The Stop-Motion Puppets of Aardman Animations!

Adam Savage visits Aardman Animations' workshop to get up close with some of the beautiful stop-motion animation puppets used in the studio's upcoming film Early Man. Aardman senior model maker Jimmy Young walks us through some of the modelmaking processes that go into these puppets' sculpts, clothes, and armatures!
Watch the trailer for Aardman Animations' Early Man here: • Early Man - NEW Traile...
Shot and edited by Joey Fameli
Produced by Kristen Lomasney
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Adam Savage / donttrythis
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Joey Fameli / joeyfameli
Kishore Hari / sciencequiche
Sean Charlesworth / cworthdynamics
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Ariel Waldman / arielwaldman
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Ryan Kiser
Intro bumper by Abe Dieckman
Thanks for watching!

[@zhain0]

Whenever Adam does stuff like this is must be nice for the creators, he really appreciates and understand what they are talking about and gets them very engaged. Must be better than trying to explain it to a random journalist who doesn't care.

[@NekomimiNinja]

And he really helps bring out the things I would never have noticed on my own. I adore these shop tours of different prop makers, not only to see cool stuff but also just to take part in Adams fascination and joy at seeing all the lovely stuff. It comes across so well how much he enjoys it!

[@KratomCruiser]

Right? Was thinking the same thing. Love seeing other people constantly smiling because of how interested adam is

[@mulreay]

I would love Jimmy as a boss, the way he names staff that do things speaks of a boss that looks after his staff.

[@lahma69]

I'm blown away by the creativity, engineering, and craftsmanship that is put into all of these models and the amount of "character" that each one has. These people must have entirely too much fun doing their jobs, and it must be so rewarding to see the final outcome of all their hard work. Thanks for another great video Tested!

[@Relyx]

I wouldn't have expected Adam to tour Aardman. Their stuff always feels so quintessentially British to me, I've never imagined it having that big an international audience.

[@MakeItSoph]

They are truly beautiful puppets. So much detail! 😍

[@strygwr]

Make it Soph 😍😍😍

[@MakeItSoph]

Strygwyr right??! 😍

[@nunchuckerz]

epic user name

[@strygwr]

I luv the dp

[@guillermina5257]

Guivk

[@Willumpie]

This is amazing. Such craftsmanship, such art. Beautiful. And Adam's authentic fascination is great to see. He loves this, obviously.

[@greyareaRK1]

Absolutely fascinating. The queen's head mechanism is James Bond-level cool, as are the carousel moulds.

[@veldawells2839]

Always loved Aardman Animations. Superb introduction to behind-the-scenes of part of its' creation production. A superb insight. Truly skilled individuals. Never again will I watch an Aardman Production without thinking of the processes, the team, the resilience, the investment, the quality, the ideas, the artistry, and professionalism that goes into what has become an icon in the animation profession in UK. Truly wonderful.

[@ian-ik8fe]

Aardman is my second favorite studio behind Ghibli, thanks for this video I love the movies and I hope creatives get interested in this beautiful art.

[@colonelcat8639]

I equally love both.

[@zhain0]

Agreed, and I don't even watch ghibli stuff or anime (is it anime? Kinda in its own class) and I would rate it top by far.

[@the_rachel_sam]

zhain0 anime just means japanese animation, so yes haha. but i­t­ is most certainly beautiful and unique

[@matthewstafford7150]

Have you ever watched anything by Laika (like Coraline?) They work with stop motion and have done an excellent job also.

[@Aurora07]

Yes! You are so right.

[@scottorr3466]

That is indeed a musk-ox. Would love to have a model of that. It's glorious.

[@ScrapwoodCity]

Wow that's amazing stuff

[@gumbosupreme]

Scrap wood City Hi I love your videos they’re so satisfying

[@AnthonyCurreri]

Amazing! I've been watching their animation for decades and had no idea the puppets were so intricately made. Astounding!

[@lottielottie6659]

Early man is an amazing film, incredibly underrated

[@MegaMAWG]

So encouraging and, simultaneously, discouraging for a budding stop-motion animator! Love you guys @ Aardman...thanks for the access!!

[@annejeppesen160]

I know your comment was made more than a year ago, but never the less: Remember that the expert have failed more times than the novice have tried!!!! I know from experience how hard it is to keep in mind, makes it even more important! Keep on failing, it's the only way to excellence.

[@donlee_ohhh]

I've always loved their work. Thanks for going behind the scenes.

[@NochSoEinKaddiFan]

The absolute masters in their craft and still they are pushing the envelope. Amazing work, absolutely great people!

[@Fesquishety]

So awesome all around, Adam and the Aardman team's genuine enthusiasm is really great. "Most puppets have these little neck mechanisms now." Neckanisms, even?

[@janeharris6925]

I can’t describe how intensely enjoyable watching the segment was! Thank you so much!

[@jaxnean2663]

You can love cgi as much as you like, but there is something, something my mind perceives when I know that what I'm looking at exists in the real world. Something that cg will never deliver. It's like when I was a child watching The Wind in The Willows stop motion show. I received it differently from a drawn animation. I'm not hating on cg btw, it's a fantastic tool, it's just that in my opinion it will NEVER beat stop motion animation. Would you prefer collecting digital figures or the actual thing?

[@ricochet188]

They're totally different styles. Not even comparable. Neither will "beat" the other... except cg could very well replicate and surpass (and it currently is) the look of hand animation. See the Lego Movie? That looked hand animated in just about every way except it wasn't... think about that

[@Lumibear.]

I agree, and I think there are many good reasons for that. One is, as you say, that when something exists in the real world it simply automatically has that sense of real-ness. Secondly, a very good hand animator knows how to get mass, gravity, and tiny thoughtful inflections into their animation, something an awful lot of keyframe or smoothed-out CGI animation struggles with and the primary reason why the CGI on Jurassic Park still stands up today (they used hand animators using special ‘electronic skeletons’ to input the animation into the computer). Thirdly as our media becomes ever more higher definition, CGI struggles to match the level of detail required to look ‘there’, and with every advance there comes a moment where some previously acceptable CGI now looks worse than something our home gaming console could do, obviously real objects don’t suffer from any of that.

[@Benjamin_Kraft]

I'm sure you're not hating on cg, as you've stated, but still I think you don't realize the massive capabilities of cg. I have no doubt in my mind that if a studio wanted to, they could recreate an Aardman-like film without anyone knowing it was done in cg. Yes, even down to the animations. As previously stated I think the Lego movie more or less proved that, if they hadn't revealed that everything was cg, people would've had no problem believing it to be stop-motion animated (I sure thought so for a while). Thing is people only realize they're looking at cg when its bad, and thats about 5% of the time or less (like big realistic characters/creatures etc) or being told it is cg. I love stop motion movies, I adore traditional 2d animation, and I'm so very fascinated by cg that I'm working as a 3d-artist in the industry. All these methods are perfectly valid ways of creating art, which artists can chose from based on their preference. But I don't think there's a specific magic to any of those methods, and not being magical or intangible, those processes can be broken down, analyzed, and copied by skilled cg artists and computers. I still think it's awesome there are studios persisting in making movies traditionally, though. The craft/method of creating such movies is a separate art of its own to me.

[@Lumibear.]

Benjamin Kraft - aardman have done a fully cgi animated movie, called Flushed Away, it’s pretty good, but it doesn’t pass as the real thing. Equally they do use cgi to add difficult to achieve effects like fog, or remove support armatures and facial seams and such, and it was used to change the ending of Attack of the Were-rabbit to give Wallace his normal ears back (he was originally animated with bunny ears). So they’re no stranger to it, they just prefer to do it the old fashioned way wherever possible.

[@Conman123Official]

+Lumibear "a very good hand animator knows how to get mass, gravity, and tiny thoughtful inflections into their animation". Key words: a very good hand animator. You can't compare the best of one field to the mediocre in another field. That's like comparing two restaurants by the head chef in one restaurant to the intern in the other. The main point is that you only notice CGI when it's bad. Another example is Mad Max, Fury road. People love to use it as an example of how practical effects are better than CGI, but they don't realise that the movie is actually full of CGI; they just don't notice it because it's done well. I found the best video about this topic is by Rocketjump film school: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mH2ZmaNud7B1aJY (Why CG Sucks (Except It Doesn't)). By the way, I'm not all on the one side here. I agree that most hand animated movies stand the test of time better than CGI movies (I can't stand to watch movies with dated CGI), but as Benjamin Kraft said, it isn't right to compare them directly - they are different art forms, and both can be done well or poorly.

[@NASTYcraftX]

I really hope we get to see the animation process.

[@jakubgrzybek6181]

Nick Nasty it's nothing interesting... Set up a stage. Prepare puppets. Start shooting, by moving puppets bit by bit, changing mouthpieces. Only good way showcasing it, is timelapse.

[@SuperZiggyCraft]

Jakub Grzybek it’s actually very interesting if you look at short snippets, and yes time lapses. I do a lot of stop motion and watching an animator at work is always interesting.

[@hfaisca]

That's a dream job right there. So much passion and perfection

[@declanseeleymusic]

These are very beautiful puppets. And the mechanisms that go in them are truly remarkable.

[@jennifer9084]

Aarman Animations are amazing. I love these sorts of videos. Wallace and Gromit are my favourite.

[@Zeis]

So much wonderful work goes into these, it's fascinating to watch. And thank god it's Adam that's doing the interviewing and not norm. Makes it a lot more enjoyable too.

[@chiparooo]

Fascinating! Would love to see more behind the scenes at Aardman. Looking forward to the film.

[@emschrader418]

Just found this gem. It makes me wish all those years ago when trying to find what I wanted to do with my life, that something like this was something I could learn. This is my dream job!!

[@lamond57]

Creative people is so wonderful and I am grateful that came upon this, thank you and I have shared it on my page on Facebook.

[@jmakes3745]

I knew a lot of work went into making animation puppets but jesus, those models are insane! So beautifully designed and engineered :)

[@pumajlr]

Keeping the art of stop motion alive. That's great.

[@dawnsparling2026]

More please! Stop motion fascinates me and Aardman is the best!

[@xyoxus]

It's just insane how many work wents into movies. And most of the times it's: When it's done great you don't even see it. But It's great seeing studios like Aardman and LAIKA still doing these lovely stop motion movies!

[@jimmerhardy]

Clearly, Adam was blown away by the complexity, as am I. Bravo!

[@cabbycabby1770]

At least there is no music playing the whole time.

[@ifell3]

Never knew the amount of detail that goes into this!!

[@_Kolcki]

Adam and his Tested is the greatest thing that ever happend to the internet... scratch that... to mankind.

[@Andie_Shore]

Just WOW! So much work!

[@yakster87]

What ARTISTRY!!! Incredible!

[@barrycoe7850]

Thank you Adam for this . I am a huge Aardman fan and I love Nick Park stories.

[@westonscampbell]

The guy looked nervous while Adam was handling the puppets. He would go to reach for or touch the puppet, and then back away. Haha. Great work! Very awesome to see behind the scenes like this.

[@Tombola1993]

These are incredible. I love it.

[@DxBALLxD]

That eye contact though, what an intense man

[@snacksy7754]

Yeah i noticed that too!

[@Shilly_JD]

Fantastic! Thanks for your curiosity, from all of us nerds! Loved this.

[@remorafilms]

incredible work!

[@TomGrigat]

oh, I love aardman studios! In fact they are one of my heros... I try to do similar things on my youtube-channel by assembling models in a stop motion matter - way below their professionality though. Thanks for sharing...

[@SilhouetteBrick]

I love these Aardman videos!

[@lucaslanier5866]

Great behind the scenes feature!

[@peacenow4456]

So great for people building their interest!

[@justmeish1997]

I have always wanted to learn how to sculpt plasticine models... this is a dream... I will be ordering some newplast soon and trying to sculpt for the first time in a long time :)

[@sharmansinge3214]

Such a great video, just awesome

[@ejthegreat9979]

This soooo awesome you get to do like everything

[@JasonWD]

I can’t hit the like button hard enough for these inside looks. I’m now going to watch all the ardman films again

[@krillen64]

I LOVE videos like this. They are such beautiful puppets. I myself have but one puppet. I get it when I was a kid. It's a hand puppet of my favorite muppet ever that I so love Gonzo.

[@griffinartandairbrushing3174]

This is amazing! I love it.

[@violethyena6895]

that was awesome. I'll have to see that movie when it comes out.

[@FizzWizardHD]

Aardman is hands down the best animation in film and tv today. CGI can never compete

[@11679MRT]

Explaining molding to Adam is like explaining water to a fish.

[@annejeppesen160]

I absolutely love Adams pure joy!

[@terrychristens9110]

Amazing … from Claymation to today.

[@DougieD_Funk]

As an action figure enthusiast, these are the ULTIMATE action figures. Jesus. Articulated HAIR!!!! This is just insane. So awesome thank you Tested I can't get over this.

[@whazee]

So nice to see inside. I live in bristol and all I've ever seen is the outside of their building! 😃

[@botanicus2921]

I love stop motion Studios!

[@jzjzjzj]

Julian R. Dene u first

[@redgreen09]

this looks so mutch fun to do yes now got see the film

[@roboninjasaur6729]

Had so much fun watching you guys at brain candy the other day

[@redtrykorn7686]

Just stupid I don't like your face

[@MakillaGorilla3]

I clicked 'like', undid it, and then clicked it again so I could like this twice.

[@ThisIsMyFullName]

Wow there's SO much character in these...well characters.

[@thecrazypuppets1491]

Good Collection, Nice stuff

[@nicolaspascual4875]

Great video!!

[@petestoysandtings]

AMAZING!

[@JerryDechant]

Amazing!

[@2236gaming]

this is awesome!! :D

[@Henrique-gj3ph]

Awesome!!!!

[@Lostpanda123]

Amayzing!!! Only if we could learn more about the rig.

[@aztecghost]

In this video: two guys who love something talk about lovely things made by people who love making them. Needless to say, I love it😅

[@toptobottom247]

Wow...I really, really, really enjoyed this movie. It was hilarious with amazing moments.

[@imalimabeanyay]

Omg the way they talked about the characters design was very revealing. They really do fit the characters to what we want. Such subtle psychological manipulation.

[@Epinardscaramel]

"Wow" -Adam Savage. :)

[@matthewwoodmass4161]

This needs more likes. Now.

[@animateangus]

Fantastic insight! What an privilege it must be to be a part of that company.

[@al35mm]

"Heat that plasticine up man." "Why man?" "Because it's going Aardman!" ... I'll get my coat.

[@ericgordon342]

Shaun the sheep was my favorite shiw as a kid, i love to see this and i would absolutely love to go there in person!

[@rainstarflowerdroplets9624]

That looks wonderful and adorable 💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝

[@yurimaxdecarvalho8523]

BEST. JOB. EVER.

[@SamuraiiiJack]

So gorgeous

[@BennieBrunink]

I'm glad Grandmaster A.S is doing this on youtube .. :) .. Nice video' s ..

[@TheIdleGenius]

Amazing! I am stuuned

[@domg5250]

I wish i could work there ! 🙌✨

[@gabethet8458]

I sense a new hobby for Adam is starting to develop.

[@123reivaj]

Very Cool! :)

[@danbuegsnerf3428]

Awesome to see Adam wearing the SK009 when he also has that GMT Master. Makes me feel rich.

[@supratoyodah6330]

Adam is a cool and good natured dude. He’s super smart but still relatable.

[@ShawnieBoyAnimation]

i'm so amazed how the team of aardman makes these puppets. they are impossible to make. i had to think of some creative ways to make the easiest clay puppets in my own studio.

[@gxgamescentral7037]

Did not know you were in the UK back then!

[@jamiethomas18]

How are there 18 people who didn't like this video? Aardman are amazing!

[@BallisticTech]

What are the sliding "KNS" or "K&S" locks he refers to?

[@Crushenator500]

Nice Seiko 009 Adam!

[@MisterPornthep]

I'd love to see a video about silicone rubber injection molding!

[@helenaquinn7480]

Adam is amazed

[@TheKento10]

always love the puppets esp their IP

[@josephgreeley5569]

I would give almost anything to work for Aardman as a set builder.

[@local9]

He was in my City... and I didn't know! Right around the GOD DAMN CORNER!!!

[@kezzaman]

more cheeeese lad???

[@davidf2281]

What's wrong with Wensleydale?!

[@Yeet_master69]

Wallace and gromit are my favorite

[@Yeet_master69]

R.I.P Peter Sallis

[@sploshywaffles3981]

Yes!!!