Puppet animator. Puppet Animation Pro

Puppets are the oldest animation technique, and although there were periods when the popularity of puppet cartoons waned, the tradition was never completely interrupted. Arzamas collected not the most famous, but important works over the past half century

Prepared by Anna Romanova

"Little Frog is Looking for Dad"

Director Roman Kachanov, 1964

One little frog didn't have a dad, and he was very sad. So much so that he went looking for him. This seemingly simple film is used to teach dramaturgy to students at animation schools. The legendary Roman Kachanov is one of the creators of puppet animation in our country. This he did and Mitten", And " Cheburashka"(Leonid Shvartsman worked as an artist on these two cartoons).

"My green crocodile"

Director Vadim Kurchevsky, 1966

“All crocodiles were like crocodiles, but this crocodile was somehow strange...” A poetic movie about love based on the script by Genrikh Sapgir and Gennady Tsyferov, in which Yuri Norshtein worked as an animator, and Alina Speshneva worked as an artist. Vadim Kurchevsky is an animated film director, book illustrator, screenwriter, production designer, TV presenter, art teacher and set designer for children's plays.

"Clew"

Director Nikolay Serebryakov, 1968

A very sad story about how important it is to stop in time, told with the help of dolls and yarn. Nikolai Serebryakov - Soviet and Russian director of animated films; his most famous works are " I want to be brave" And " Gilded foreheads ».

"The Little Goat Who Counted to Ten"

Director Vladimir Degtyarev, 1968

One day the little goat learned to count. But not everyone in the forest liked it. Vladimir Degtyarev is a legend of puppet animation. This adaptation of a fairy tale by Norwegian writer Alf Preusen is one of his most famous cartoons for children.

"Moomintroll and others"

Directed by Aida Zyablikova, 1978

The first of three cartoons about the Moomins. Director Aida Zyablikova is a classic of puppet animation. It was she who filmed the fairy tale by Tatyana Alexandrova “ Brownie Kuzya" The composer of the cartoon is Alexey Rybnikov, and the lyrics for the songs were written by Lyudmila Petrushevskaya. The cartoon was voiced by Zinovy ​​Gerdt and Olga Gobzeva.

“Moomintroll and the Comet”, “Moomintroll and the Comet. The way home"

Directed by Nina Shorina, 1978

The director of the second and third series about the Moomins was Nina Shorina, and the artist was Lyudmila Tanasenko (she was also the artist of the famous films " Last year's snow fell », « Big secret for a small company », « The boy walked, the owl flew"), etc. These episodes were also voiced by Zinovy ​​Gerdt and Olga Gobzeva.

"New Year's Adventure"

Directed by Julian Kalisher, 1980

A New Year's movie about how Papa Man and Papa Bear forgot to buy Christmas trees and are trying to fix it. The Soviet fairy who helps the heroes is especially good. Julian Kalisher directed a lot of musical cartoons, for example “ Big secret for a small company" or " Who are these birds?" "New Year's Adventure" also has a funny song.

"Hedgehog plus turtle"

Director Ivan Ufimtsev, 1981

A film by one of the classics of puppet animation - Ivan Ufimtsev, creator of " 38 parrots" And " Losharika" This film adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's tale "Where the Armadillos Come From" begins with the song "On the Distant Amazon" performed by Tatiana and Sergei Nikitin. The roles were voiced by Oleg Tabakov, Vsevolod Larionov, Nadezhda Rumyantseva and Tatyana Peltzer.

"Little Imp No. 13"

Directed by Nathan Lerner, 1982

It’s an important day at school for devils: in class they study the question “Who should the devil love?” Of course, yourself! But the main character does not agree. A witty and gentle cartoon by Nathan Lerner, to whom we also owe the animated images of Baron Munchausen and the Fleeing Mook.

"Vrednyuga"

Director Yuri Trofimov, 1987

Yuri Trofimov has several cartoons based on fairy tales by the English writer Donald Bisset. In this episode, Drakosha and his friends fight the insidious Vrednyuga, who wants to steal the rainbow. Script by Vadim Kurchevsky, text from the author read by Alexey Batalov.

"Amorous Crow"

Directed by Maria Muat, 1988

One day a crow fell in love with a sideways hare. And then a fox, and then a wolf, and then... You can’t order your heart! A touching and absurd cartoon about love based on a script by Irina Margolina with memorable characters performed by Georgy Burkov, Roman Filippov and Larisa Udovichenko. Maria Muat is a student of Sergei Obraztsov, a leading director of modern puppet animation.

“Should a hedgehog be prickly?”

Directed by Mikhail Kamenetsky, 1990

A curly-haired hedgehog was born into a “decent hedgehog family”, and something urgently needs to be done about it! A cartoon-parable by Mikhail Kamenetsky about what it’s like to be different from everyone else. Among the director’s works are “ Wolf and calf », « The smallest gnome" And " Bosun and parrot ».

"Zheltukhin"

Directed by Maria Muat, 2002

The film is based on a story by Alexei Tolstoy: expressive dolls, attention to detail, a leisurely narrative and the ambiance of a noble estate. The film's designer is Marina Kurchevskaya, one of Maria Muat's regular artists and co-authors. The roles were voiced by three Tabakovs - Oleg, Anton and Nikita.

"About the Fisherman and the Fish"

Directed by Natalya Dabizha, 2002

For the puppet adaptation of Pushkin’s fairy tale, Natalya Dabizha chose the style of “theater within a theater”: the ups and downs of an old man’s life are watched (and sometimes directly participated in) by children in animal costumes, and the fish itself is “played” by a girl. The music for the cartoon was written by Grigory Gladkov.

"Eskimo"

Director Yulia Aronova, 2004

Yulia Aronova is an experimental director. She has films in adaptations, mixed media, hand-drawn and even puppetry. Like, for example, “Eski-mo” - a film about a little penguin, bored in the circus, who wanted to go north.

“Like a gentleman was a horse”

Directors Alexander Tatarsky, Valentin Telegin; 2004

A Belarusian fairy tale about a greedy and mischievous gentleman who did not spare his workers at all and was fairly punished. The cartoon is part of the “Mountain of Gems” - an animated series by the Pilot studio based on the fairy tales of the peoples of Russia.

"Servant Hare"

Director Elena Chernova, 2007

The story is about how poor but cunning Hakim dressed up as a hare and what came of it. A funny Tatar fairy tale with fabric decorations, also from “Mountain of Gems.” The director of the film is Valentin Telegin.

"Bridge"

Directed by Dina Velikovskaya, 2009

A sad parable about the divorce of parents with unusual scenery and excellent cinematography, one of the first student films of Dina Velikovskaya. Her graduation film " My strange grandfather"has traveled to festivals all over the world, and now he travels and wins the same way" Cuckoo ».

"The Sparrow Who Knew His Word"

Directed by Dmitry Geller, 2010

Dmitry Geller, a director from Yekaterinburg, makes short auteur films. As a rule, it is more for adults, but this animated parable is suitable for viewers of any age. The honest sparrow was determined to return the sun, even if it would require patience. The film was made in an interesting mixed technique.

"Picky Mouse"

Director Sergei Strusovsky, 2013

A modern musical fairy tale about a modest gray mouse who suddenly became a beauty. There are a huge number of dolls in the film - and each has a special character. Very good work by the animators.

TV series "Lelya and Minka"

Director Dmitry Lazarev, 2014

A modern, very funny series based on the stories of Mikhail Zoshchenko. The artist is Maria Bystrova, the text from the author is read by Veniamin Smekhov.

During an animation evening organized by the association “Breakthrough of Animation Art in Ukraine,” Oleg Pedan, puppeteer, director, screenwriter and animator, spoke and showed the process of creating puppets for animation, the features of an articulated puppet and how puppets for animation were made before, about the papier-mâché technique.

I work at our theater university as a teacher in the specialty “Work of an artist in animation.” I have approximately two courses of students and two groups. Which I teach the techniques of prop work, creating dolls, artistic techniques that I know. And this whole procedure takes us four courses.

Usually we always start by trying to develop a character. We take some part of the script. In which there is a portrait of the character. We choose a text portrait, so with a text portrait we are trying to determine what texture our character will be from. Will it be voluminous, will it look good in post-animation? Because I mainly work with three-dimensional characters. With flats I have elective evenings. If it is voluminous, then what can it be made of, because texture decides a lot. After that we do some examples. According to which we are developing this image. And then the simple technique begins. You could say it's an engineering work, not an artist's work. Just build this doll, how and from what it can be made in such a way that everything is normal. Here is an example of such work that I can show in a small short film. About the doll that was made for the film, it was called “Nobody’s Home,” I think. I forgot what year it was. The essence of the film is that there is a person there, a small carpenter, a carpenter is acceptable. Lives in a cardboard box. He doesn't need anything, he has everything in his cardboard box. And so he does everything inside and never looks outside. And the whole world around him enters this box through the holes. He makes holes and enters. The carpenter somehow reacts and struggles with this. He then seals the holes and nails them down. Trying to keep his box. And so, in this film there was an episode when a thief breaks into his box.

Oleg Pedan shot mainly the videos featured in this article for students. Sometimes it is difficult for a student to explain what a plastic doll is. There are videos for this purpose.

I don’t remember this thief, he stole something from him. We did it, we worked together with the artist to create the character. We made a thief out of a bunch of keys. There was such a basic point that all the connecting entities that were in the film. Were made from real things. This is how a neighbor would come to invite me for coffee. This means that the neighbor will be in the form of a truck with coffee on her head. And when she curtsies. Coffee runs out and does her hair. This is the neighbor. And the thief was a bunch of keys, so we put a bunch of keys. And somehow she didn’t turn out to be a thief. Well, an ordinary bunch of keys. And then, and even then there were some tense times. Suddenly someone saw on TV aggressive men in a black cap with slits for the eyes. And put on your keys a keychain made of a metal circle, which has a cap and two holes for the eyes, and that’s it. He became a villain.

Well, this is, in general, bullshit. They fought him easily, but when, according to the plot, the police had to enter this box to take this villain. We had problems with the police because I went over the whole image of a policeman. I imagined him virtually. This is which of the items the policeman has is most suitable. Nothing. Absolutely. Even a whistle. And then I walked down the street, the outfit was ahead of me. They usually walk important, and he had handcuffs in a leather case hanging from behind him just below his belt. I thought: “That’s it! This is my subject." I got myself real police handcuffs. But he couldn't do anything with them. They are made of some kind of super steel. It is impossible to drill or cut them. They are just kind of terrible. And I had to imitate them from soft metal. And I found there a number of very suitable moments in the image. First of all, they are paired, they are always together. There is a chain between them, that is, one is impossible without the other. And then I made this character, I’ll now show a movie about it. So there are a few things in this movie that I may have to explain. But I wouldn’t want to along the way, or maybe along the way, or maybe later.

As always, work with sketches begins, the sketch was the simplest, I didn’t worry, they are handcuffs and handcuffs in Africa. Special paint that is similar in color to steel. Blank for boots made of linden. All shoemakers around the world always make shoes this way. Only they then remove it from the block, but in this case I did not remove it. You've seen how the chain is made. Below is a fragment of the film for which it was filmed. Ten minutes takes about nine months to film.

Another thing I may have forgotten to say. The doll, which was, if you noticed, is not articulated. Her arms and legs were all made of flexible wires. And there was even a process where the flagellum was made of copper wire. In fact, this is a network wire that has been stripped of its insulation. I burned it with a torch and it became soft in its own way. Like butter. And after that, I used a special machine, it was so small, like a sewing machine. This flagellum is wrapped around the outside with a thread. Well, to make it easier to stick to him. So that the wire does not fluff when you bend it. And it was on this tragic moment that all the mobility of the doll was built. Because all animated puppets must move somehow.

Articulated dolls. Basically everyone loves articulated dolls. An articulated doll is like the most controllable. Her entire body consists of special mechanical joints. Most often they are made of metal. Moreover, there are classics: This is how metal hinges are made. That's just it. And they are the most controllable and easy to adjust. The jointed doll is one hundred percent suitable for the animator. If he needs a close-up, gestures or some kind of facial expression, the joints of her legs are clamped, her entire lower belt becomes stone, she does not move. Only the top part works. If we need a gait, then we weaken her legs enough so that she doesn’t fall. And the legs are easy to control, and she walks. Why aren't all dolls articulated? Firstly, because it is expensive. A normal jointed doll, about ten times more expensive than a normal doll. Secondly, there are such moments as, for example, extras. For the film, we need to create 50-60 characters that are more or less identical. Well, for example, they will all be the same size, they have the same frame. The person who will make the hinges for them will literally curse this work. Therefore, you can literally make them all wire-like and not worry too much. To give you an idea of ​​how a regular doll joint is made, I also have a special video.

First you need to get the ball. I extract the ball from the bearing. If anyone knows another way, please share. How hard it will be depends on the size of the ball we use. Typically, balls ranging in size from 4mm to 12mm are used. The balls are made of solid steel; in order to drill it, you need to burn it. After that it can be drilled. Blank for clamping a ball made of ND59 brass. Any other brass is suitable too, but worse, this one is ideal. The landing technique is, in general, unique; no one but me does this. Previously, the balls were placed on soft solder, and after a while they became loose and the studs fell out of them. I make it for a tight fit, cold soldering, after which it is no longer possible to remove the ball from the nail. Another important point is that the ball must have an elastic part, because the ball has wear, and it is the clampers who must absorb this wear. As an elastic part, for example, a small piece of acrylic, you can use vinyl plastic or wood. Anything, as long as it's not metal. And thanks to this little thing, the ball is always compressed. Therefore, no matter how much it wears out, this tab always compensates for this wear, and the elasticity of the hinge is maintained. The hinges are lubricated in two ways: either with a little wax (take a ball, rub it on a candle and insert it) or on the nose. There is no other way. If we drop regular machine oil in there, the doll will be completely ruined. And the hinge will either move very easily or jam.

The head of an articulated doll can be removed so that you can put something on or change something. Usually all jointed dolls have their heads removed altogether. Usually our master makes a doll for about a month. Forty man-days is the standard for one character. That is, forty people have to do one character in one day. Well, one does forty days. I don’t know, but these are symbolic numbers. All hinges are tightened. There are adjustments everywhere, if you tighten everything, it will stand like stone. Now, if you take the doll in your hand, you can look closely. She has holes in her feet. One hole in the foot and one hole in the heel. Each doll comes with special carnations. They are about three to four centimeters long, very sharply sharpened, like needles. Sometimes with hats, and sometimes with hooks. Well, different cartoonists like different carnations. And we have a table for filming, it consists of large, thick foam. Special polystyrene foam, not the simple kind you can buy in a store. Now you can’t buy something like this anymore, or from a cork. Previously, such tables were made from linden. Carnations are also quite easy to stick into linden trees. And on top of this layer there is already the texture that we need. Fabric, paper, wool, whatever we want: grass, trees. Anything. And the doll is placed on the platform and the nail is pressed into the platform with a file. Because you can’t knock with a hammer, something might move in the scenery.

Let me show you something else. Well, for example, there is such a sculptural technology as papier-mâché. And students have to explain for quite a long time how this is all done. How they used to sculpt dolls. Not only does no one sculpt papier-mâché anymore, no one sculpts it correctly. No one in front of me has ever sculpted it correctly.

It’s just that in this technique itself, there are some skills that are generally useful in all other sculptural techniques: in casting, and in molding, in everything in the world. That's why I made this video for them. In which there are letters at the bottom that explain the essence of the process.

You will notice that all the work started with a plasticine craft, which I then cut in half. Next comes molding, this is the classic part of all casting techniques, including papier-mâché. The gypsum is poured into the water, and nothing else. After this, the form, glued to the plexiglass, is filled with plaster and we wait for it to harden. Prepare the glue. Real papier-mâché glue consists of water, flour and a little office glue. We take out the plasticine that is no longer needed. An important point: the form needs to be paraffinized or waxed, then nothing will stick to it. The glue is ready when bubbles rise. I really respect the Rio newspaper because one side is color and the other is black and white. It’s very convenient, you glue the color one, and then the black and white one. And you can see where you’ve already been and where you haven’t been yet. An important point: the pieces of newspaper that I glued there are placed with glue on the outside and never on the inside. Your finger runs well over the glue and squeezes out all the excess glue from the base. Now the form has dried and all that remains is to outline it. Just a knife. And plan it, because we cut it along the plane. In stop-motion animation, that's why a shell casing is inserted into her head. A sleeve made of paper on which it will be put on. And then on the body there will be a rod on which it fits. In this case, the glue is a mounting adhesive that just holds well. Here I simply glued the sleeve together from paper. Sanding and priming take turns. After I go through the soil, some parts will rise, and dimples will open, which I will then sand. Primer, regular acrylic paint. The mouth was meant to be in motion, so the mouth was on a pin, it could be put on and taken off.

Do you want to quickly create beautiful and high-quality frame-by-frame animation? Then this utility is just for you.

Characteristic

The program is an advanced video editor. This application is used not only by children, but also by adults. Together with this application you will help your imagination break free.

Now you can create high-quality and beautiful frame-by-frame animations anytime, anywhere. The results will look spectacular and impressive. Animation made in this program resembles a theatrical performance.

You will have a huge number of effects at your disposal. You can create absolutely any animation.

This program will be especially interesting for children. With its help, they will be able to unleash their creative potential and turn into real animators. To do this, you just need to select a suitable photo from the memory of your mobile device and edit it.

Main advantages

• Lots of thematic design cards.
• Unique effects.
• Possibility to choose the soundtrack.
• Quickly import photos from your mobile device gallery.
• Animation.
• Fast export and rendering.
• The ability to share your results with other users via social networks.

Today we will talk about puppet animation of Soyuzmultfilm! But this is practically the main “trick” of Soviet animation!

Puppet animation is a method of volumetric animation. When creating, a mock-up stage and actor dolls are used. The scene is photographed frame by frame, after each frame minimal changes are made to the scene (for example, the pose of the doll changes). When playing back the resulting sequence of frames, the illusion of objects moving appears.
The creator of puppet animation in Russia and in general is Vladislav Starevich, about whom we have already written.
In Soviet times, Alexander Shiryaev was the first to take up puppet animation. In 1906, he created a cartoon depicting 12 dancing figures against a background of stationary scenery depicting a scene. The film was shot on 17.5 mm film. It took three months to create it. During creation, Shiryaev rubbed a hole in the parquet floor with his feet, as he constantly walked from the movie camera to the set and back.

These films were discovered in Shiryaev’s archive by film expert Viktor Bocharov in 2009. Several more puppet cartoons were also found there: “Clowns Playing Ball”, “Pierrot’s Artists” and a love drama with a happy ending “Harlequin’s Joke”. Modern animators cannot yet unravel the secrets of the animator, since Shiryaev’s dolls not only walk on the ground, but also jump and spin in the air.

Alexander Shiryaev

In the 1960s, new names came to domestic puppet animation: Roman Kachanov, Vladimir Degtyarev, Vadim Kurchevsky, Nikolai Serebryakov and others.

The film “Mitten” by Roman Kachanov won a number of prestigious foreign prizes at festivals, and also rediscovered the Russian school of puppet animation for foreign audiences. His films “Cheburashka”, “Crocodile Gena” and “Shapoklyak” became recognized classics of world animation. Yuri Norshtein began his career as an animator-puppeteer in Kachanov's films.

Director Aida Zyablikova created the puppet animated series “Kuzya the Little Brownie”, the cartoons “Akairo” and “Moomintroll”. Directors Joseph Douksha and Maya Buzinova worked in the genre of puppet animation - “Uncle Au (animated series)”, and also created a series of puppet cartoons based on the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen: “The Swineherd” (1980), “The Brownie and the Housewife” (1988), “New the king's dress" (1990), "The Nightingale" (1991). Mikhail Kamenetsky created such good cartoons as “The Littlest Dwarf” (1980), “Boatswain and the Parrot” (1982), “The Wolf and the Calf” (1984).

Soviet puppet animation was created with special warmth. This is probably why we love Soviet cartoons so much. There is something about them all that is so soulful and soft, like the dolls themselves. But for each doll, separate heads were molded, wire frames were built, and for each emotion - a new head. And the emotions are extremely good.

doll and scenery from the cartoon “Boatswain and the Parrot” (1982) in our museum

Have you dreamed all your life of making a puppet cartoon, but you don’t have a pavilion, budget or puppet structures? Welcome to the club!

Introduction:
-Demonstration of footage, story about the project.

Doll making technology:
— How to assemble a doll structure from scrap materials without making drawings and sketches and why this should not be done.
-Sketches and drawings.
-How the articulated frame works and how to configure it correctly.
-Making a doll's body, or how to make it so that there is something to hold onto.
-Making of the head: sculpting, casting, materials and tools
-How to insert eyes
-What to make hands from.
-Facial expressions and emotions of the doll.
-Doll clothes and rig for her.

Lighting:
-Discreteness of animation.
-Panning in animation.
-Device, filters, nozzles and cine foil.
-Light sources in the frame and their control.
-How to use less powerful light sources.

Animation:
-Why does the doll have holes in its legs, what are the pins for, and what should the floor of the model be like.
-What is a thicknesser and how to use it.