The Cruachan Story animation project

Over the past year, The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Museum and Historic Environment Scotland partnered with the Foundation Apprenticeship in Creative and Digital Media students at Forth Valley College, Stirling, to create a video based on the Cruachan Story, which was orinigally illustrated by Sylivia Troon. You can watch this video here: https://argylls.co.uk/cruachan/

Below, Lauren, one of the students from this course talks about their experience of this process, what they learned, and what they enjoyed about this:

Did you know that the mascot Cruachan had a kids book, and now an animation made about him?

Students from Forth Valley College Stirling Campus were tasked to create a stop motion animation for The Argyll and Sutherland Museum in Stirling Castle, retelling the kids story “Cruachan” by Sylvia Troon.

STORY

The story is based on the cheeky temperament of the mascot of The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, Cruachan I the Shetland Pony, who was known to be playful in his time, occasionally escaping from his stable and leading a number of soldiers around camp in his pursuit. He would also perform some tricks for a lump of sugar. He as also known to kick passers by.

In the book, Cruachan is the companion to James the Drummer Boy.

Both of these characters share a love for cheeky pranks and performing in the grand parades that take place in Stirling.

When James pulls a silly face at his Drum Major, he is kicked out of the pipe bands big upcoming performance. In his anger, he consults Cruachan to devise a prank good enough to get back at the Drum Major and comes up with a plan that even Cruachan thought was too far. Despite this, James continues on his path for revenge.

When it came to the day of the parade, James was prepared. From a high vantage point, he knocked off the Drum Majors feather bonnet with a rock. However, this was only the distraction for the true prank to take place. James ran and locked the doors of Stirling Castle, stopping the parade in its tracks.

As you could probably assume, this was not very funny. James soon realised that nobody was laughing with him, not even Cruachan, and he would only get in more trouble than he was already in. He apologetically unlocked the door and allowed the parade to continue without him. As a way to apologise for the disruption, James completes chores around Stirling Castle. In secret he began working on a beautiful song for the pipe band to play at their next event.

Named after his best friend, “Cruachan’s March” quickly becomes a favourite for the pipe band to play. James would never disrupt the parade again.

ANIMATION

As one of the students who worked on the animation project, I can say we loved this story. We had a great time working on it through the year and we were very excited to see it on display at the museum for a short while.

The process we used to create the animation of Cruachan was very simple yet interesting. Some talented artists created paper dolls of the characters in the style of the book by drawing out one limb at a time and pinning them together with a paper fastener to create movable puppets. Similarly, every expression made in the video was done by drawing a different expression on multiple of the same head and then swapping them out in-between filming. Artists on our team also drew props and backgrounds by hand to be used in the video.

To create a stop motion, we used a stand to hold up a camera pointing straight down at the flat area we used as a kind of stage for the puppets and drawings. The camera was then connected via cable into a computer with a stop motion capturing software installed. We would move the puppets in front of the camera one frame at a time and take a picture in between so once they are put in order and played quickly, it appears to be moving on its own.

We also had a small team of editors who made the script that we followed, put together all the photos taken in filming to create a fluid video, added in sound effects to make a more immersive experience, and fixed any minor mistakes made in the previous stages of the animation. The editors had a lot to do with the planning that went into the project as well.

CONCLUSION

As a class, we took turns working in different roles in the creation of this project and had a lot of fun doing it. There are many ways to learn how to create stop motion videos online that are nowhere near as complicated as our process. I hope that reading this blog and watching our stop motion animation has inspired you to give it a go!

Written by Lauren Fish, student on the Foundation Apprenticeship in Creative and Digital Media course

Please be sure to watch the animation Lauren was part of. You can find the link to this at the start of the blog.