Original project
Bulgakov
“Bulgakov” is an original animated film combining puppet and hand-drawn animation. MultArt studio made all the puppets for the stop-motion part, creating the characters from scratch from the sketches of director Stanislav Sokolov. The work required likeness to real historical people, a wide variety of costumes and expressive facial animation.
Director:
Stanislav Sokolov
Studio / production company:
Cinemascope LLC
Format:
original animated film combining puppet and hand-drawn animation
Release year:
2025
Status:
completed, festival run
Project type:
original
About the project
The project took part in festivals and won several awards, becoming an important experience for the studio and confirming its expertise in puppet animation.
MultArt’s role
The MultArt team was responsible for the complete production of the puppets for the stop-motion part of the film.
As part of the project we carried out:
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design and assembly of puppet armatures
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sculpting and painting of heads
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tailoring of costumes, including several versions for key characters
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production of duplicate puppets
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making interchangeable mouths for the characters’ expression and emotion
The work followed the sketches of director Stanislav Sokolov. In total the studio made 11 puppets.
Artistic challenge
The task was to create expressive puppets able to “act” on camera and convey the characters’ personalities. Special attention went to likeness to real people, readable emotions and a variety of costumes for the scenes.
Production constraints
The project had a number of technical and artistic challenges:
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selecting and treating fabrics for the costumes (partly dyed and painted by hand)
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the need for likeness to historical characters
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many small revisions and reworks to reach the required expressiveness
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tight deadlines for individual production stages that demanded precise organisation
Process and approach
On the project the MultArt team:
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designed the armatures and tested the puppets’ articulation to make them easy to animate
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made and agreed several costume options for the scenes
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created interchangeable mouths and heads to convey emotion
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worked directly with the director at every stage, adjusting details and refining the puppets until the final result
Result
The film took part in competition programmes and received recognition at festivals:
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Special Jury Prize at the Open Russian Festival of Animated Film (Suzdal, 2025)
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Prize for Best Music (Shandor Kallosh) at the Ikar National Animation Award (2025)
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Nomination for the Ikar award in the short animation category (2025)
The project became an important experience for MultArt, helped consolidate its expertise in making puppets for stop motion and confirmed the studio’s ability to work on high-level auteur films.
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