Puppet prize

Marc Spess and I are running an animation challenge at stopmotionmagic.com

This puppet is the prize. I created this puppet especially for this contest. I see so many animators with tons of heart and desire to animate but when they get started, their puppet just doesn’t do what they want it to do. I created this puppet using the same techniques I use for almost all of my puppets.

For this one, I started by sculpting a clay body. I use Prima clay. It is like Roma clay except Prima is sulfur free. I tried Roma but the sulfur smell gave my wife a headache.

http://www.dickblick.com/products/sculpture-house-prima-plastilina-clay/

When that was done, I made a silicon rubber mold in two parts of the body. Once the mold was complete, I brushed in mold builder latex that was tinted with green paint. I think the silicon rubber I used was this:

http://www.smooth-on.com/Silicone-Rubber-an/c2_1113_1136/index.html

I then made a wire armature using annealled wire. The green areas are a two part sculpting putty called “green stuff”. The real name is kneadatite.

http://www.thewarstore.com/product18832.html

The wire is twisted in a hand drill before wrapped together. The wire is un-twisted at the ankles and knees to make it easier to bend while animating. The puppet is about 8″ tall to top of head.

For the muscles, I wrap the thin parts in athletic bandage tape (the springy soft stuff used underneath athletic wraps in sports), and for the body I cut a piece of cushion foam (like you would find in a chair cushion). The foam is slid around the wire and glued in place. I use Aleene’s tacky glue.

http://rebornsupplies.co.nz/images/thumbnails/aleenets.jpg

The feet are made from a piece of aluminum stock, cut to fit with a hacksaw, bandsaw, or dremel tool. The tie down hole is drilled and then tapped with a 8-32 screw thread. Then 4 tiny holes are drilled for the ankles wires to slip into. The wires go down through the holes, then are bent back to ensure they come out. The wires are covered with more green stuff.

I added some wire for toes, and green stuffed over it all. Then wrapped the leg wires with bandage wrap.

I gently peeled the skin out of the mold and glued on his chest using brush on latex. I held it in place with thread until it set. The arms were coated in brush on latex. Squirt some paint into little cup, add a teaspoon of latex, stir well, then dab it on the puppet. Apply a few coats to build it up. Let it dry between coats.

The head is more green stuff sculpted around the eyes. It is then painted with a brush on primer. I use model paints from Vallejo Acrylics. Most people know these as Games Workshop paints.

http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/

I don’t put latex on the head because it peels off too easily while moving the head around.

Apply the back and keep touching up the latex. I added antennae just to give you something else you could animate. The wire is attached to the head with green stuff as I formed the head. The balls on the end are just more green stuff.  Don’t look at the props, they are for my next film.

The eyes are doll eyes. New ones, not stolen from a doll by the way. The doll eyes came from a hobby store long ago in the doll making section.

So there you have it, one puppet built. It took several days while I waited for latex to dry and green stuff to harden. Good luck with the contest, maybe you will get to animate this frog/alien/bug guy.

Go ahead, make a mess, have some fun.

wrap up on flying ship film

well everyone, the flying ship film is finished. It is called “Remote Responsibility” and it is uploaded for all to see on my youtube page.  Here is the link:

I thought I would do some behind the scenes shots now. It all started with the idea of a flying ship flying across a large landscape. Here is the start of the ship.

Next came a few props and some set building. These are tiny orc huts for the outside landscape.

This is the captain’s bridge after all the shooting was complete.

This is the  background  painting for the outside set. It is done on a 8′ long piece of sheetrock  (drywall).

This is the rig used to move the ship and the camera at the same time. A threaded rod pulls the whole sled along.

TThe jar of vaseline (used to lubricate the threaded rod) can be seen on the set below and give you a sense of scale.

The white jar is soldering flux, used as weight to make the sled hang straight down.

The sled is just scrap wood that slides along a metal tubing, pulled along by a threaded rod.

The bolt in the middle allowed me to move the ship and camera up or down to get the right angle.

This is a set shot before it was completely finished.

This shot the ship moved along, but the camera was stationary mounted off set.

This is after all the shooting was complete and the set tear down time has come.

I tried tiny black thread to hold up the ship, but every little breeze moved it, so I hot melt glued two rigid sticks to the top of the ship and erased them later in photoshop.

Ripping apart the cavern side where the ship rose vertically.

Some parts and props were saved, but most of the styrofoam landscape all got thrown away.

I finally get my woodshop back again. It was an incredible amount of space tied up with the set.

Stack of styrofoam scenery waiting for the trip to the dump.

Now time to start the next film. So go ahead, make a mess, have some fun.