Puppet Flying Wire Rigs: Obsolete, Extinct?

Once upon a time there existed 'Flying (Aerial Wire) Rigs'. In those bygone days, techniques were used to control the stop motion puppets so that the models/objects can jump or rise off the ground or fly suspended in the air. How is that done?  The animator would  attach wires to the puppet, then the wires would go up to an overhead control rig device.With the control rig, you can incrementally move & adjust the wires, frame by frame, which are attached to the animation puppet.

For more clarity, a similar example are marionette puppets (which is not stop motion), that have wires or more likely 'nylon fishing-type lines' attached to the puppets. Look at this photo > Diagram 1, Diagram 2. You can see the lines attached to the puppet appendages (wrists, feet, torso, etc). However, for a stop motion puppet, you do not need so many attachment points. You are primarily suspending or hanging the puppet for general body motion when the puppet is floating in the air. All the other additional movements are done by hand animating the puppet (which has an armature inside) to hold the frame to frame poses. Special effects master, Ray Harryhausen, often used Wire rigs. Here is a photo of his rig, which is of more intricate design using gears.

Many of you may think that flying wire rigs for stop motion are arcane or an outdated technique and perhaps so, BUT the thing I LIKE about suspending the puppet by nylon wires, is that the wires/lines are practically invisible to the camera lens. The entire wire rig shot is done 'in camera' and almost NO (or minimal) post production to erase the wires.  In old school stop motion days, there was NO techy post production digital photo-shop or Cgi. You HAD to try to get the shot done on the stage with the illusion or special effects mostly being created IN the Camera, on the film.

Of course today, the stop motion animation 'holy grail' tool is the the prestigious, geared controlled Winder Rigs > Link 1, Link 2.With winder rigs ... when you attach it to the puppet, the attachment arms will be seen by the camera lens. When using external rigs mounts (on the puppet), post-production digital rig removal is a requirement. This is significant more work to complete the animation scenes. Most of today's stop motion animation whether it's an indie short, for commercial ad work, or a feature stop motion, this is now the protocol ... post production digital rig removals. In addition, sometimes the stop motion puppet scenes (with rigs attached to puppet) are shot against blue/green screen, so that is extra work to digitally composite the animation with a background.

I will post below, some examples of specific finished flying scenes  that used Old School Flying Rig methods.I am Nostalgia-biased and for me, these classic shots exemplifies the sweat & effort to create these scenes. The skill & patience of the animators with their bare hands, manipulating both, the puppets and flying rig, incrementally frame by frame controlling the wires. The results are a stylized-surreal organic otherworldly aesthetic! Not the hyper slickness perfection of CGI. Also, do not forget that the early stop motion work of the past, did NOT use video previewing or computer frame grabbers.which did not exist back then.

NOTE - There are numerous Videos embedded in this BLOG. If any  videos do not appear, or they are slow to load, please wait, or you can also Refresh / Reload your browser.

Earth vs the Flying Saucers (1956) All scenes of the UFO saucers. Remember ALL flying & hovering done use aerial rig controlling the models frame by frame. There were small models for distant shots, and larger saucer model for close-ups and for crashing into buildings. Some scenes there were 3 saucers = 3 Flying Rigs!

 

Jason and the Argonauts (1963) Harpies Attack Phineus. Two flying puppets, two separate aerial rigs used

Jason and the Argonauts (1963) Capturing the Harpies - Multiple puppets and separate flying rig

One Million Years BC (1966)  Two pterodactyls in same scenes, so likely two separate aerial rigs were used

Valley of Gwangi (1968) Carlos vs Pteranodon

When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970) Man vs a Pterosaur (rhamphorynchus). This deserves much MORE recognition as a supreme execution of Stop Motion special effects for it's time in 1970 ... Jim Danforth a special effects artist extraordinaire. Very advanced in realism, including adding of  Motion Blurs. This was before any computer special effects that did not exist.

 

 
The Legend of Hillbilly John (1972) A flying vulture-like bird creature. Likely, a fly rig was used

 
Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977) Real BIG MUTHA WASP 😨

High-Rise (1980) - Variety of stop motion animated using flying rigs the alien craft & buildings hovering and and traveling through the sky and outer space. This short indie work created by Mark Sullivan

 
Sinbad - The Fifth Voyage (2014) - Giant  Roc Bird protecting its egg. (homage to Harryhausen). This was also created by Mark Sullivan. At beginning of clip, the bird flying towards the mountain edge, it might have used a Flying Rig. It looks like it was shot blue/green screen, then the background added later. Or maybe, it was a large background painting..Also note the excellent detail work of the puppet fabrication.

Of course, there are more examples of other films or indie works out there where Flying Rigs might have been used but takes time to search them out. Also unfortunately, back in the early days of special effects, 'Behind the Scenes' was not common, so there is less documentation available.

The construction of flying rigs, can be simple or intricate. Many moons ago in the late 1980's when I worked on the New Gumby Adventures TV series, we would make our own temporary fly rigs with hot glued foam core pieces and wooden dowels. Nylon fishing line would be wrapped onto the dowels.  I will post some links here to give you an idea. The rigs are of any size, custom made for the specific shots and puppets. The additional modification to a flat animation table, must be some kind of overhead support beam ... it can be long lengths of  narrow wood lumber strips. that will hold the flying rig device. Study the photos and you will understand. Click on each thumbnail image below, to see full large size.

 
About 25 years ago, I did fabricate a test 'Flying Rig'. I thought I had lost it or accidentally tossed in garbage, but I found this rig buried in my storage area. I got the design idea for this flying rig from an old special effects magazine. I did not use it much and just mostly did tests with it. The rig required ceiling space for the overhead X-Y sliding movement set-up using long lengths of aluminum tubes. It was slightly wobbly.  Testing the rig, it was somewhat okay and it might have worked better if I spent time tweaking it. The flying rig control, used geared spools, which  can be slow to turn if you need to make large movements. CLICK on each of the thumbnail images if you want to see Whopper Super Sized Photos.

In the above photos, you can see  its design. It was made from aluminum flat plate and aluminum tubing. Both plates are 5 inches by 5 inches square (127mm by 127mm square). One can instead, use thin plywood about 3/8 inch to 1/2 inch thick (9.5mm - 13mm). It does not need to be made from metal. The gear drive pegs are used in guitars to tension tune the strings.You can get them here > Guitar Tuners and the spools here > Wooden Thread Spools  The tuners mounted to the metal plate or plywood with these > One Inch Corner Braces Or if you want more space between Spools and plate or wood piece, longer length > 1-1/2 inch Corner Braces  NOTE: Looking at this Flying Rig again, I would change the design and have the Spools (pulleys) facing outside i.e., the spools should NOT be underneath the plate. Here it is ... I flipped the guitar tuners so that the spools (pulleys) are completely accessible and lessen the possibility of nylon lines getting tangled. Click on photo ....

ANTHONY SCOTT'S Stop Motion Animation website is no more, however he has an archived a few important informational pages. Here is a brief overview about > A SIMPLE FLYING RIG

MARK WOLF is very knowledgeable about Classic Special Effects, including Stop Motion. He has met Ray Harryhausen, Jim Danforth, Marcel Delgado, etc. many of the heroes & pioneers in special effects. Mark is on Facebook he can be reached at the Facebook group - Stop Motion Monsterland / Mark Wolf

With regards to my article/blog topic here, it was somewhat difficult to find photos or information about Flying Puppet Rigs ... it is as though, they are indeed, Extinct!

I am curious if any Stop Motion Practitioners still use old school PUPPET FLYING RIGS, using nylon fishing lines? If you have any photos, at your option, maybe share your photos of your rigs or stage set-ups ... contact me ... email or message me at my > Facebook Page

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