Bits an pieces

Been a little while since my last update since, I have been a bit delayed in starting the sculpting side of my project due to poor health. 

Anyway this last week I stared building the structure to the stop frame side of my animation and making the wire armature for the boy character, 

To start with this was a bit daunting as I was not used to this style of animation and although I had done a bit of sculpture in my past the structure within the puppet had to be both sturdy and strong as well as flexible for allowance each of the puppets movements.

Making the feet out of a particular type of foam meant the character could easily be pinned down onto a board in animation as well as the wire structure could be easily added in for support.

The wire density also varied on parts on the body that would be used or parts that may have needed more bend to those that needed more support also by twisting the wire over itself made it more Endurant for supporting some of the characters positions.

Redrawing out the character quickly in scale, meant I could outline a supporting wire structure to build the characters body from.  

(example of wire dog legs an outline the position of the dogs back)

Drawings like this would help get a good idea of building the wire for the body base as well before adding on the balsa wood to stiffen the structure 

I researched into armatures and was slightly scared at how costly a pre made armature could be an was unsure on how to make the structure myself. 

So I was able to get help from the contacts at the animation and film workshop who where able to get Kevin to advice me.

(contact details here)> Kevin the Puppetician 

The workshop was useful in how to make about making the animated characters structure as well as finding ways of creating it on a tight budget.

Some examples of different materials that could be used in sculpting characters.

Earlier attempt at sculpting in foam characters head details as ruff prototype.

remaking these in balsa wood and Styrofoam as there a bit more rigid than foam