Animator/director Nick Hilligoss
I discovered Australian animator/director Nick Hilligoss some years back because of his archive of stop-motion and model making.
Nick has made many films over the years and has won some awards. It is not too surprising that a lot of the films contain animals when you hear that Nick works for the Natual History department of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Shots from Nick's films:
Once upon Australia
Turtle world
Good riddance
His latest project is also stop-motion with a fantasy theme with caves and dragons. Nick gives us a sneak preview with videos of how he built the dragons' head and the cave. The techniques although very impressive use simple materials and tools so could be reproduced by anyone with a kitchen table or small workshop
Nick's examples and tutorials of set building, puppet making, camera and lighting rigs can be viewed at http://www.picturetrail.com/hilligossnic
More of Nick's films, a bio on Nick from ABC and on Stopmotionworks.