Monster Compilation by Diane Koss of Cutesy But Not Cutesy

Vanessa

Story by Vanessa

Published on Apr 17, 2009 in Shop

Diane Koss carried around stuffed animals throughout her childhood. Today she makes one of a kind stuffed monsters for her shop Cutesy But Not Cutesy. She has become a monster-maker through and through while pursuing a career as a fine artist and working towards a certificate in graphic and web design. Her animated film Monster Compilation is a collaboration with animator David R. Popolow of  Right Brain Animation. It’s a fantastic stop motion monster mash up with her very own creations. Here’s Diane talking about her work:

 I have always wanted to see my monsters come to life… giving them stories and personalities is probably a reflection of that. I like to imagine that when someone purchases one of them it’s like I am packaging them up for their own little expeditions all around the world… and I like to think their personalities “come alive” in their new homes.

Luckily I meet a lot of really wonderful people when I travel with my monsters and I met the manager of a small production company in Philadelphia who fell in love with my fellas. We got to talking about how neat it would be to really bring them to life on screen. A few months later he contacted me and wanted to make the animation actually happen. He set me up with David Popolow of Right Brain Animation, also from Philadelphia, to create some short animated sketches.

We agreed that we both wanted the stories to stick pretty closely to the personalities and stories I had written for each monster. Once that was all worked out, we created wire structures, or armatures, based on each character’s form. I then built and stitched my monsters around each armature that had been created, trying to stay true to the original monster design but also keeping in mind the motion and mobility that would be needed for each one.

I learned a lot during this step, both about stop motion animation and about my production process. I had to take into consideration things like the type of fur that was being used to cut down on the amount of “wind effect,” as they called it, which is when certain furs can look like they are blowing in the wind during a stop motion animation.

[As David worked on it over the course of a few months] it was truly amazing to see the progression as my monsters really came to life as I had always dreamed. It was such a wonderful experience working with another artist who is skilled in a different media than my own. I think we both were able to learn a lot about eachother and about eachother’s processes. I try to encourage collaboration as much as possible now, it really was an eye-opening experience and resulted in a really exciting finished product! I look forward to the possibility of more animations in the future!

 

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Toys | Geekery Category | Plush Team

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