Ray Harryhausen Awards 2024 - Best Children's Animation WIN
I am delighted that films directed and co-created by me, Emma Dougherty, founder of StopMoGo, won Ray Harryhausen Awards for Best Children’s Animation 2024.
I also designed the concept, storyboard, puppets, and props and directed the film at a surprise bespoke birthday workshop I created for a young animator whose film won an honourable mention in the 2024 Awards.
As with all of my workshops, a great deal of work happens behind the scenes. This post shows how my inspirations, puppets, props, sets, sound, and film-making techniques went into making the winning animations in my Edinburgh studio.
A Bit of Background
How did this all come about?
In addition to creating my own films, I have been inspiring and helping people to make high-quality stop motion animations ever since I set up StopMoGo in 2010.
What makes my workshops different is the amount of creative input from me. It goes far beyond supervising participants with a lump of plasticine. I create immersive stop motion workshop worlds, each with fully realised stories and engaging activities that develop different animation skills and techniques. Participants can step into these immersive worlds and bring them to life.
To date, I have created twenty-six different themed workshop worlds, each with activities, puppets and props which I hand-make and place in participants’ hands. Actually, it is now twenty-seven if I include my immersive six-room installation, Animating Wonderland.
Ray Harryhausen's Influence
The work of Ray Harryhausen has had a profound influence on me. It is undoubtedly one of the defining reasons I have been devoted to stop motion. I will never forget the first time I saw Clash of the Titans, enthralled by Pegasus and terrified by Medusa. I spent at least 6 hours at the ‘Titan of Cinema’ exhibition at National Galleries Scotland, marvelling at his creations.
Myths and Legends
When I was a teacher, ‘Myths and Legends’ was one of favourite topics to teach. When I left my job as a teacher to pursue my passion for stop motion, it was one of the first themes I chose for my immersive stop motion workshops.
Here is artwork I created featuring my two StopMoGo mascots, Pip & Pogo, for my ‘Myths and Legends’ poster.
To see more of my artwork, check out my design portfolio.
Decision to enter
I suggested we could make animations to enter into the Harryhausen Awards to a couple of children who had attended a few of my previous workshops. They had booked another six-week course with me, and it seemed like a good opportunity, especially as I had recently met Vanessa Harryhausen and learnt more about the awards.
I chose ‘Myths and Legends’ as a theme to build on my previous immersive workshop and all of the puppets, props, and activities I had created for it. Also, the children had not heard of Ray Harryhausen, so it was a way to introduce his work.
Which monsters to make?
I provided a range of my teaching books on mythical creatures and we watched various videos showing Ray Harryhausen’s creations for inspiration.
Model Making
Creating Monsters
To enable the children to have as much time as possible to animate at the classes, 2 hours a week over the course of 6 weeks, I created armatures, eyes, and prepared plasticine for the puppets in advance.
After the sessions were finished, I repurposed my armature to create another cyclops puppet. Below, you can see how I made and then animated it.
Handmade props
In addition to my articulated figures, I also gave the children the use of props I had created for my original ‘Myths and Legends’ workshops.
I had first made the helmets, swords and shields for an activity recreating the scene with Medusa in ‘Clash of the Titans’. Below are some of the animations made by children animating the activities and props I designed for my ‘Myths and Legends’ workshops. You can also see more about my creations on my Facebook and Instagram pages.
Honourable Mention
I also directed and co-created a film that received an honourable mention in the 2024 Awards.
It was a surprise bespoke birthday workshop for a young animator in my Edinburgh studio. I created the concept, storyboard, puppets, props, sets, replacements, sound – all on the theme of his favourite Star Wars films.