John Hankins - also known as Castlegardner - long time user of Stop Motion Pro, kindly shared some of his work and working practices with us.

I began animating in 2007. I originally wanted to make a live action film but quickly realized I did not know any actors, or any of the other many people that I needed. and realized with stop motion I could control every aspect of the film. I enjoy making props and sets and puppets as much as I enjoy the animation. I have plenty of tools and the space needed to create detailed sets and props, but only have a small space that is suitable for the actual animation.

I like to make my puppets a little different than just plain humans. I color the skin or add little extras to make my puppets more like creatures and less like realistic humans. I use a combination of aluminum wire armatures and ball and socket armatures. For my ball and socket armatures I create them myself using stainless steel 302 balls and rods and aluminum plates. I then add cushion foam over the armature and build up latex that is tinted with acrylic paints for the skin. I have made some with bottom jaws that open and close, and some have eyes that move. I have done a little bit of lip sync but most of my films have no dialog with the hopes that it will appeal to a more universal audience with no barriers because of language differences. No dialog forces me to use more body language to express my ideas or emotions.

One of the best pieces of advice I could offer to animators that are just starting out is to find a tiedown system that will hold the puppet's foot securely to the set while you animate. I personally use a piece of aluminum flat stock with a threaded hole for the tiedown bolt and smaller holes to contain the ankle wires. Most new animators do not realize how much strain is placed on the foot and ankle area when they construct their first puppets.

My last film was a co op film with help from other artists from all over the world. We set up a group and discussed story line ideas through the group and through email. Once the story was decided on an assignment list was generated with everyone's job description. Props and puppets were fabricated and then mailed to me. I animated all the scenes and then emailed the shots to another person to add fire effects and opening scene. Once this was completed, the film was emailed to a musician for foley work, then to a composer for the soundtrack. Once all the parts were finished, the completed film was uploaded and shared. The intent of the co op project was to help more people see that animators and artists do not have to be in the same location to complete a short film. Hopefully it will serve as inspiration to others to form their own co op film projects. The finished film can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRfb7TrpGak

My next film is set in a king's throne room. It has knights that are dueling and creatures that attack the palace. The creatures will fly down to the palace below. I am still in the process of building the outdoor set and the camera rig that will allow the creatures to glide down to the castle.

I use Stop Motion Pro in several stages of the film. When I am shooting, I have a webcam attached to the top of my digital camera. The view through the webcam is shown on the computer screen in Stop Motion Pro. For every frame, I click the mouse to capture one webcam frame in Stop Motion Pro and I click one frame on the digital camera. I use the toggle buttons to play the last few frames of the webcam capture to help me gauge how much to move the puppet between the shots. I set the transparency to about half way on the slider scale. Once all the frames are shot, I upload the frames from the digital camera into a new file in Stop Motion Pro and begin to edit them. I copy frames, delete frames, repeat sequences and individual frames until I am happy with the animation. I then use Stop Motion Pro to create an avi file of the footage. When all the avi files are completed, I load them all back into Stop Motion Pro to connect them all together and to make a final avi file. I use a Philips SPC900NC webcam and a finepix 3800 digital camera.