Stop Motion Metal Armature Full Of Tools
Stop Motion Metal Armature Professional Stop Motion

The key is to build up 3 layers so that your pin has plenty of support and is less likely to move around as you manipulate your puppet.

Stop Motion Metal Armature Professional Stop Motion

Every professional Stop Motion Animator I have worked with has their own preferred techniques, materials and processes.

Stop Motion Metal Armature Full Of Tools

The problem is, puppet building can involve expensive materials, complicated processes, a workshop full of tools and a large space for building purpose-made stages for your set.

What is special about puppets made for Stop Motion Animation Firstly, your puppet must be lightweight.

It needs to handle the stress Your Tie-down system determines how you build your sets and how you will animate your puppet.

Our Basic Armature Design After years of working with Animation professionals students and Animation enthusiasts, I have developed an affordable armature system which I use for most of my workshops now.

This system is so quick and simple that I run workshops with our members who can design, build and animate their puppet in just one day.

These processes are constantly adapting but the movie below shows the very basic version using our pin-down technique for anchoring the puppet.

Video Tutorial Materials Here is the current materials list for our pin-down armature: Terminal strips These are fantastic, they can be used to create armatures for human or animal puppets all you need a small flat-head screwdriver.

Regardless of this, it is wise to twist thin wire together so that you have back-up if a strand snaps, this becomes more likely on stress points as your puppet get used more.

It is my current head model material of choice though because it is so lightweight.

It can also be easily painted, is nice an matt and can take pin-eyes and glued-on elements such as hair.

Polymorph Multimorph My members love this stuff as it is MAGIC It sets completely hard within seconds and can be re-melted in hot water.

There is a knack to working with it and you have to work fast.

Map Pins These are part of my essential animation kit, they are surprisingly expensive though, especially when you are just buying white ones for eyes.

Spade Crimp Terminals These are not essential as you can just use the polymorph straight on your wire.

I find that popping your pin through the hole in the Spade Crimp stops it from becoming wobbly over time and helps keep your pin straight when making your feet.

Young Animators Club make dozens of puppets every month so I buy large quantities of these materials and can produce a single armature for 1.11.

If you are just building one or two puppets then the cost per puppet is greater, often my students will buy a pot of Polymorph or a tub of Model Magic and split it between them to keep the costs down.

Your chosen system will determine how you animate your puppet and what surface you animate them on.

PIN-DOWN Our pin-down system is ideal if you are short of space and it is by far the quickest and cheapest system.

Pros Stages can be built from either Foam-board or corrugated cardboard.