Twelve frames for a single second

To produce stop-motion animation, you position models by hand, take a photo, move them a bit, take another photo, and so on. You have to keep track of how Yoshi and the objects around him should be moving as you photograph frame by frame, so it’s a pretty painstaking process.

12 photos are needed to create one second’s worth of animation. Put the above photos together and what do you get?

Behind the scenes

Let’s take a look at what happens during the animation process. This is the set where the animation takes place. With all the tools and equipment around, it gets kind of cluttered.

If you look closely at the photos, you’ll see that Yoshi and his pals are held in place by metal clamps. These are called “rigs,” and they’re used to keep objects in the positions they need to be.

The many faces of Yoshi

During the shorts, you may have noticed how Yoshi has all sorts of different facial expressions. How do they do that?

Here are some of the parts used for Yoshi’s eyes. These can be switched in-between frames to let Yoshi blink, change expressions, and more.

The Yoshi featured in the shorts looks a lot like the Yarn Yoshi amiibo figure, but it’s actually a little different.

See how the arms and legs are longer? Plus, there are metal joints embedded inside the stop-motion Yoshi model, which makes it stiff and heavy. Thanks to these joints, the animators are able to make Yoshi hold poses and move with precision.

Photographing frames, rigs and all

Check out the difference between the original photos and the versions used in the animation. The rigs used to keep things in place stay in the shot and are then edited out later. That’s right – stop motion may seem like an old-fashioned method of animation, but it actually involve some pretty state-of-the-art image editing.

Here’s a behind the scenes clip we got our hands on to show you what the animation looked like during production.

A message from the production team

Here’s a message from Mr. Minegishi at dwarf, the animation studio, who lent his expertise to producing these animations:

“Stop motion Yoshi acts in his own special way, a way that’s different to the Yoshi you typically see in games. We hope that players will enjoy seeing Yoshi in a brand new light.”

In-game features

The game contains 30 different animated shorts. Each day you can watch a new one, so you’ll probably want to try to play at least once a day. You’ll also get quizzed on the movies you watch. You can try to answer the questions correctly to get Beads that are sure to help Yoshi along the way!

The lovable Poochy, who appears in the shorts, will also be getting his very own amiibo figure (sold separately or as part of a special bundle with Poochy & Yoshi’s Woolly World). It doesn’t move like Poochy does in the animated videos, but by scanning it at any time during a course you can call Poochy to your side, letting you continue the adventure with a faithful companion.

So if you ever need a little break from platforming in Poochy & Yoshi’s Woolly World, you can check out the stop-motion animated shorts! You can check out some of the videos and learn more about the game at the official Poochy & Yoshi’s Woolly World website.

Figures shown not actual size. Visit nintendo.com/amiibo for details on amiibo functionality.

ESRB Rating: Everyone with Mild Cartoon Violence