Hidden Stories project

for this project we have to select an object from one of the Edinburgh Museums and Galleries, to base a short film upon. Feeling uninspired after visiting the museum of edinburgh, peoples story and the writers museum, eventually i came to the museum of childhood and found this gorgeous carousel horse, who i believe if his ribbon is anything to go by, is named Alf. 

Here are some sketches I did of him in the museum: 

I have yet to develop a proper story, but it will be centred around this horse as the primary character. I was thinking about how I could animate this - with such an intricate design it would be far too time consuming to do the entire thing hand-drawn, so in order to actually get it done I will have to adopt a different approach. I was thinking about stop motion, but I think it would be far too much work to figure out how to make a working 3d model for what I had in mind, in addition to the fact that i would have no idea what i was doing... 

Rachel suggested I look at paper cut out stop motion, like the type used in Jiri Trnka's Merry Circus. 

I started to design an articulated paper doll I could use to animate with. This is the first one I made to test how it works.

After some refining I have created a template for a model which I think should work:

I'm thinking about either decorating it by drawing the design digitally, or using fabrics, inks, and beads etc (or a combination of both). I will need to find a way to connect the joints so they move effectively.

other images: