This animation workshop will unravel some of the mysteries of stop motion filmmaking and will invite you to channel your own creative power into this unique medium.

The session will start with a demonstration of Katherine Blakeney's award-winning short film Junkyard of Eden and will continue with a “close-up magic” act that will show you how the characters and sets of the film were created out of old watches, electronics, extension cords, and miscellaneous miniature household steampunk junk. You will see what it takes to make the characters move across the set and learn how much labor, time, and artistry is invested into the creation of just one second of a stop motion animated film.

The hands-on part of the workshop will show you that stop motion films can be created out of clay, paper, sand, scraps of paper, wood, and vegetation, and your smartphone can become your film studio.

Surprise your friends and family with animated season greetings and birthday cards just after taking one workshop!

Join us if you love Nightmare before Christmas and Wallace and Gromit. Discover the stop motion animator in you!

About Katherine Blakeney

Katherine Blakeney is an artist, writer, animator, archaeologist and pilot. Her stop motion animated short films have screened at numerous international film festivals and won various awards. Her paintings have been exhibited at Cork Gallery in Lincoln Center. Every summer she works in ancient Egyptian tombs, uncovering the secrets of ancient Egyptian craftsmanship and storytelling. Every winter she flies Cessna 172s and works on her graphic novels or animates in her studio in Hancock, Maine. She also found time to receive a BFA in Traditional Animation from the School of Visual Arts in New York and a PhD in Film Studies from the University of Edinburgh, UK, writing about fragmented monster figures in Silent Era films.

Her characters have as many adventures as she does, crashing in World War I biplanes, deciphering ancient languages, digging in the stars and shifting their shapes to better overcome the challenges they face. Visit her website at katherineblakeney.com to meet a disfigured WWI pilot fighting to recover his life and honor, the clients of a facial prosthetics workshop in WWI Paris, rival filmmakers locked in a deadly competition in early 1900s New York, and an exiled shapeshifting rabbit prince burglarizing museums in search of magical objects stolen from the rabbit nation. What do they have in common? They are “different”, misunderstood and rejected. They also never give up in their search for new life and new love. Their worlds come to life in whatever form suits them best, from stop-motion animated short films, to escape games, to graphic novels, and illustrated historical fiction prose novels.