Jekyll Puppet: Foam Buildup
Here’s the WIP Jekyll puppet, with his basic shape built up using upholstery foam on top of the wire armature I made earlier. In these pictures you can also see a bit of the stage, which is basically two pieces of masonite pegboard nailed to sections of a two-by-four. The stage area is 2 feet by 2 feet. Thanks to Erick Hershey from the Art Institute of Philadelphia for the pegboard idea!
Why is he nailed to the peg board? Or is that done at the initial stage when your making the puppet?
Hey Suchi,
Each of his feet has a nut in it, which is bolted to the pegboard from below. This is to tie the puppet’s feet down and hold it steady while the frame is shot. If he raises one foot, the bolt for that foot will be loosened from below before that foot can be animated.
Without tie-downs, the puppet will fall in no time. More on this method of construction here.
How does one hide the bolts in a LS?
Since most of the bolt is under the stage, and the part that goes into the foot will be hidden under the top surface of the shoe (which I’ll probably make soon), the bolts won’t be seen. The holes in the stage, however, may be seen in the Long Shots (depending on the camera angle). In a real shoot, animators only drill holes where they need them, and fill in any visible holes with some kind of soft putty or paste that matches the floor color. Since this stage is just for practice and tests, the visible holes will be acceptable here.
If you see the special features on the “Nightmare before Christmas” DVD, you’ll see some animation tests of Jack walking where they used such tie-downs.
Aardman, on the other hand, don’t use tie-downs. They use strong magnets instead, to hold the feet down.
hi ther i was wondring if u had a totorial on how to build an armature from wire iv seen your work and its really amazing
Thanks, Kenneth! Glad you liked my work.
For the armature, I followed the steps from a DVD tutorial by Kathi Zung, who made puppets for MTV’s “Celebrity Death Match”. Here’s her web site: http://www.angelfire.com/anime4/zungstudio/
It’s a very inexpensive DVD, and even if you’re not building foam latex puppets, you can benefit from the section on making an armature. When you order it, she sends you a worksheet with a very helpful armature diagram. She also offers free e-mail support.
Try it out, and good luck with your efforts!