Puppet Fabrication

Upon researching into jobs in the industry at the moment, the job role I would like to go into in the future would be 'Puppet Fabrication". However, upon researching into these jobs with companies such as Laika, I've found that you not only need a lot of previous experience in this area but is also highly competitive.

I decided to start my search by looking at what jobs are open in Animation currently, and unsurprisingly, there is a huge influx of jobs for 3D animators. This coincidentally, is also my weakest area in expertise and so I have decided to focus on other areas of industry that I can work to my strengths.


I started my search on indeed, Entertainment Careers.net, jobisjob.uk and found more jobs in character/story development and video/sounds editing.

General Job Role of Puppet Fabricator

Essential Job Functions:
Fabricate costumes for stop motion animation puppets. 
Ability to fabricate with highest attention to detail with finest stitching and detailing. 
Concise documentation skills.
 Working knowledge of stop motion animation as it applies to fabric selection and interpretation of designs. 
Work with various dyes, finishes, and innovative texture techniques for camera ready stop motion puppets.
 Must work well in a team and collaboratively with other departments within Puppet Fabrication.


Qualifications B.S./B.A. in Animation, film, art or related field or equivalent combination of education/or experience.
 3 years experience in costume fabrication.
 1 year experience in puppet fabrication.
 Able to work in fine detail for extended periods of time under tight deadlines. 
Experience working in film and stop motion production preferred. 
Detail oriented.
 Portfolios with miniature scale costumes preferred.
 Applications without proper examples of work will not be considered.

LAIKA is a company that I have a lot of respect for and would love work with them or a company like them. They have produced so many films that I really love and the puppetry in them in really exceptional 

Kubo and the Two Strings is a film I really love and luckily there are a lot of behind the scenes videos of how the puppets were made and used in the production online.

Another stop motion film I really enjoy is Wes Anderson's adaptation of Fantastic Mr Fox, the puppetry in this film has been met with some mixed opinions about the way these puppets are made due to the fur boiling. I however  really like this puppets and think that different versions and sizes of the each character was a really interesting and good move for this film. The whole thing has a very wholesome and simple feel behind it.