Armatures

[Simon Edmondson]

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I had stumbled across a way to make stop frame armatures and would post some photos if anyone was interested.

I'm presently developing a project that will be done with AM and stop frame, which is why I thought of this.

 

 

The piece of wire on the side is of square sectioned aluminium and the blocks are electrical connectors. They come in 4 sizes, 3,5, 15 and 30 amp. These are 30amp. As you can see the plastic around the screws has yet to be trimmed but will be later if needed. The advantage of doing it this way should be that, if the wire snaps after a lot of use, it should be easy to replace (?)

 

The green stuff around the shoulders and hips is a form of glue/resin the sell in the UK as "Milliput". It comes in two parts and has to be thoroughly blended together. It can be easily moulded and shaped but sets hard afterwards and is quite tough. I'm sure there are equivalents elsewhere.

 

I've wrapped the armature with bubble wrap to give it some body and my sister is going to make the clothes for me. The intention is to test the figures at New Year when the 'stage is built. Its a cork surface on a wood base. Pins will be inserted through the bubble wrap into the cork to hold the figure up as traditional tie downs would be a bit awkward for me.

 

Feel free to ask any questions ?

regards

simon

 

 

[Wildsided]

That's some interesting stuff Simon. Stop Motion has always been one of my favorite types of animation. I loved all the Aardman stuff growing up. Creature comforts and Wallace and Gromit etc. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished puppet. For the face are you going to use Plasticine and manipulate the mouth that way or are you going to have lots of heads with different mouth positions that can be swapped out each frame?

[Simon Edmondson]

That's some interesting stuff Simon. Stop Motion has always been one of my favorite types of animation. I loved all the Aardman stuff growing up. Creature comforts and Wallace and Gromit etc. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished puppet. For the face are you going to use Plasticine and manipulate the mouth that way or are you going to have lots of heads with different mouth positions that can be swapped out each frame?

 

 

Dan

Thank you for your comments. I'm still learning how to make the puppets so, the short answer is, I don't know. I've sculpted some figures in plasticine and was going to use those to make latex skins to put over the bubble wrap. I've got to test the processes before I go for it properly.

Theres going to be a car chase in it using 1:18 scale mini's, a friend is making the figures for that ( her fingers are smaller than mine !) and the idea at this point is to have them green so I can composite the AM models into the stop frame cars but, again, I'll have to test that properly first to see if it works?

regards

simon

[TheSpleen]

That is so awesome!

[itsjustme]

Looks great, Simon!

[robcat2075]

I've been interested in armatures for a long time but never made one. Are you actually going to bend the squared aluminum? Does that bend easily?

[Simon Edmondson]

I've been interested in armatures for a long time but never made one. Are you actually going to bend the squared aluminum? Does that bend easily?

 

 

Thank you Gene and David for your comments.

 

Robert

The Square aluminium was the strongest I could get. It bends readily but doesn't bend too easily and it does retain its position once bent. I used that for the main limbs and spine and thinner, florists, aluminium for the fingers on the hands. I think its about 2mm in size. The side view shows it in a walking pose. There are a number of tutorials about armatures on Youtube where they use the 2mm wire twisted together for extra strength. I prefer the square section stuff because its stronger and holds its position more readily.

 

I've only played with it so far, rather than actually animated it, as I'm trying to get the space set up to do that ready for the new year. I'll post a clip when I get it done ( trying to finish an AM sequence for New Year ). I made some with thinner, less substantial, wire and they bend easily but don't hold the pose afterwards and feel as if they will snap after a short time. The idea behind using the connector blocks was that it should be easy to replace the wire if it does break.

 

The other methods I've seen and tried, involved glueing the wire into inflexible areas or tubes to equate with the bones between the joints. They work but are a bit frustrating if the wire breaks. If I was flush with funds or resources , I'd go for ball and socket armatures but that would be a bit over the top for the moment. Bit beyond my engineering skills as well!

 

I'm still working up to whether to use Foam latex or silicone for the bodies. I have no experience of either so it will be a long learning process. I've used liquid latex in the past and will try that at first to see how it goes. I was looking at the thread about 3D printers at the same time as reading a book about the making of the Aardman film "Pirates". Apparently they used 3D printers to make replaceable mouths, ( the Pirate Captain had 256 !!! ) and that seemed like good idea, until I looked at the price of the printers. So, I've filed that away for a (im)possible future and will try other methods now.

 

One thing I hadn't remembered was the sheer pleasure of working with your hands on things you can touch. I love animating with AM and will continue to do so but I got tremendous satisfaction out of building the armatures and sculpting the plasticene figures and found myself rendering 'tests' so I could get on with the physical models.

regards

simon

[NancyGormezano]

If I was flush with funds or resources , I'd go for ball and socket armatures but that would be a bit over the top for the moment. Bit beyond my engineering skills as well!

 

I'm not sure how sturdy/rigid/flexible these are, nor what size you require, but these flexible ball/socket joint tubings that are used in aquariums, ponds sure look cheap enough.

 

The most flexible/sturdy joints that I've encountered have been with gorillapods (tripods). It's too bad (and probably on purpose) that the individual joints aren't sold separately (we asked). And the cheapest/smallest tripod is around $20.00 USD. But it is quite an amazing handy invention for those of us who don't want to be burdened with lugging heavy tripods around.

[Simon Edmondson]

I'm not sure how sturdy/rigid/flexible these are, nor what size you require, but these flexible ball/socket joint tubings that are used in aquariums, ponds sure look cheap enough.

 

The most flexible/sturdy joints that I've encountered have been with gorillapods (tripods). It's too bad (and probably on purpose) that the individual joints aren't sold separately (we asked). And the cheapest/smallest tripod is around $20.00 USD. But it is quite an amazing handy invention for those of us who don't want to be burdened with lugging heavy tripods around.

 

 

Nancy

Thank you for that info.

One of the people on Youtube used item A in the watergardens list for the spine on his model, with a wire running through it I think. That would be of interest later on.

The gorillapods would be ideal I think, certainly for the initial tests as I'd need something sturdy of minimum bulk. I bought an EOS500D Canon DSLR three years ago with stop motion in mind but am only just starting to use it for that purpose. I've come up with a frame to hang the lights from and my neighbour is going to put it up for me. Soon as its all ready I can get started, hope to make the first test at the beginning of January, getting quite excited about it .

regards

simon