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Puppetry and Animation
One thing I've never heard discussed in any information on puppetry is a connection between puppetry and animation. Alongside puppetry, I have always been a huge fan of animation, although I can't draw to save my life. That hasn't stopped me from studying it, and I do think that if you study animation, it can help with your puppetry. When you get down to basics, both art forms are about bringing the inanimate to life.
There's a couple main reasons I'm starting this thread. One, I am curious if anyone else has made this connection. Next, I'm wanting to offer a little insight into how studying animation can help. I think you can learn a lot about movement and comic timing from watching animation.
One thing both have in common, you have to make your characters interesting. By studying the great characters of animation, you can gain insight as to what makes the characters work. Why does Bugs Bunny work so well? What is it about Mickey Mouse that makes him appealing to so many people? My goal here is not to answer these questions, but give you something to think about.
As for what to study, here's a few suggestions. Study classic Disney to see gear character development. Study why they have appeal, and this applies to both heroes and villains. Study the great Warner Bros shorts of the 40s and 50s. You'll see great comic timing here, especially in the work of Chuck Jones. See how just a simple gesture or pause can enhance the humor.
I want to keep this brief, so will stop here, but I hope maybe you find this helpful, and I'll be interested to hear what others think of one of the ways I study movement and timing.
There's a couple main reasons I'm starting this thread. One, I am curious if anyone else has made this connection. Next, I'm wanting to offer a little insight into how studying animation can help. I think you can learn a lot about movement and comic timing from watching animation.
One thing both have in common, you have to make your characters interesting. By studying the great characters of animation, you can gain insight as to what makes the characters work. Why does Bugs Bunny work so well? What is it about Mickey Mouse that makes him appealing to so many people? My goal here is not to answer these questions, but give you something to think about.
As for what to study, here's a few suggestions. Study classic Disney to see gear character development. Study why they have appeal, and this applies to both heroes and villains. Study the great Warner Bros shorts of the 40s and 50s. You'll see great comic timing here, especially in the work of Chuck Jones. See how just a simple gesture or pause can enhance the humor.
I want to keep this brief, so will stop here, but I hope maybe you find this helpful, and I'll be interested to hear what others think of one of the ways I study movement and timing.
Tags: Comic, Performance, Study, timing
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by PuppetsOnBroadway on -
Very good point. I have also thought these art forms were closely related. If you're looking to improve your puppeteering, I also suggest studying acting. I have a background in musical theater (I've been acting and singing almost longer than I've been walking) and it's helped so much when it comes to bringing a puppet to life. I've even talked to a few professional puppeteers and time after time, I hear,
"Puppeteering is acting from the elbow up."
And before you can act from your elbow up, it's crucial to have at least a basic understanding of general acting. Thank you for bringing this up, Vixie.
:] POB
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Permalink Reply by Wyohming on -
I completely agree and I nearly did a part time degree in stop motion animation and puppetry. My first forays into puppet making were stop motion models with wire armature, wadding and nylon skin (Span on my profile page). The stop motion animation handbook is a great place for all kinds of ideas. I definitely think there is an overlap for all the reasons you say. It also helps when working on proportions to think about the movement and in character development I think. I just like to make things.. I don't mind if it has strings or not :) My new website (which I'd show you if I'd managed to make it live yet! actually has the tagline 'the bridge between animation and puppet creation'. As you can probably tell I prefer stop motion to drawn animation slightly but I do love both. I also love shadow animation like 'hedgehog in the fog'. Have you seen The Sandman and Peter and the Wolf?
I think I come from more the building, proportions, joints side of things but you've definitely got a point!
Wyoh
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Permalink Reply by Daxxus on -
My only comment, as I love this subject, is that animation can also extend into computer animation both in 2D and 3D. I'm not talking about high resolution Iron Man kinds of animation but humorous animations (or just cool additions) that add to the overall style and flavor of the work - obviously film of some sort.
We use alot of 2D animation to create quick flash humor (overlay type stuff) to our stuff (we're not great at it yet but we're getting better). In our last episode we had 2D Olmec Heads singing along with a BBQ Sauce (faux) commercial - it was done very much like standard puppetry and it seemed to lead well into the style of what we were trying to do. It's at the end of our Episode-2 if you are interested - we have it all posted here in our video section. We put things throughout that are 2D animated overlays etc. also.
Another is to add 3D animations to green screen type effects. We just recently got a major upgrade as we bought Adobe After Effects here
and several hundred $ worth of plug-ins etc. We are redoing our intro into After Effects with some very high fidelity 3D effects and the difference between the old and new is exponential. (It hasn't been released yet so sorry on no examples) - but mixing the puppeteering via the green screen as a layer in this type of effects makes for some amazing shots.
Here are some After Effects links to blow your mind - imagine your puppets in these environments.
Video Copilot
Malta
Visions UK
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Permalink Reply by Vixie on -
I do think you can do some amazing effects at home now. I have friends who have done some amazing things with puppets and different backgrounds and such. I just wish I lived where I had other people to work with, I have some ideas for things I'd like to film, but very hard to do with nobody else around.
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Permalink Reply by NY Puppet Central on -
Shall we put the two together? Puppetry, and Animation. Good then. there is much to find in the works of Jiri Trinka, The Quay Brothers, Ladislaw Starewicz, and others and if you stretch to clay which is easy, because it's clay, there are the masterpieces of Will Vinton, and let's not forget the pseudo-classics of Rankin Bass. also I have a few films on the HUB here which involve puppetry AND animation. I have a few more sophisticated pieces which I hope to release ... soon? I would start you with Small Dreams, then maybe Small Dreams 2 ( less animating but interesting ), A Bend in the Road ( still a learning process, and it introduces Geo a geometric character of mine), and then Turry Kapang Day ... and then go do something else. enjoy thanks any Qs'
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Permalink Reply by FisticuffDC on -
It's interesting. So often as I sit in class doodling (always possible puppet designs) people will lean over and ask if I ever wanted to be an animator. Truth is, YES actually, but it's funny...I never think of my sketches as anything other than possible puppets. I am so constantly in tune with the thought of how they would look and fill space in the third dimension, that when I try to sketch something unintended for puppet life, it ends up looking very flat. It lacks the life spark that is more often prevalent in the puppet designs.
I've also thought many times during building, how much easier it might be if I were just a cartoonist. I would be able to sketch it out, write in the jokes, and there you go. Of course I haven't been successful with that when I have tried, so I end up finding the difficulties that art form can offer as well.
I definitely agree with the theory that improving your acting skills will improve your puppeteering. Dance will too actually. Really anything you can see yourself taking an interest in that deals with the relationship you have with space and how you (or an inanimate object controlled by you) can travel through that space, will help with the animation/puppetry skills.
When I was "good friends" with a few of the characters in Disney World, the term they used to describe the way in which they would interact with the children and families was called "animation". That's exactly what all this is about. Telling a story through movement.
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Permalink Reply by Larz on -
I'm glad other folks are seeing the connection - it took me too long realize it myself. Having done puppets, comic strips, 2d animation and 3d animation AND stop-motion, they are all very much related. Timing, staging, key frames, character designs, motion - all the same elements just different ways to act them out. The animation of characters IS acting. No doubt.
Richard Williams is a master animator and you may have seen his book - The Animators Survival Kit. Now he has a set of 16 DVDs where you basically attend his class. Absolutely fascinating and full of great info. I have the set (very expensive, but nothing compared to the cost of taking classes for years) and have only viewed the first few, but it's just like sitting in a classroom with him instructing. This website has some great clips from the set: The Animators Survival Kit.
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Permalink Reply by Vixie on
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Wow, suddenly getting a lot of responses. :) I wanted to add as a follow up after reading the replies here is another thing that good animation and good puppetry have in common is clear action. Bad animation requires huge amounts of dialogue to explain things, but if you watch good animation, you can tell what the character is thinking and what is going on with the sound turned off. Puppets can't be quire as expressive as an animated character, but doesn't mean your actions should be unclear. If you have to explain everything your character is doing, maybe you need to work on making your actions more clear. Good examples of animation with no dialogue but are still easy to follow are classic Tom and Jerry and The Pink Panther.
Another resource available that is not as pricey or involved as the Richard Williams set is a book by Eric Goldberg called Crash Course in Animation. It's available at http://www.amazon.com/Character-Animation-Crash-Course-Goldberg/dp/...
Just a quick FYI, Richard Williams is a top animator, and was the director of animation for Roger Rabbit. Eric Goldberg is also a top animator, and his book is a good source for learning more about the connection between animation and puppetry.
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Permalink Reply by lapuppet on -
Animation and Puppetry. Usually to animate a 3-D object or character-- in real time is called puppetry (in Eastern Europe even stop motion animation is called puppetry because of the 3-d of the real object).
Animating a drawing is usually called Animation-- and in controlled time. Hybrids exist like Performance Animation where a real mime/puppeteer-- in real time, animates a 2 dimensional drawing on video. But it is all the same general psychological pot. All skills, movement analysis, concepts, dialogue, intersect. The more you learn from one is directly applicable to the other. I think the Idea is the same-- it's the method of delivery that differs. I had TV puppet idea turned into animation (CG) pilot. Same stuff. Both require acting skills.
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Permalink Reply by RYPOPETS on
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Puppetry is animation
In the company we make all kinds of animation, 2D, 3D, stop motion and we also add puppetry to the portfolio because here in Mexico is consider animation, no acting (we are no completely agree)
Also I can say we make lots of things like shorts, one day we went ask for some government help, they have a department to help film makers and they consider just 2 categories, human shorts or animated shorts, the first time we went they explain about the issues and work behind puppet productions and thats why they are considered as animated shorts
So, after a long talk we agree about animation, puppets use sets as actors, lights and everything but there is much more behind them
Maybe is sad to say that we are not actors, but we have experience since kids, playing in a different ways with dolls, we are having a terrific time and the people like it, i try to believe that we are taking the good way to puppetry
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