Meet Edu Puertas | Stop Motion Animator and Puppetmaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Edu Puertas and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Edu, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
When I started making stop motion animation I found out that it was really hard to find the right tools for my job. Either they were really bad or I couldn’t afford or find the good ones. I wanted to make great animations and this was something that stopped me from achieving them, so it made me think.
At that time “2008” most of the information was kept secret and any production would never show behind the scenes pictures showing the trick or how things are done. So that was the trigger to research and learn how to make those tools by myslef.
This took several years, I knew product design, but not enough about machinning, but I was determined to do it. So I bought a manual milling machine, I learned how to operate it and when I got to the point I could make some of the parts I needed, I realised a lathe was also necesary. So I asked money to my parents, and repeated the process.

I kept designing and prototyping armatures for a year, and when I got them good enough I realised that if I had that need, more animation studios around the world would have the same problems or needs. This become visible when I brought my creations to a film festival and several animators wanted one.
So I started making commissions, then we opened a store with the goal to make the best tools we could deliver at a reasonable price so people could improve their animations.

I can’t forget mentioning Youtube. I learned how to use the milling machine and the lathe there.
Soon I decided to start posting videos at Youtube sharing how to make stop motion and everything I do. And the channel become essential to share thoughts and make visible our products around the world.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I feel so lucky about what I do. It is the best job ever. I make Stop Motion Animation films and I build puppets and tools for other animation studios.

Making puppets and animating them is so fun. It is very creative and there is a lot of room for decisions and personal take and expertise. You have to take care not only that they work but that they can do whatever the script says they have to do and this makes it challenging. Sometimes the scale is a huge limitation.

Inside each puppet there are metalic skeletons, they are my specialty, complex articulated armatures made of metal joints that enables the puppet pose and hold in place while the animator performs frame by frame an action. It is an amazing piece of enginering.

So it always start with a piece of raw metal and after a lot of design, hand and machine work, it ends being a puppet armature that will allow an animator perform a complex character acting. A puppet than comes alive and tells a story to make the audience enjoy or cry.

I am always asking myself how to improve things or if they can be done in a different way.
I am quite perfectionist and I like to have a close relationship with our clients to be able to help them better and solve their needs. I think that something that makes our products special is that we design and test them first hand, with an animator mind and the toolset of a builder.

The better the puppet, the better the performance would be, so we have a huge responsability.

Each day involves a new challenge because each commision is a little different from the previous. So there is a lot of prove and error involved into make it work and to make it look nice. You also always try to make new things and improve your techniques and quality.
I have learned most of the things I know selftought or watching youtube videos. Little by little in this 16 years of carreer.

There are two decisions that made me make a big step and improve a lot.
The first one was in 2019 when I decided to have a CNC in our workshop, a machine that runs as a robot making complex parts precisely.
I am supper proud of this decision even it was really scary. Instead of going to a school to learn how to operate it, I took the risk to bought the machine overseas and import it to Spain, and once it was into the workshop, learn how to make it work watching youtube tutorials. With perspective it was a little stupid, and it could go wrong, but after one or two big mistakes, I made it work and I am super proud.

I knew that this step was necessary to improve the quality of my products and having that machine opened the door to make parts that we could not imagine before.

The second great step for me was going to work to Mackinon and Saunders in UK.
I was lucky enough to have the opportunitty to work with the most experience puppetmakers in the world. And work in two productions, “Pinnochio” and “The house” by Netflix.

It was my first time in a Featture film level, so I was really scared of going there and not beeing as good as they expected or not able to perform the tasks required, etc. So my first week there was hard, but it end being a great experience and I learned a lot.

From this experience I got a lot of tricks and techniques that those professionals knew from years and years of work and the inspiration to see all the amazing things they were able to do. Working with professionals you learn 2 times faster than alone, but the lessons you get from your own failures are deeper and much important.

So since my first shortfilm “Citoplasmas in acid medium” my goal has always been to challenge myself in every new project to learn something and make it better and better over time as I share this experience on youtube or teaching new students at the university how to make stop motion animation.

I like to inspire others try this technique because it is so magical. And it makes me so happy get the feedback from the people that find useful my videos.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I think you have to visit Wynwood. I like a lot grafitty and art, and there you have a lot of food options.

I love lighthouses so, visit the Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, Key Biscayne to find one. You can walk a trail and relax with the sea sound.

I would also go to visit the everglades to see the wildlife.

At night, sunsets are awesome, I would also visit Ocean Drive to see the architecture and light signs.

You can go to Anderson to have a cocktail, enjoy the music and experience the vibe.

And I am not a beach person but, there are many beaches to enjoy

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I am where I am because of Youtube and all the makers and people sharing their knowledge in the platform. Casey Neistat, Colin Furze are two genious that shared awesome content online. Great inspiration.
I watched every single video they posted. They are super positive, inspirational, and great editors, they made me believe that with enough work any dream can became real. Big things can be achieved. And I wanted to do the same as they do, youtube videos.
So because of them I started my youtube channel, teaching how to make stopmotion.

Then I would also like to shoutout all the people that used my products and shared content online, they helped so much spreadding the word. From small to big creators sharing and teaching how to animate and wich tools they like.
Patagraph, Franticframes, Samplertimes…

Website: https://kineticarmatures.com

Instagram: instagram.com/edupuertasfruns

Linkedin: https://es.linkedin.com/in/edupuertasfruns

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/edupuertasfruns

Image Credits
Photos taken by Edu Puertas, Rights from Citoplasmas Stop Motion Studio.