Puppet-Making for Animation

Puppet-making for Animation Workshop

Making-Of Puppet Workshop

I had the privilege of meeting and working with 10 of the most talented Arab artists, illustrators and animators, at the 'Puppet-making for Animation' workshop within the framework ofBeirut Animated 2 Festival, organized by the Metropolis Association and Samandal Magazine.

The workshop lasted for 7 days, we started off at La Palma studio (lovely space by the way) by making -or more accurately constructing- our puppets from the inside out. Starting with an idea, to rough sketches, to technical drawings then building the entire armature (for animation), upon which we built the bodies and heads. Materials used were Aluminum wires, wood, clay, some ‪Papier-m‬a‪ché‬, paint, and hmm hair.. yes hair!

We then went on by discussing the storyline of our film and after very long sessions of brainstorming, we came up with a short and humorous story around the characters each one of us had created. Storyboards were drawn.. we were ready to create our set!

We moved to KURIO Studio to work on our set and start shooting. working on the set design was a lot of fun!! KURIO pros helped us with the wood work and constructed the puppet stage, we then painted and stylized it.
 
Lighting and shooting was next, and after many sleepless nights of animating, lighting, shooting and editing (and because we were severely running out of time), we had to sacrifice a big chunk of our story and ended up animating a few scenes. It all turned out great though! And and we have secret plans to continue shooting and finishing our film soon.

Best part was that non of us really cared how many hours or rather minutes of sleep we got while we were working. The amounts of positivity and energy were incredible! Whenever someone's eyelids started closing involuntarily, they would pick any empty spot to snooze for a few minutes.

Thanks to Metropilis Cinema and Samandal Magazine and everyone who worked on making this workshop happen.

Workshop Moderator: David Habchy
Assistants : Ashley Choukeir, Nadim Saoma.
Participants :
Lama Sawaya
Nour Bishouty
Ahmad Beiruty
Avak Avakian
Elie Maatouk
Salam Al Hassan
Nadia Rais
Ghalia Al Barghouthi
Mohamed Fathy