Finally, I am posting about how I made Adem. Although I have posted other things separately, this post is going to be a very long one. Ok, here Adem again;

Other pictures I posted previously are located here. And a walk cycle test is here to post everything all together about Adem.

I had a ball&socket armature made for this guy last year. I do not have much space for the set so, I wanted to make Adem as small as possible. But, as I was working on the puppet, I was not able to make him look like the way I wanted. I am glad I also ordered some additional parts in the first place. So, eventually I replaced his legs with the longer ones. You may notice in the following pictures; first he is short and then he gets taller as seen with the additions to his pants. Actually, making of Adem was such a long process because I tried many different things for everthing of him like the way I cover the armature, clothing, head,… I was both trying different designs and also getting used to working with this armature. Ok, let me start:

The Head and Covering Body with Foam

There was a double ball joint on his neck. This is the way it should be for a proper movement. But, as I was trying to make him short, I saw that he was going to have a very long neck. After couple of tries, I decided to cancel one of the joints on the neck. His head is made out of super sculpey. I covered the part of joint at the top with epoxy putty after cooking some sculpey. Then covered all with sculpey and cooked again. So, there is epoxy putty inside sculpey. It seems totally working fine. They cooked well together in the oven. There is one drawback so far, I can not change the tightness of that joint.

I covered some parts of the body with foam as it is shown on the pictures. I sewn the foam instead of gluing.

And neck.. that was another problem. Because there is a sculpey head, I was not able to use latex for the neck. Sculpey and liquid latex should not touch. I have learnt this recently after having a problem with the hands and claws which I posted about it yesterday. So, I just painted foam with acrylic to make the neck. He now has a short neck and it is looking okey. Also, I was not trying to make a total human like puppet and it was fine making the neck that way for me.

Clothing

Adem in my film represents human being. Nobody special, no hero,.. So, I wanted to make ordinary things for him.

The first pic on the left top shows my cat having fun with a box full of fabric Old clothes of ours and friends I collected over the years. The other pictures are self explanatory. when I was a child my mother used to sew clothes for us. She had a sewing machine. It was a lot of fun for me to watch her sew. By helping her out and watching her I learnt to sew some basic stuff. So, that was good for Adem. The vest and pants were easy but making of the jacket was kind of tricky. I googled for some mens jacket patterns. Then I created patterns for Adem’s by combining the ones I found. Just drop me a line in the comments section if you want me to send you patterns. I would be happy to do that.

Weathering

Although Adem did not like it, I had to weather his clothes to match the atmosphere. No place for brand new things in Chronos. Here is the part I most enjoyed doing:

The whole technic and the materials are from Shelley Noble! She sent me so many great materials for my film. Here I used two of those; walnut ink crystals and matte medium as she described in emails.

I first bleached the parts like the collar of the jacket, cuff,… Not much, just enough to give some shading. Mixed well acrylic matte medium, walnut ink cyrstals and a little water in a plate. Dipped the jacket. And then left it hanged overnight. As Shelley said it changes color as it dries. I applied same mixture to his shoes and vest. Just some with a brush and left for drying. I love the effect here. There is a closeup pic to his jacket at the bottom right. Thank you Shelley!!!!

Hands

Since I had problem with the hands I previously made, I am not going to post details about making of these hands here. There are temporary hands.

I painted with PAX here. You can find details here in my previous post. Even if this paint works fine (which I think so) I will make the hands again beacuse I am not totally happy with the design. I dont want the hands to be totally realistic but I want little detailed and thinner than these ones.

Mask

Adem has a real face like we all have. In the film you will see him both with and without a mask. But, he wants to hide his real face until the film is completed. I wanted him to wear a mask on some parts of the film like every human being does in her/his life. Dont we all have many masks… How many of us have seen our own face?…

I made 3 different masks and decided to go with this one. Actually this was the first one I created. The other 2 you see on the left bottom were based on real shaman masks. Design of this one was totally came out of my mind. I took a piece of super sculpey and started making. No sketch, no reference pictures… I did not want the mask to have any expression. Not happy, not sad, not angry,.. So, in a way something holding all different expressions of a human face in one mask. Not a man, not a woman.. just a human.

This is how I made the mask: First cooked the sculpey mask and then painted couple times with acrylic. When you paint acrylic directly onto the sculpey with a brush you may get some scratches. To get rid of those scratches after one or two layers of acrylic paint, I applied one coat of acrylic primer and left it to dry. Then couple more acrylic layers. When I was satisfied with the acrylic base I painted with a mixture of acrylic relief paste and wax. This was where I adjusted the color of the mask by adding some brown acrylic to that mixture. I put a lot of talcum powder before it was totally dry. Left it alone for about 15 minutes and then wiped off the talcum powder with a piece of soft cloth. So, there was some powder left around the eyes, mouth,.. giving the mask an old look.

And one more thing before I end this post. While I was working on the masks, I kept singing an old wonderful song of a friend Murat Hasarı. Name of the song is Insan Icin (For Human) Here some of the words both in Turkish and English(translated by me.. sorry..)

For Human – Insan Icin

Sky is fallen apart – Gökyüzü parça parça
Clouds are silent – Bulutlar sessiz
Whole world is a stage – Bir sahnedir bütün dünya
World is helpless – Dünya çaresiz
Players on the one hand, – Bir yanda oyuncular
Audience on the other – Bir yanda seyirciler
Mirrors are under the sky – Aynalar göğün altında
Masks are being painted – Boyanıyor maskeler
…

I had a problem with the hands of Adem and claws of Kush I previously made in June 2009.  Those were both fine when I first built up but after couple of months those started to get sticky. Hands became like the ones of a zombie puppet and it is not possible to hold claws because of those being too sticky. This is how I made these:

Hands: I mixed liquid latex, acrylic paint and pros-aide all together… Dipped yarn covered fingers (also there was epoxy putty on the fingers and palm) into that mixture several times to make the skin.

Claws: Yarn covered fingers and acrylic painted cartboard claws dipped into liquid latex several times.

I posted about the problem on stopmotionanimation.com Here is the link of that thread: http://www.stopmotionanimation.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=20&topic_id=6978&mesg_id=6978&page=
The problem with the hands seems like is me mixing pros-aide and latex. Liquid latex is a great material to create skin for the puppets. But there are some importants things to remember when working with latex. Please check out the above URL for more.

I have remade the hands. Used PAX paint. Many thanks to Darkstrider who wrote me about that on that post. If you are interested you can check out the forum URL above and also here is a good tutorial about PAX paint on Stop Motion Magazine’s 2. issue: http://www.stopmotionmagazine.com/stopmotionwebsite/Issues_files/Stop%20Motion%20Magazine%20October%202009.pdf

Claws of Kush are still waiting for me to be fixed. I only used latex on the claws so I am not sure what was the problem. I am going to make a test part by using only latex. There are the PAX painted hands I have aready made. So, I will be able to see what happens to these parts in a couple of months before I start animation.

Adem… My next post will be about the Creation Of Adem. There is a lot to post so I think a separate one for the pictures could be better. Here some pictures I have just taken. You can click to enlarge.

Yes, it is finished… Tree of life, birds, nests. I will work on the roots when making the rocky surface but other than that all done. You can click to above picture to enlarge.

A close-up to some of the nests.

It is 4:35 in the morning. Another stolen night to spend on stop motion is almost over. Away from my all duties; taking care of my daughter, working to make money, taking care of the house, cooking, doing dishes,.. I feel like every moment I spend on this film is a stolen one and I think I like to steal a lot! Anyways… a beautiful end summer night; sitting in the garden with mosquitoes, hearing cats fighting in our neighbor’s garden, feeling good after preparing pictures to post here.

Ok, what I have done lately and how I done;

Making of the “Big Bird”

I made some small birds to place in the tree of life representing the “souls” out of super sculpey and posted here previously. I needed one to animate. Nothing complex; just one bird to be able to raise her head. Here you see her:

Super sculpey again. But made the head seperately, connected to body with a piece of wire. Glued some foam. Covered foam first with “real fleece” which Shelley sent me and then with some goose quill from our sofa.

She is nothing like the “Big Bird” from Sesame Street but somehow she reminded me of Big Bird at the moment I finished her.

Bird Nests..
This was challenging. Needed to look like bird nests but at the same time I wanted these to be strong; as being home for the souls. Metal but comfortable. After trying some different ideas, I ended up using pine cones. And boom! Cutting pine cones was harder then cutting steel… I am serious. Have you ever tried cutting pine cones with Dremel? I broke many blades made for cutting metals. Dust, smell,… had my respirator and protective clothes to keep myself safe

I painted cones with black acrylic and then stainless steel colored acrylic paint (which Shelley  sent me. Thank you!!) Dyed some raw looking yarn into green with acrylic again to tie the metal cones to the branches. Added moss around the nest after tying up.

Tree of Life Mooooddddiiifffficccaatttiioonn:
Collected some bark, killed the bugs with mosquito spray inside a bag. Left those in the air for couple hours to get rid of the poison. Covered the trunk with these barks and the glued moss all around.

I use old newspapers to keep the table clean. As I was working on the tree, I saw a small article right next to the roots of the tree about “Tim Burton” There is a Tim Burton exhibition at MoMA between November 22, 2009–April 26, 2010 No way for me to go as NY is kind of far away from where I live But, anyone living in NY and have not heard about this exhibition can check details here http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/313

Made many more new branches, added to the tree. Glued some more leaves.

The last picture on the right bottom is showing the quick background painting I did today to shoot the tree. The final background will be more like a real sky. This one was just for fun.

It has been a while since my last post about the film. I have been having a very busy summer; spending time with our families in July. At the beginning of August, our babysitter quit working -she’s getting maried- and my daughter started to go to kindergarten half day, 5 days a week. So, we have been trying to get used to our new life.

After taking a long break, I wanted to start with modifying the tree of life and making the small birds which represent the souls left their bodies after death and waiting for their birth again. Tree of life is a motif in various world mythologies and the birds sitting on its branches often associated with the souls. So, here they are:

On the bottom right, you see a quick installation of the bird onto a branch. I am currently working on these and will show final pics of tree of life and birds with my next post.

 I made these birds out of super sculpey. There are 15 birds sculpted and cooked. The necklace on my neck is a gift from Shelley… a bird nest and the egg; giving me luck and love for stop motion, for life…

Painted with white acrylic first and then used blue antique powder paint for an older look and some dimention. And ofcourse my little assistant was there to help me out By the way, the Tree of Life oil painting on the wall is a reproduction of one of Natasha Wescoat’s which I painted when I was pregnant to Zeynep.

Modification of the tree: I made some new brances and smaller leaves. I was not totally happy with the previous look. Now, it looks a lot better and I will post new pics later.

Finally, I am posting about Kush… A lot of things happening here since my last post. I moved my studio to another room in our house, tried making a rig for Kush, purchased AnimatorHD Personal and tried Lumix. This post is going to be long enough so, I will post about these later. SO, here she is; Kush… you can click to enlarge:

And a quick flying test done with Canon 350D without live view and a spycam.

***

Here is the process:

Adding Rig Points and Final Tweaking of the Armature

I first revised legs and the tail. Added 2 rig points to the top on her back and 2 other below the shoulders through her thummy. Later I fixed the detachable wing part with epoxy putty. Because I decided to make the feathers in a different way and it was not possible to have detachable wings.

Preparing Kush for Feathers and Making of Claws 1

I glued foam onto the armature using a spray glue then trimmed with a small scissor. Old winter socks became the skin to glue over feathers later. I sewn the fabric with a black thread tightly. Then I wrapped claws with yarn.

Making of Feathers

For the wings; I used real bird feathers. Cut those into small sizes and then sewn over the yarn covered wing parts. For the torso, I glued colored feathers directly. Colored feathers are from a funcky hair clip of mine. Hey wait… “the master of puppets” came to give me some ideas in the middle of this process. See picture in the bottom center

Claws 2

Fingers seemed too thick to me. I ripped off previously wrapped yarn and replaced with a thinner one. Then operation time… Covered body with aluminum foil and applied liquid latex over yarn covered fingers by a piece of foam. After 2 layers of latex is dried I wrapped black thread to make the stripes over fingers. And applied another layer of latex and left it to dry. (you can also use hairdrier for faster drying.) Thanks to Nick Hilligoss  for his tutorials about how to work with liquid latex. If you have not done yet, make sure to check out his pages. I have learned a lot  from his tutorials.

Claws… I made claws out of a thin cardboard. Dipped each claw shaped cardboard into black tinted liquid latex (with acrylic paint) and left to dry. Then attached claws to fingers with un-tinted latex. Thanks to The Lone Animator for this great idea.
And my favorite process: patina.. I wanted this bird look very old, ancient… So, I applied blue antique powder paint first and then gold wax metalic finish. I did the same for the nib which you see below.

Head

I made the head out of super sculpy. Painted with acrylic and covered with feathers. Applied gold with a patina process to the nib. Then fixed the head into its place with a piece of epoxy putty. The head can still move a little allowing turning right and left, bending back anf forth.

***

I cant help to post this picture. We had a lot of fun with my daughter in the dark room while shooting the above test. She came in right before I started shooting and mixed up everything. I had to adjust all again after she left but that was totally fine as I really like to see her around while I work on this film.

Kush’s armature :
Kush is an eagle like bird living on top of the tree of life… When I first started working on her armature, I thought I could go away with a complete wire and epoxy armature. But, I want her to fly, land, shake her head,… So, especially her shoulders needed to be strong to stand all different movements of the wings. I ended up starting to make ball joints… You see Kush’s armature drawing below:

Go to downloads page to view larger size of this drawing. I changed proportions and legs while I was making the armature.
To draw this armature, I spent many hours on the net studying birds. Here are some of the links I find usefull:

http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/554notes1.html
http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/554notes2.html
http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/554notes3.html

http://www.ornithopter.de/english/herzog.htm

http://www.bbcmotiongallery.com/Customer/SearchResults.aspx?searchText=eagle&type=Simple&footage=AllClipsExceptEntertainment

http://www.lizkay.com/Studio/wingtutorial.htm

Here is a picture of the armature from the movie “War Eagles” which was also helpful to me.

Back to my drawing… There are 2 ball joints on the shoulders and 2 other on the legs. I cancelled the ones on legs later because the size of the bird is too small to add 2 more ball joints with steel rods. So, my whole ball joint production process was for only 2 and I spent about a month to gather all the materials, some machinery just enough to make something okey and some experience of working with metals. I was planning to work on ball joints for my next film but its good that now I have already some experience on making these.

MAKING BALL JOINTS WITH LIMITED MACHINERY

 What I have:
A regular power drill (not a drillmill) with cobalt bits
Dremel 300 multi tool
Butane mini-torch (Dremel Versatip)
Vice

Materials:
Brass block
Stainless steel balls (5.5mm)
Motor oil
M3 12 screw & nut
Silver solder

I am not going to post a tutorial about making ball joints here as I am not very experienced about these. I listed what I have above, because if you are not able to get professional machinery and equipment and still want to try making ball joints; you can go with something like what I have.

Making ball joints have been the hardest part for me since I started stop motion. I tried cutting different metals with no success. And drilling balls… oh… it was something After many trips to hardware stores here and in Istanbul, talking to many people working with metals finally I was able to find the kind of brass I could cut with Dremel and drill stainless steel balls with a regular drill. I also found some M3 screws as I needed small ball joints and M4 ones were too big.

Here are some great tutorials you can follow to make ball joints:

Lio’s tutorials:
Open Hole Double Ball Joints:
http://www.stopmotionworks.com/ohspics.htm
Drilling Metal Balls:
http://www.stopmotionworks.com/drlballs.htm
Brazing Balls onto Rods:
http://www.stopmotionworks.com/ballbrz.htm

http://www.scarletstarstudios.com/blog/archives/2007/04/new_armature_th_1.html
http://www.scarletstarstudios.com/blog/archives/2007/04/drilling_balls.html
http://www.scarletstarstudios.com/blog/archives/2007/04/drilling_balls_1.html
http://www.scarletstarstudios.com/blog/archives/2007/04/sandwich_plates.html
http://www.scarletstarstudios.com/blog/archives/2007/04/brazing_and_shi.html
http://www.scarletstarstudios.com/blog/archives/2007/04/improving_the_n.html
http://www.scarletstarstudios.com/blog/archives/2006/06/how_to_make_a_b.html

http://www.darkstrider.net/ball_jig.html

http://textbookindustries.com/armatures.html (scroll down to see his drilling jig)

Just follow these tutorials and try your best with what you have. Never give up trying and never think that you can not do without professional machineries.

At this point I would like to share with you a trick to drill steell balls. Even if you have the right machinery and tools, it is still hard to drill the balls. Thanks to DADAS here in Bodrum Sanayi who told me this trick to make the steel balls SOFTER.

ATTEMPERING STEEL: MAKING STEEL BALLS SOFTER TO BE ABLE TO DRILL

Get a big metal pot. Fill it with plaster. Put a stone (heat resistant stone for brazing – I have 2 from our fireplace) on top of the pot. Place the steel ball. Get your torch and heat up the ball until it is totally red. Then drop it into the plaster immediately. Make sure it goes down into plaster and do not get any air/oxygen. Wait for some time until the ball is cold. Take it out and you have a softer steel ball !!! Dont worry it is still very hard and you will spend some time and effort to drill it.

If you are having hard time drilling the balls, try this process. It works great!!!

TORSO, LEGS, TAIL AND NECK

Above photos are self explanatory. Cut the brass into body shape. Drilled holes for the neck, legs, wings and tail. Used 5 min. epoxy putty to fix up connection points and to make the bones.

WINGS

There is a ball joint connected to wire for each wing. I drilled 2 small holes on the back of ball joints to connect wires. Wings need to be fully closed on some of the shots. It is impossible to fully close the wings when there are wires on the joints. So I made each wing 2 parts. You see the white plastic parts above. There are metal parts inside with 2 screws. I used these to make the second part of the wing detachable. So, when I animate, I will close the wings as much as possible then take off the second parts and have only the first parts as a closed wings. This will also allow me to replace a wing if it breaks. I will keep this in mind when covering the wings with feathers.

I will put some rigging points and the armature will be ready to go for feathers. The head will be made out of super sculpy and I will use liquid latex to cover legs and fingers. I will post all when I complete.

And something personal: My husband Hakan… he has been with me all through my stop motion advanture. He supports my effort with all of his heart. He helps me out whenever he can. Commenting on the things I make, giving me some great ideas, going to stores trying to find materials I need, searching on the net, standing the noise I make while I work with metals in the house. And he will me making the sound of this film. Thank you my superman!!

Long time no post but hard work… I have been trying to figure out making ball&socket armatures. I wanted to post when I HAD something to show.

I first started with a wire armature for Kush but after couple of different wire tests, I decided to try ball joints. Kush will make a lot of things like flying, landing, shaking head, sitting,.. so she need to have a good armature. Shoulder joints are the ones who break easily. Now I am working on an armature mixed ball joints and wire/epoxy.

Here is my first ball joint ( I will round the corners of plates around the ball)

Since I started stop motion I have learnt a lot of things but this has the been the hardest one for me. Working with metals is not the problem. Finding the right materials is the hardest thing.  I live in a small town not much alternatives here. 

Anyways.. Kush’s armature will be mixed ball joints and wire with epoxy putty. I will post details later as I am still working on the armature.

I have DREMEL 300 to cut metals, Black &Decker drill (not  a drill mill..) and DREMEL VersaTip for welding. I use brass plates, steel balls and rods, silver wire for welding. I was not able to drill the balls so instead I cut the ball and placed rod inside for welding as it is shown on the first picture. It is now pretty strong after welding. There are many good articles, tutorials about making ball & socket armatures on the web and I will post URLs later with my tutorial.

And another thing… Hey I now have liquid latex This might seem funny but I have been tring to find liquid latex for the last 8 months. Last week my sister came here with a bottle of liquid latex she bhought in Istanbul at Armagan Boya in Karakoy. Many thanks to my friend Niyazi who told me about this store and to my sister who went there and picked up a bottle to bring here. She also found some very nice eagle feathers. Very dark and shinny.. Those would look great on Kush.

Here is my first liquid latex covered hand:

As this is a test; two fingers are direct liquid latex over wire and others covered with pantyhose before latex. It works pretty good and I am soooooo happy to have liquid latex.

EDIT on 7th:

Yesterday I posted on stopmotionanimation.com asking for reviews of the armature drawing I made. Most of the people replied writing me about the metal thickness of the ball joint I made. They were telling me to use thicker ones. I have limited machinery and I was not sure if I could cut thicker metals. Today, I wanted to give it a try and bhought some thicker brass. And it worked! I can cut and shape thicker brass with Dremel tool. And the result after long dusty process:

This thing is really small.. I could not believe for a while that I did this 12×8 mm
And another BIG BIG process for me… I was able to drill the ball !!!! (6mm) I applied a special treatment to the ball to make the steal softer and vaowww I was able to drill it. I will post about this unique information an old person gave me here, later with my tutorial post. So, thats all for now. Tomorrow is a big day,.. working on real joints… no more tests.

Here he is Adem’s armature. I received this armature couple weeks ago but did not have a chance to post here. It is simply beautiful. Many thanks to Erol Akbarci who made this armature for me. It works great!!! Very clean, carefully produced.

This is 5.5″ You see that he has very long arms. I also had some additional parts; longer leg, arm and body connection parts. So, in the future I will be able to replace the parts to have different armatures with different proportions. He can be 7″ longest.

Here is the drawings I sent him for production. (texts are in Turkish) If you like to download a larger size of this drawing you can go to downloads  page. There you will also find another drawing showing the additional parts.

I placed an order for a custom ball & socket armature for Adem. It has been an hard decision to make…

For me stop motion is a real art form. I do not expect to make money out of it. This is not my “job” instead this is my “art” that I am learning step by step. So, at first, it did not sound right to me to order an armature. I should have done everything in my hands. Here you can read how I decided to have someone else make the armature for me.

So, the choices were;
1-using the puppet with wire armature I made,
2-trying to build a ball & socket armature on my own,
3-buying one of those ready-made kits and modifying.
4-ordering a custom ball & socket armature

Let me explain… This is my first stop motion film. So, experimenting everything. Two steps forward, one step backwards.. Learning, learning.. I first started with building a wire armature for Adem. Using wire and epoxy putty for the armature, covering with foam to give a body form and sewing some clothes. Hands made out of silicone and the head made out of super sculpy. Before I finished the final Adem puppet you see under “Attempts”; I tried couple different wire armatures, different wires, epoxy putties,.. diffent clothing, couple different heads with sculpy.. So, after all, I did some animation tests. Those were okey but not as good as I expected…

I am not after a super cool, “successfull” animation here. But, I want to get a little smoother movement on the set. Regarding the smooth movement; I like to leave the feeling of stop motion on the puppets when animated (you know that little interval in between each frame telling the audience that -hey I am being animated here frame by frame and someone here working hard with her heart to make me alive…) But at the same time I dont want to get a mechanic look. I believe that each puppet has its own spirit and sometimes the spirit needs to be released to be free without considering the restrictions of being inside a puppet. This is how I approach stop motion as an art form.

Back to the armature… Many pros are out there working with puppets made out of wire armatures. They get great results. It is about experience, knowledge and ofcourse talent! I also have a bird character: kush and I am going to be making a wire armature and animating with that. It is going to be another long process, many attempts… I may try making my own wire, ball & socket mixture armature. but for Adem as a main character of my film; I do not want to ruin my animation because of the problems of wire armature I made.

So, second choice was trying to build a ball & socket armature on my own… Yeah, it could be done if I had the machinery and equipment or I could have tried with some ready made parts. This is whole another process. I imagine how much time I would have spent on trying to build good working ball & socket armature. I will DEFINETELY try for the next project. But not for this one. There are many other things I need to learn. Also, when I try making my own ball & socket armature; I will have a good one in my hand as a reference. (Hey, shhhh.. I have not hold any stop motion armature before. The only one I saw is the one with wire armature I made.)

Okey, why didn’t I prefer buying one of those ready-made kits?
There are many companies selling ball & socket armature kits in many different sizes and quality. Naming couple: Skeletoon, Armaverse, AnimationSupplies. These are the ones seem better among with many others. You buy one from them; modify as much as you can: change proportions, fix joints (change a double ball joint to a one ball joint where it is need such as in the arms..) Price range is $100-$400 depending on the brand, size, type. You can find more expensive ones or even cheaper ones. I have never used one of those. I read many forum posts of the people who purchased these kits on different sites. As far as I have seen the material used and the design may cause some problems. I was not convinced about those kits being worth the money. If you are trying to decide, you can also read the news-byte-commentary about Armature Kits at Stop Motion Works.

I decided to order a custom armature spending some of the money I left for expenses such as buying lights, stopmo software,… Using a good armature will add a lot to the film I will be shooting. So, it is all about your priority.

If you are a newbie, be sure to start with making a wire armature. Then go further with a ball & socket one, either buy an armature kit, try making your own or purchase a custom armature… This is a suggestion from someone who is new to stopmotion but taking it very seriously.