Watching the Rankin Bass puppets of “Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer” planted the notion on Christmas Eve. The characters, though not animated entirely well, are wonderfully designed. The sets are simple and have a nice homemade feel. I began thinking about other stop-motion and claymation films I had seen. “Nightmare Before Christmas,” “The Wrong Trousers,” and “WIl Vinton’s Claymation Christmas” all had their effect on me. I spent the better part of the 2004 holidays watching anything I could get my hands on that was animated puppetry of some sort.

I started thinking insane things like, “I can do this,” promptly followed by, “yeah, but who would want to?” I thought about all the things you would have to do to make a film go - and as the list got bigger, I got more and more interested. Now, I suffer from a serious but hopefully not fatal case of lack-of-focus. That’s why this is the perfect project for me. There is so much to do, including drawing, writing, sculpting, music, etc., I can move on to another area when I become restless - rather than dropping the project altogether like I’ve done in the past. Turns out THAT’S why I have little to show artistically. The many facets of stop-motion film-making, and a whole lot of self-discipline, should hold my interest/attention fast.

Once I get an interest, I research the hell out of it. I used to do that as a kid, but without the Internet, it wasn’t very easy. I love the Internet. I heart google. Sometimes, after researching something and learning about it, I burn out on the idea and stop. I move on and learn about something else. Unfortunately, you can’t show your brain cells to people - looking at brain cells won’t elicit an emotional response in an audience, or at least not the kind I’m after. Neural maps are only interesting to psychologists (and just barely.) I need to do something with the knowledge so that people respond.

I google-searched for information on how Rankin Bass made and animated their puppets. This led to some great websites. I’ve since moved on from Rankin Bass-specific info to anything and everything that is homemade stop-motion film-making. Here are the websites I have found most helpful:
Marc Spess’ http://www.animateclay.com (Marc is creating his own series of stop-motion shorts called “Zombie Pirates.” He has written about his process, and that information has been extremely helpful to me.)
Anthony Scott’s’ http://www.stopmotionanimation.com/ (Anthony has created a strong community of stop-motion artists through his website. I currently lurk around the message boards - no end to the knowledge there.)
Nick Hilligoss’ Online Album, http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?username=hilligossnic (Nick is a true do-it-yourselfer with lots of advice from years of self-producing. I’ve been learning a lot from his posts at stopmotionanimation.com and from his website of photos from his productions.)