The 4 Challenges
Making costumes for stop motion animated movies!
Stop-motion animation is increasingly gaining in popularity. It has been a nerdy subculture for a long time. These days, it found its way to the mainstream and we see it everywhere. Especially due to the great success of Guillermo Del Toro's "Pinocchio", there is a rapidly growing interest in stop motion animation. This has brought this art form to the forefront and allowed it to be perceived as what it is. An incredibly beautiful and sophisticated vehicle to tell fantastical stories.
When I tell people what I do, most still think everything is computer generated. Or they think we make doll costumes. Here is to what it really is. Stop-motion animation is a very complex and sophisticated microcosm in itself.
Making costumes for stop motion animation is so much more than just making clothes that are well..., a bit smaller. We are creating worlds to the scale of 1/6. Everything is handmade. These worlds have very different laws of physics. This means, that there are many different factors that are playing into the process of making costumes for animated movies.
If you are familiar with stop motion animation, you know that we take 24 single pictures to create 1 second of the movie. We are creating an illusion of movement. We are dealing with 24 frozen moments. This means that the single incremental movements have to be very stabile in performance, holding up to the movement. This leads us to the first paradox.
- A frozen movement -
The 4 main challenges
GRAVITY
We are using life size materials to build a world that is only 1/6 the size of ours. This means, that the materials we are using, have a proportionally different weight when we build a garment that is only 1/6th of the human size. It is way much lighter. This means we have to create gravity. This is why we use heavy backings, wires and structuring pieces to help lead the material downward and let the material drape looking naturally.
MOVEMENT
Here is the paradox again. The challenge of movement is really the challenge of stillness.
We also have to defy gravity when we have to “rest” the costume in a position in the movement. Sometimes, a costume makes an extreme movement. Like the flapping of a coat tail in the wind. In animation we see a phenomenon a lot called flickering. This is when the costume is moved in-between the individual shots and the costume bounces back or the touching with the hands moves the costume more than it is supposed to. This is because the costume needs to be controllable so that it can perform with the character and its movement.
The way we wire the costume is very important. The costume needs to hold a position. This is crucial for creating a natural and effortless looking, flowing movement.
As miniature costume fabricators, we are constantly solving the “problems” arising out of this. This is what affords an engineering mindset. And that can be trained.
By now you might get an idea of how different this world really is.
Another challenging fact related to movement is also that the characters have to have a wide range of movement. This is why we have to choose our materials carefully and make sure they are able to provide the necessary elasticity to guarantee best performance and stability. So everything we use has to allow this stretch in the areas we need it.
SCALE
Most of the materials commonly available, are for our human world use. There are many challenges due to this. Most often this means that textures and patterns are too big. The materials are also thicker in relation to common fabrication techniques. Seam allowances build up quickly. We make adjustments to the materials and the very way we fabricate the costumes. This means again that we apply a very different way of approaching the fabrication. To find materials to work with we mostly modify existing fabrics. We dye them, print onto them, stitch into them, add or take out parts…, or we make our own. We have to appropriate the scale to make things believable. And this affords clever use of our skills.
Here, we have a great opportunity to creatively find new ways to interpret and imitate our world in fresh and surprising ways. This is where things become really fun and almost magical in the process.
PROPORTION
We are building fictional worlds with sometimes very odd looking characters. This means that the proportions can be very stylized and different from human proportions. We need to approach pattern making differently. A good understanding of the movement is crucial. Making patterns for humans follows predictable rules. In animation, these rules become somewhat useless. However the basic principles will always remain applicable and are actually easy to understand.
