Here's what's going inside the puppets I'm getting ready to make. Most of the stuff above are components of Juergen Kling's StopMo Tech plug-in armature kits, that I bought from Animateclay.com. He recently re-tooled the blocks to be a little smaller, to fit in smaller puppets (like the ones I make). Right in front in the above pic you can see the older and newer chest blocks stood side by side for comparison. I had two of the original kits, and now I discovered Marc is selling the blocks individually for only 12.95 apiece, so I just bought 4 chest blocks. I figure those are the only parts I'll really need, since my design won't really allow for the pelvis block, and most of the puppets need to have tie-downs in their backsides for mounting to their barstools. I can't believe it, but I managed to pack all those parts into this one cannister!
In the top pic you can also see the thumb screws and thumb nuts I got from Smallparts.com to use for tie-downs. Nice!
7 comments:
Sweet metal bliss. Can't wait to see the innards put together to move.
OOOooooo....fancy parts....looks like fun....
Barstools, eh?.....even more fun...
Nice. Do those allow you to have removable wire arms and legs? It looks like there are screw holes that would crip a length of wire to hold it in place.
Ah the sweet smell of hardware
Round em up, move em on, get em up Rawhide!
Those look like nice kits for wire, looking forward to seeing more. Will that fit inside your buster puppet?
Or is this for the Scott heads?
Yes, it's a great little system that allows you to easily replace any limb when it breaks, assuming you've designed and built the puppet in a way that will allow it. If you cast the entire puppet in one piece then it won't really work. So I have a plan to account for that.
The blocks are for the Radke project, but actually are small enough to fit in Buster's chest. In fact, I just might get another one and build Buster mach II. I always intended to do that.
Oooh... What's your plan for dealing with a cast puppet body that goes around a plug-in armature??
--This is a problem that's been a thorn in my brain for quite some time...
Ah, that's actually very simple in my little plan. I'm only casting arms and necks for most of the puppets (actually I'm not sure if I'm doing the necks in silicone or nor yet). The body will just be urethane foam shaped with scissors, and the clothing will hide all the joins. The only reason I need to use silicone at all is because I didn't want all the puppets to have long sleeves.
But yeah, I don't know how to do a naked puppet with a plug-in system. For that you'd be better off with a machined armature or the Hilligoss method, just cast up a new puppet when something breaks.
Actually I'm sure it can be done if we put our minds to it. It would depend entirely on the creature itself and how it's designed. There are always creative ways to hide cuts and scars.
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