Russel Stepan

I bring hands-on creativity, practical design, project management skills, and people-focused leadership to create art, sets and assets for stop-motion productions. I'm reliable, enthusiastic and easy-going, and I foster a fun, safe, and productive work environment for all involved teams. This miniature scale skillset is complimented by professional VFX experience on multiple Emmy-award-winning stop-motion television series, as well as a lifetime of experience animating in stop-motion.
See my live-action production artist page for full-scale professional productions.

STOP-MOTION art direction

"DC Toy Box Adventures: Shazam!" (4 episodes)
Digital Wizards Studios x dc kids [2023]
art director

Since the puppets would be Funko Pop figures, I leaned into the feeling of childhood imagination and playtime, using recognizable and nostalgic crafting art materials. My responsibilities included design, fabrication, and team management of numerous miniature props and sets across a campaign of multiple simultaneously filming episodes, each with multiple sets, "no budget" and a fast timeline. Additionally, since we were dealing with action figures, I utilized kitbashing, 3D printing, refurbishing old sets/props, and other time-saving art methods to really embrace the "toy box" feel. Each episode has 1-2 million views, and cross-team communication, asset, budget, and timeline management were paramount to their success.

EPISODE 1 - EPISODE 2 - EPISODE 3 - EPISODE 4

Lair Interior Design Sketch

Lair Interior

Lair Interior Messy

House Interior

House Interior 2

Great Hall Design Sketch

Work In Progress Great Hall

Great Hall Scale Sketch

WideShot

"DC Toy Box Adventures: DC league of Super-Pets" (6 episodes)
Digital Wizards Studios x dc kids [2022]
Art Director

This was another project where in-universe bright colors and hand-crafted aesthetics sell the nostalgic tactile emotion associated with both stop-motion and childhood imagination. After creating the build bible, I orchestrated design, distribution of roles, and fabrication of miniature props and sets across a campaign of multiple episodes on a super-tight budget. Though some assets could be shared between episodes if the shooting schedule allowed, most required unique assets because of the amount of locations and props with different stages of interactions, as well as as various superhero gags involving VFX or special-function assets. Some major challenges from this project included: a giant laundry monster puppet with an animatable interior "stomach set" (Episode 3), and a destructive chase requiring a city set at a completely different scale than the rest of the episodes (Episode 4)! Each episode has between 2-7 million views.

EPISODE 1 - EPISODE 2 - EPISODE 3 - EPISODE 4 - EPISODE 5 - EPISODE 6

Batcave Concept Sketch

Fabricated Batcave

Inside the Laundry Monster! (backed by semi-flexible material to allow for animation and movement of the walls)

Concept Sketch: Birthday Park

Fabricated Birthday Park

Concept Sketches: Intellectual Property Building Cluster Assets

Concept Sketch: Additional Buildings

Concept Sketch: Dog Park

Fabricated Dog Park

Concept Sketch: Metropolis Street / Row of buildings

Fabricated Metropolis street and buildings

Concept Sketch: Construction site with kryptonite Traps

Fabricated Construction site with kryptonite traps

Concept Sketch: Super-Pets training facility

Fabricated Super-Pets Training Facility

"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree"
Hallmark ECARDS [2018]
Art director

I designed and built this full-scale set to be modular for the various stages of stop-motion production which would happen around the "room". The fully-assembled room would only fit in the kitchen area of the hallmark labs production office, so over the course of a weekend, the team assembled, dressed, and animated our widest shots. It was all hands on deck for animating the final shot of over 20 simultaneously dancing toys! Afterward, the production, the set was disassembled, moved, and rebuilt in smaller chunks per shot to accommodate our smaller animation space.
This was one of our best performing Christmas eCards of all time.

"Dad To The Bone Father's Day"
Hallmark ECARDS [2017]
art director

We shot live-action bookends of a grill magically opening in a backyard with some carefully hidden fishing line, a smoke machine and some Christmas lights. "Inside" the grill, we built a stop motion concert stage using the grate from the full-size grill prop overtop of some string lights and red color gel. The stage lights were an incrementally-changeable LED strip light and some coffee creamer containers from the office kitchen, making this a fast, cheap, effective and flexible production. Unfortunately, licensing the song "Bad To The Bone" required us to remove the joke band name in post.

"Ladies night"
Hallmark ECARDS [2018]
art director

This project called for fusion of 2D animated characters and live-action miniature backgrounds. Scale could vary between rooms, and was typically based off testing focal distance of available camera lenses and/or scale premade props. Using a combination of hand fabrication, 3D prints, and refurbishing pre-made props, we brought this monstrous multimedia production to life. Additional considerations included involving physical stop-motion gags in the environments to interact with the 2D animations that would be combined in post production.

"May the 4th be with you"
Hallmark ECARDS x itty bittys® x lucas film [2018]
art director

Multiple stylized "Tatooine" locations needed to be created for an Itty Bittys® stuffed animals and Star Wars crossover. The puppets were rigged with a small lightweight armature inside, so for ease of everyone involved, I opted not to use tie-downs and instead constructed the ground planes out of foam that could easily be pierced with a small T-pin rigged to the puppet armature. Using mostly various foams with different finishes and paintjobs I was able to construct all the sets pretty swiftly. Instead of sky replacement in post, we opted for a printed sky with a different landscape on both the top and bottom, allowing the print to be flipped to become a different landscape and get the most use out of the custom print. Most of the various props were kitbashed or 3d printed and painted.

"Some Bunny Special"
Hallmark ECARDS [2019]
art director

The animatics called for some wild camera movements between scenes, which required some creative problem solving, testing, and inventive solutions. We took special care when coordinating with camera and lighting logistics to ensure these types of shot transitions were achievable, while also considering spatial and budgetary restrictions.

"Harry Potter Magical Movie Moments"
spin master corp. x harry potter x digital wizards studios [2023]
season 2 (7 episodes)
Lead Builder

As lead builder for this series of simultaneous productions on different stages, I managed timelines and delivery of numerous highly detailed sets and props in varying miniature scales. By coordinating logistics with camera and animation departments before fabrication, we ensured ease of use for both teams during production. Additionally, special detail was taken to replicate screen accuracy of licensed props and locations.

pixie mischief (selected sample) or season 2 compilation

The Great Hall Doors

Tower of Teacups

Foam, cardboard, paper mache, spackle, paint

Joke Shop - Custom assets, kitbashed set with alterations

Work in Progress - Courtyard Well

Dressed and Pained Courtyard Well

Detail snake in mouth Courtyard Well

"One Final Day"
beautiful blu x digital wizards studios [2024]
Fabricator

For this massive 1/6th scale WWII stop motion music video, I was tasked with building the Higgins boat and C47 interior set in one week. After liaising with rigging, puppets, animation, VFX, and camera departments, both assets were built to achieve the performance needs of the other teams. (See BTS footage at the end of the video for further details.)