How to Make a Wilderness Set for Stop Motion Animation

This is the finished product of the Wilderness Set. It can be used for Stop Motion Animation or just for decoration.

Materials Needed and Where to Buy Them:

1. Plywood (Home Hardware)
2. Green Fabric (Walmart)
3. Plastic Bushes/Grass (Dollar Store)
4. Flowers (Dollar Store)
5. Trees (Dollar Store)
6. Rocks (Outside in the wonderful wide world)
7. Drill and Drill Bits (Home Hardware) (Drill Bits should match the size of the tree 'trunks')
8. Hot Glue Gun and Glue (Home Hardware/Walmart)
9. Clay (Dollar Store/Walmart)
10. Styrofoam (Micheal's)

You start off by getting a peice of plywood. Place the plywood onto the table. Try to line up the plywood with the table edges as it makes it easier. Plywood is usually heavy so be careful when placing it on the table. Make sure no one who isn't supposed to be there is in the way.

Place a strip of Fabric onto the plywood, lining up the edges. Fabric, like the one in the picture, can be bought at Walmart for cheap. Make sure to check for rips or tears in the fabric.

Place a second peice of fabric onto the plywood, again lining up the edges. It's ok if the fabric overlaps. Adding a third peice at the bottom is optional. I just didn't have time to run to Walmart :P

Use styrofoam (or other Material) to use as 'place markers'. For example, the top right corner is where I'm Putting the entrance to the Dragon's Lair. The Styrofoam slightly under that is where i'm making a mountain. The Bottom Left corner is The Fox Den. Be careful as styrofoam tends to fall apart and it could cause a choking hazard for small children.

If you would like to Add wildlife to your set, you can add a small fox such as i did. It's not very good (i put much more time into the Dragon) but if anyone would like i can make an instructable on how to put the fox together. Warning. The fox is small and should be kept out of reach of children.

I found this at the Dollar Store. They're little bushes, kind of like the ones used in Warhammer. Basically you pull them off of the little grid and place them where you like them. I've left them on the grid in this picture to show what it looks like.

These little bushes were also found at the dollar store. They also come on a grid, but can be removed as you like. These are quite small and are a choking hazard so be careful with small children.

The flowers were found at the dollar store. Same as the grass, they can be removed and placed at will. Some of them are quite small and should be kept away from children.

The flowers were again found at the dollar store (great place to buy materials). These are very small so be careful with them. They can be moved at will.

If you like, you can place small rocks around areas to give a kind of rocky, mountainous area. I moved the stones and placed them around the mountain (the Styrofoam at the bottom of the picture). The little string like object is just some very thin string I found lying around. It works as burnt grass or fallen branches. The rocks and the string are very small so be careful around children.

This is a picture of the set after steps 1-10. When making this set take plenty of pictures so if anything is moved you know where it was. Most of the things in this picture are quite small so be very careful.

Take the styrofoam (or other material) and place it under the cloth to create a mountain (or hill if you prefer). You can raise it higher if you want, but make sure the other pieces of the set don't go flying all over the place.

To add the trees select a drill bit the same size as the base of the tree. Cut a hole in the cloth large enough for the drill bit to go in without snagging on the cloth. Be careful with the scissors. Try not to cut yourself or anyone else.

Insert the drill bit into the hole you cut. Very slowly make a small indent by very lightly pressing the drill trigger. After you have an indent to help hold the drill bit in place you can start drilling. Be extremely careful as the drill bit will be VERY hot after drilling. To help counteract this drill for a bit then let go of the trigger. Give it a couple seconds to cool then continue drilling. Keep doing this until your hole is finished.

Plug in a hot glue gun and let it heat up. When it's hot enough VERY CAREFULLY put some glue in the hole you drilled. Then put the bottom of the Tree through the cloth and into the hole. Hold the tree down until the glue hardens and voila. You have a tree that will stand on it's own. Be extremely careful as the glue gun and the glue will be extremely hot. If you get any glue on your hands, wipe it off with a cloth (NOT your clothes) and proceed to run the burned area under hot water for at least 2 minutes. If the skin still burns keep holding it under for 5 minutes. If after that the burn still hurts put some burn ointment from a First Aid Kit on it and have a doctor take a look at it.

If you want  you can create a second fox to go with the first. Place them side by side or separate from each other. It's up to you.