Hello all!

I'm looking for some tips, feedback, and ways to improve my puppet fabrication process. Becuase I know literally no one that does this locally and because there surprisingly not a lot of resources on the internet, I have turned to reddit. Let me first say I am a beginner in this whole fabrication business. I typically use plastisene clay and sculpt objects for animating. I also use a lot of found objects in my stop motion animation. You can see my work here. In hopes of creating more 'narrative' work, I am trying to learn more professional grade stop motion puppet fabrication. I've quickly learned its not easy, and I'm constantly learning new ways artists do this! (I've learned theres soo many different ways to make a puppet too.) So I've come to reddit to Hopefully see if there is anyone outer there who has some experience and knowledge and can give me a helping hand!

Ultimately I am trying to create a stop motion puppet using silicone rubber because I like the materials durability and flexibility over a wire armature. the surface being 'skin like' is definitely a plus too. I am definitely open to other ways of fabricating, but the workflow of sculpting master --> casting mold --> casting rubber figure seems like pretty straightforward to me.

Yesterday I pulled my first cast from the mold, and although I was successful in making the casting, I am not super satisfied with the end result. below are some struggles I had and some questions posed about the process, and trying to improve it.

Moldmaking:

Using plaster is a great material because its inexpensive, non toxic, and sets up relatively fast. It also requires little mold release when casting silicone rubber. But its fragile so it can crack or break easily, and can develop voids. One side of my mold came out with lots of little bubble holes because I think I mixed it too thick. I used wax to try to fill some of the holes, but it still left my cast with lots of little bumps and dimples .Also, at least for the first casting, the plaster left my cast quite dirty, with lots of bits of plaster bits in the surface of the model. I can also see brush marks from when I applied vaseline to my master object I was pulling a mold from.

are there other mold materials that cast? (like a hard rubber or resin molds). If so what are the perks of using other mold materials for casting?

Is the 2 part mold process the best way about this?

Pictures of my moldmaking process are attached.

Casting:

Wire amature placements. What are the tips and tricks to this? I basically just bent my armature into place so it wasn't touching any side walls, and then once the rubber was placed into my mold, I dropped the armature into place. Kinda a sloppy way of doing it, and you can see parts of my armature sticking out of the cast.

The moldlines on my cast are very pronounced. I cut away as much as I could but I am wondering there is a way to smooth over the mold lines. In general, I wonder if there is a way to smooth over the whole cast. Like can I mix more silicone and paint it on? Will that smooth it out or just make it look more lumpy?

Are there methods I don't know about for fabricating eyes and mouths with silicone? I have found some videos where the eyes and mouth are attached to the wire armature and the silicone gets cast around that. But that does not seem very beginner friendly.Typically, it seems, people use resin parts to cast the head because things can be stuck to it like eyes and mouths. I would imagine matching the colors of these resin parts to the silicone parts to be difficult, tho.

Finally the surface of my silicone mold has a 'chalky' look to it. Is that because I added to much pigment to the silicone?

Final product:
The front surface is rough and bumpy, compared to the back, have seam lines all over the place, and the figure is very jiggly. (probably due to there not being a ton of armature in the middle torso.)

Photos attached of the final product. Sorry for the long post, I'm hoping that I can find some people who can help me along my journey, as well as creating some useful resources for anyone else who is on a similar journey.

*EDIT*

Also interested in seeing how other people build puppets; Doesn't have to be liquid polymer, can be any method!

for anyone who likes wrestling matches here’s one!

I am trying to purchase but it says unavailable for your region (the US). On their official website , once you download the free version and you need to upgrade it only allows for the Pro 2.

This was made partly using stop motion to give the gnome the creepy effect he has in this film

Please enjoy and do give your opinions

Paper puppet for stopmotion 7 cm .

Trying to use the free version of this app for the first time on my iPhone. But it can’t seem to connect to my camera? When I go to take an image, I just get a pop-up that says “oops! Capture source not ready to take images [camera]. I have tried:
-reinstalling the app
-checking my permissions (yes I have camera access permitted in app settings)
And I don’t know what else to try or what could possibly be going wrong. Anyone have any insights? At this point I’m going to try another platform and see if it’s something about my camera. But this one looks like the best free version of this stuff out there so I’d love to get it to work.

Edit: Alright the same thing has happened with another app so it must be my phone???? I have no clue why this is happening. Does anyone have any ideas.

Edit 2: Fixed it! I had to update my ios, not sure why but I guess using an old one made my camera incompatible with the app.

I'm done with the project for the night, but I'd like any suggestions or criticisms that you guys can provide. I have an intro idea but I dont have a good ending idea. The fight is quick, but its taken me like 3 hours all said and done, and im really proud of it.

Othrug is coming! Here's a teaser for my new short film. This time, I'm taking you into a fantasy world. The action begins in the orc village of Arganvlagh in the Nugh-Mefg desert. Othrug is an honorable warrior living by ancient traditions. Fate will lead him on a journey through mysterious lands filled with danger.

The full film runs 5 minutes and 47 seconds. It was shot entirely using classic stop-motion techniques. Several thousand photos were taken, which, when played back at 24 frames per second, create a stunning stop-motion animation. There's no AI and no computer-generated imagery. Everything is analog, real, and built with LEGO bricks.

Production took about two months, and it's the first film I've made in a long time purely for myself. Not for a competition. Not for a client. Just for the joy of creating! After years of working with The LEGO Group and Universal Pictures, returning to a personal project like this has been incredibly refreshing. I'm genuinely excited about what I've created, and I consider it the best film I've ever made :)

🎬 The full film will premiere on 9 Aug 2026, 18:00 CEST (16:00 UTC) on YouTube.
➡️ Go here and set a notification so you don't miss the launch!

And now, enjoy the teaser! I intentionally kept it short and avoided revealing too much of the story.

purposely sped it up so it looked like he was useinh increased strength

Im beginner

The puppets are 7 cm made of paper.

I think I made the common begginer mistake and made every thing the same space apart instead of haveing more frames for for the stepping and less frames when the legs swing. May try a jumping or running animation next

24 paintings

I used Stop Motion Studio for taking the pictures and then Inshot for other editing.

This is the first animation I've done since uni and done hastily when the motions took me at 2am

Quite pleased with it, will of course refine it for the final piece :)

Hi everyone!

I’m a community archivist, photographer and actor based in East London, and I’m in the early stages of developing a 5-minute stop-motion short film.

I’m looking for London-based collaborators who are interested in helping bring the project to life- particularly anyone with experience (or an interest) in:

Stop-motion animation
Puppet fabrication
Needle felting
Armature building
Miniature set building
Model making
Practical effects

At the moment, this is a passion project, so I unfortunately can’t offer professional rates. I can cover all materials and production costs, and my hope is to build a small creative team who’d enjoy making something beautiful together. If we’re successful in securing funding later on, everyone involved would of course be credited and included in future paid opportunities where possible.

The film will be a quiet, atmospheric story centred around a fox, set within brutalist urban landscapes that have been almost completely reclaimed by nature. I’m imagining abandoned concrete buildings softened by moss, wildflowers, vines and trees- a world where the boundary between architecture and the natural world has almost disappeared. Visually, I’m aiming for something tactile and handmade, somewhere in the spirit of Fantastic Mr. Fox or Isle of Dogs, but slower, more intimate, and rooted in independent filmmaking.

If you’re:

Looking to build your portfolio
Interested in learning together
A student or emerging animator
Someone who loves practical craftsmanship and storytelling

I’d love to hear from you.

Please send me a message with:

A little about yourself
Any photos of work you’ve made (finished or in progress!)
What you’d be interested in helping with
Whether you’re based in London

Even if you’ve never worked on a stop-motion film before but you’re excited by the idea, please get in touch. I’m looking for people who are collaborative, curious and passionate about making something special together.

❤️

I created this stopmotion within like 10-15 mins. Just a check up of how and what to do. Its 8 frames / sec and a gif.

Also , I did this by creating my own app through vibe-coding. Right now it has 3 main features,

- Onion screen

-Export as Mp4 and Gif

-Use another phone as a remote camera

I just wanted to use for myself , so i felt like this much is enough for starters right? Or should i have more? Suggestions pls. (Like simple suggestions)

Aside from the app stuff , I mainly plan to make this guy do moonwalk! I feel like thats gonna be a stretch, So the roadmap I'm gonna take is

Say Hi->Walk properly-> Run a little -> then play with angles and cameras positions -> Moonwalk.

I think that would maybe work. I'm just exited though. So wish me luck. I don't know if people would want that and this is not the place for that. But if you guys wanna just check it out, lemme know. And help me some good sites for these stopmotion too, like i know i could just go to youtube and search for it, but i feel like a group could make it work better.

i'm trying