Puppet Armature Mk II

Today has proven to be a very productive day indeed. As stated in my last post I would get onto building a new armature as soon as I could. Well I didn't waste any time getting down to doing just that. I went back to my plans and altered the designs. Then, with assistance from my very lovely and unbelievably patient girlfriend Charlotte, I managed to crack out a new and improved armature in the past 12 hours. I'm delighted with the result and have some pictures to share.

New Improved chest block

I have significantly improved the chest block with a more suitable shoulder arrangement. This and the hip block are where my wonderful assistant Charlotte proved to be of immense help, I had her hold the whole thing together whilst I brazed the K&S to the plates, She even did a few of the joints on the armature herself... Brazing is really very simple and can be fun. So a big thank you to Charlotte, who is currently asleep behind me whilst I sit up and get this written up as the days events are fresh in my mind.

Grub Screw plug-ins

The above image shows the new M3 brass nuts and steel Grub Screws I recently bought being put to good use and working a treat. As you can see I have salvaged the old armature feet, hands and even the neck to save on time and resources, however I may opt to update the hands with either a washer epoxy glued to the wire or a Milliput core instead for a sturdier palm. Another feature I've not talked about is the Milliput head core.

Textured Milliput head core so the plasticine face will securely key to it.

I made this a while ago, it has a piece of 7/32 square K&S for the 3/16 on the neck and a 3/16 piece to hold a smaller 5/32 piece that will be attached to the hair. This makes both the head and hair fully and easily detachable. I shall be using more Milliput to sculpt the hair making it durable which will ease the animation of the head eliminating the problem with the hair deforming from constant handling. Why make it detachable? Well I was trying to cover the eventuality that I might have to sculpt several different version of the hair style for extreme poses such as fright or surprise or for more realistic portrayal of sudden movement or in case I want to add head wear. Generally just covering for every eventuality, This puppet is going to need to last and be fairly versatile as it will be the workhorse of my animation practise and testing.

Next I shall be sticking this new armature into the foam body I managed to salvage from the other day's incident. Its a shame to see something so beautiful buried away out of site in less than attractive snip foam but I'll take a few more photo's so I can look back and appreciate its beauty. Lets just hope it'll hold up a damn sight better than the last one.