A Mission to Democratise the Dark Art of Stop-Motion Animation
Skwigly
For most of his career, Wes Wood has been on the storytelling front line: first as an armaturist at MacKinnon & Saunders, then as a development producer at Cosgrove Hall Films, and now as a Senior Creative at BBC Creative, shaping high-profile campaigns for beloved children’s brands from CITV to CBeebies through to Charities and Sport for the BBC.
But this year, Wes has swapped his directorial chair for a workbench. Through his company Animation Toolkit, he’s returning to his stop-motion roots — and his mission is bold: to decentralise stop-motion, make it affordable, and open it up to everyone.
Stop-motion has always been a bit of a dark art. It’s magical — but also mysterious, expensive, and inaccessible to many people who want to learn it. We’re trying to change that.
Wes Wood
Introducing the Rooki Armature
At the heart of this new movement is the Rooki Armature, now live on Kickstarter. The Rooki is a precision-engineered starter armature, designed to give beginners and students a professional-grade puppet skeleton at an accessible price point.
“Think of it as a bridge between the classroom and the studio,” Wes says. “It’s engineered with the same principles we use in broadcast production, but simplified so anyone can build, animate, and learn with it.”
The Rooki isn’t just a product — it’s the first step in an ecosystem Animation Toolkit is building to support the next generation of stop-motion creators. Alongside the physical kit, Wes and his team are developing a digital platform of assets, tutorials, and downloadable resources to make learning the craft easier and more rewarding than ever.
Democratising the Craft
Having worked on both sides of the industry, from puppet fabrication to directing national broadcast campaigns, Wes recognises that traditional stop-motion pipelines have remained stubbornly closed-off.
“It’s ironic,” he says, “that at a time when 3D printing and AI are opening creative access everywhere else, stop-motion is still gate-kept by specialist knowledge and expensive tools. We want to change that. Animation Toolkit exists to make the craft more transparent, modern, and scalable.”
The company’s approach is to blend physical craftsmanship with digital innovation, offering armatures, printable files, onion-skin learning tools, and online guides that empower anyone, anywhere, to start animating.
A New Era for Stop-Motion
The Kickstarter for the Rooki Armature marks just the beginning. Wes hints that future products will expand the digital learning side, merging augmented reality, AI, and downloadable rig systems into a complete “Content-as-a-Service” ecosystem for stop-motion creators.
“We’re building a new creative economy around stop-motion,” Wes says. “It’s not about replacing the old masters — it’s about making sure their knowledge and passion reach the next generation.”
With that vision, the Rooki may be small, but it carries a big idea: that the art of stop-motion should belong to everyone. You can visit and support Rooki Armature at the Kickstarter page now.