)

Octopuses or Kraken – these are going to look great when animated!

Miniature pirate ship (9cm high)

Rafts – I’m trying to decide on whether to use plasticine or fabric sails

Have yer seen Emma’s interactive Pirate film? Here be some links for ye:

Pirates! film
The making of Pirates

Emma made us 3 armatures each that we could turn into flowers, then animate. These are Emma’s demonstration flowers.

Here are some of the lovely flowers that were made at the workshops.

Are you a curious bunny?  Click on the picture to watch Emma’s Easter animation.

Another activity was to create mini egg characters. These are Emma’s:

Some of the great ones that were made at the 3 Day workshop:

Carrot replacements!

Watch the films!

The British animation industry, which has spawned favourites from Bagpuss to Bob the Builder, is at risk of terminal decline, leading animators have warned.

Animation UK, a lobby group backed by prominent studios, has met Chancellor George Osborne to urge him to introduce tax breaks in next month’s budget.

They have told him the industry is at a “critical tipping point” and could disappear from the UK within years.

Help save our animation industry & sign the petition! 100,000 signatures needed to be debated in Parliament. There’s a long way to go, but if you think the Government should be doing more to support UK based animation then signing it may at least raise awareness:

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/21834

Photos from the workshops:

Some of my resources & props

Planets made at the 3 day workshop

Model making #1

Model making #2

Thomas hard at work

Tom carefully covers one of the armatures

Isabel covers an armature in plasticine

Models - complete!

Peter & Marcus and the models they covered in plasticine

Vijay and PoGo

Emma made the armatures, we covered them in plasticine

StopMoGo's character, PoGo. The armatures Emma made were covered in plasticine at the 3 day workshop

astronauts

Emma made these models of her character, PoGo, for use at the 2 day workshop

Emma made these models (armature & plasticine) for the 2 day workshop

Looking forward to making out-of-this-world stop motion animation with you!

These are the armatures of my StopMoGo character, PoGo, that I’ve made for participants to cover in plasticine and animate.

Here are more armatures together with their inspiration!

Thank you to Liz Ainley for donating these great vintage figures.

I love my new Lego minifigures. They are a welcome addition to my collection!

Scroll down for more workshop prep!

It is so gratifying to see a project through from conception to completion. My starting point was simply ‘shoes’. How fantastic to have such an open brief! I knew that I wanted to feature the beautiful city of Oxford in the animation somehow, so embarked on lots of research to find pictures of Oxford High Street through the ages. For the two decades I wanted to include but could not find images for, lots of Photoshopping was involved to try and get the right look.

I looked at advertisements from different eras for inspiration, then made the pictures below (and puppets) in Photoshop. The ‘Oxford Shoe Company’ was my own invention, as far as I am aware it has never existed. For a larger view, click on the images:

Well done to everyone who took part, especially as stop motion animation was an entirely new entity to you all!

Huge thanks to Neil Stevenson at the Museum of Oxford (and well done for your perseverance with animating the moonwalk!) Special thanks also to the talented Mark Crozer (www.markcrozermusic.com), and all of the other musicians who so generously gave their time, for doing such an amazing job with the music. I had a very clear idea of what I wanted it to sound like (based on Pachebel’s ‘Canon’) and you have worked wonders!

This was animated on a prototype stand I made for animating on glass (in this case it’s actually perspex for safety reasons). I’m happy with the build, but before I make 5 more in time for the Space workshops, I’ll need to do a few more tests as I’m not entirely happy with the reflections & shadows that are visible (despite a lot of rearranging of the lights). I think if I can crack it, it’s going to lead to some great stuff at the workshops!