First prototype

1/12/2012

I have attended a series of workshops in order to get a prototype puppet finished with the guidance of a texhnician and in the process will learn a new form of skinning that I haven't tried before.

I was working to this scal drawing (left) throughout the workshop. As the scale of the puppets neck is so long compard to the waist I really had no idea whether this would be a success or not, but then that is the whole purpose for a prototype!

Armature:

(top left): wire armature made to size of scale drawing, including hands, with milliput set around chest and waist.
(right): polymorph bones measured to size on the scale drawing.
(bottom left): bones fixed to armature. Lightweight core is prepared and shaped from a bit of yoga mat. (Sorry yoga mat!)

(below): soft layer is attached to armature and arm wire is trimed with makeshift K&S attached ready for hands as well as actual K&S attached on neck ready for head. All attached by araldite.

Hands:

A layer of very fine sporting injury foam is wrapped around the wrist to bulk it out to give hand a more realistic shape (the librarians hands are very elongated and exagerrated but you get what I mean). The hands are then dipped into skin coloured latex for a number a times, each time leaving that layer to dry first. Once an adequate amount of latex has been applied I then cut the excess off at the wrists to leave a neat seam for where the hand will join onto the arm.

These were then ready to slot into the wrist K&S:

Tie-downs:

I had made puppet tie-downs before, however with only one point of anchoring. These tie-downs were to have three. As the Librarians feet are very large this will be extremely useful when animating.

To begin with I cut the ends off of the twists of wire at the feet and carefully unwravelled the wire up to the ankle, leaving three strands on each foot.

The next part is quite difficult to explain, but the diagram and photo below is basically what I did: creating an ankle it the back, holding the screw and bolt in the centre, with wire for an animatable section at the tip.

I then set some milliput around the ankle and end of the foot with an open section in the middle to allow for movement. Whilst it was still setting I stuck two pins at a diagonal into the ankle and two at the front also at a diagonal. This will set the milliput with holes for pins to work as tie downs in the front and back of the foot when the screw is not needed or cannot reach the table with the extra foot animatable ability.

Soft layer:

I have previously only work in latex and foam when skinning a puppet, so learnt a new way with wadding and fabric for this puppet.
Using wadding sprayed lightly in spray mount to help attach it to the body I stitched this into the necessary areas that needed thickening up (knee-caps, ankles, chest etc.). I then applied a very thin layer of this over the whole body.

Skinning:

This was a case of stitching fabric (lightly coated in spray mount) tightly around the puppets limbs to give the impression that it is wearing clothes. The fabric I used was a mixture of leggins and tights which will allow the puppet good movement and not be restrictive. I have used a white thread so it's easier for everybody to see what I did.