A paper puppet animation
THE OBJECTIVE
My goal was to tell a story about two people loving each other through singing while knowing nothing else about each other, not even enough to recognize their faces when passing by. This was my first experiment with paper puppets in 2D animation.
THE PROCESS
1
I began with a story of a woman and a man who fall in love with each other's voices through song, but never see each other's faces. They pass each other continually in the world without recognizing that the other is the person they love.
Mood Board / Inspiration images
Early Sketches
2
My first step in the animation was making the paper puppets - a tedious process of attaching each body part together with a small piece of string and tape, making each joint moveable.
Woman's bodies assembled
Man's bodies pre-assembled
3
Using oil pastels, I drew each background and other moving puppets like trains and planes. With all the pieces ready, I began shooting on Dragonframe.
Dragonframe interface
Downshooter setup
THE RESULT
After many hours of working, I added finishing touches on Adobe Premiere. The project was a complete success because each challenge I ran into caused me momentary stress, but eventually turned it into something better than I had in mind. I have always loved working with animation because of the medium's flexibility - an accidental smudge is not a cause for concern, but can be turned into a passing car. Being open minded was part of my goal and I felt I handled the trial and error of my process quite well.