Hi everyone!

I wanted to share an absolutely gorgeous passion project being made by a wonderful man, Simon Tytherleigh. He has spent the last several years in his garden studio crafting a 20-minute stop-motion film based on a fascinating piece of Cornish folklore, *The Legend of Jan Tregeagle*.

Simon comes from a background in special effects makeup (he won awards for his work on the BBC's *Casualty*), and he has poured decades of practical FX knowledge into this film. I thought this community in particular would appreciate the sheer level of craftsmanship he's put into this project.

* The puppets: Everything is hand-sculpted, using ball-and-socket and wire armatures, melted Chavant clay, and cast silicone and latex for the characters.
* The sets & rigs**:** The highly detailed sets are built from scratch, and Simon even created his own camera motion control rigs to capture the shots.
* The progress: It’s a massive undertaking for one person, but the film is already about 60% complete!

I attached a few images, but more can be found through the link below. So far Simon has mostly shared this through his own network of contacts, so I wanted to branch out and share his work with more people who truly understand the stubborn patience and technical skill it takes to pull something like this off.

*The Legend of Jan Tregeagle* has so far been made possible by Simon's dedicated time, skill, and private funds. Right now, he’s running a [Kickstarter](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/simontytherleigh/the-legend-of-jan-tregeagle) to get the final bits of work to the finish line. The base goal has already been hit, but the campaign is pushing on for a stretch goal of £13.5k. The best part is that this goal will allow him to hire and support a younger animator, giving him the chance to pass on his FX skills and animation experience through paid work in a small industry.

The Kickstarter page has a lot more info on the project, an explainer video, the current progress, several more stills of the film, a budget breakdown, some fantastic behind-the-scenes footage of the rigs and puppets in action, and of course, when and how you can see the final product.

If you can spare some support towards this project, that'd be tremendously appreciated. On the Kickstarter page, you can enjoy the snapshots of this massive stop-motion undertaking, especially appreciable when you know of the blood, sweat, and tears that stop-motion can take.

Even if you can't pledge, giving the video a watch and appreciating the setup is well worth it!

**Kickstarter Link:** [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/simontytherleigh/the-legend-of-jan-tregeagle](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/simontytherleigh/the-legend-of-jan-tregeagle)

An incredible handcrafted 20-min passion project: silicone puppets, custom rigs, and years of work! (60% complete)