Chronos » adem-wire

puppet making – the head

yaz — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 16:18:46 +0000

I am not going to be animating the head; just simple movement, turning. So, I made the head with super sculpy. I think making head is the hardest part of the puppet. You need to make it have a character. I tried 5 different heads with different size, expression, age,… Here is how final one came out. It is not finished yet. I might make hair and painting at the end.

head made out of super sculpy

head

puppet making – hey this guy needs some clothes

yaz — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 16:03:15 +0000

How hard can be making a little shirt and pants for a stopmo puppet? It seems pretty easy right?.. I tried couple different pants and shirts… One thing I have learnt; try to make the shirts and pants fit well and tight. When you animate you would not want the different parts of the fabric move unnaturally. I thought about making a shirt similar to one on Jack Sparrow on Pirates of the Caribbean. I actually did. There is no way to control the fabric from one shot to the other when it is not tight. Anyways, check below:

making the little shirt

When I was working on the outfit, I had already tried couple different heads. You see one of the heads behind in this picture. This is not the one I decided to use but you need to have a head to try the outfit.

shirt

shoes??

shoes

shirt & shoes

making pants

here he goes

Ok, where is my head ????

puppet making – hands without latex

yaz — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 15:43:09 +0000

I could not find liquid latex here and did not know how to make the hands. I posted on stopmotionanimation.com asked pros about the latex substitudes. I was suggested to wrap the hands with yarn(as it was shown on my previous post) and cover with silicone sealant. I am not totally happy with the result but at least I have hands that can be animated. isomer at stopmotionanimation.com also suggested me to paint with permanent marker but I was not successful doing that.

silicone sealant for the hands

puppet making – covering armature with foam

yaz — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 15:23:21 +0000

cover wire armature with foam using spray glue

trim with a small scissor and add some more pieces to shape the body

try shaping body by adding some more thin foam layer

here how he looks when it is done

puppet making – wire armature 2

yaz — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 15:12:47 +0000

added yarn over the hands because later I covered hands with silicone

hand covered with yarn

adding yarn to joints before covering with foam

Puppet Making – Wire armature 1

yaz — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 14:28:27 +0000

I am now going to upload the process of making a puppet with wire armature, epoxy putty, foam, super sculpy,.. Thanks to all great people at stopmotionanimation.com I have been following up their message board and also reading handbook and have learnt a lot about stop-motion.

I used 2,5 mm copper wire for the base. I used copper beacuse I could not find this thick aluminum wire here. If you find aluminum it should be better.

0,9 mm aluminum wire for the arms and hands over copper wire.

Covering wire with epoxy putty for the bones. I did not use 5 min. epoxy. I made couple different armatures and tested. I even tried using super sculpy for the bones. I ended up using Pattex 15min epoxy which seems stronger.

notice the nuts inside epoxy feet for tie downs

hands