Development: Figure armatures

For the last couple of weeks I've been working on my figures to use in my stop motion piece. I had decided to buy some wire at a gardening shop and then construct the wire frame for the figures. Then I was going to coat it with plastercine. However when I had tried moving the figure the wire kept cutting through the plastercine.

 

As you can see in the pictures my frame was very loose and uncontrolable. When plastercine was applied I could pose it alright, at least until the limbs snapped. In the end the whole thing collapsed. This was due to the wire shredding the plastercine around it. So next I was going to try covering the wires to reduce this. I tried masking tape which works well at covering the wire. The problem was that even though the figure was flexible it was still very loose. I then decided to revise my tactics. 

I asked my lecturer to recommend some books on the subject. Th next day I got some of the books and skimmed through them. For figure modeling the best one was "Stop Motion Craft Skills for Model Animation" by Susannah Shaw, this one had caught my eye because on the cover was a figure sketch and a person making a frame by coiling two strips of wire together. On page 52 is the beginning of the modeling section, where it explains how to make the figure and how to cover it.

I admit I didn't go exactly by the book though I did take segments from it. I began coiling the wire which gave my figure more strength and stability. I wrapped more wire around the lower and upper arms taking care to avoid the elbows. I did the same fore the legs avoiding the knee joints. Though the book calls for an alluminum cover on the arms and legs I decided to go with masking tape which thankfuly worked well.

When constructing my figures I used a scale drawing of a man I had drawn for 3D to ensure a good strong shape. I am very pleased with the end result. To the point where I'm considering not coating the figure in plastercine which is funny becuase my lecturer had suggested that scenario in our last class.

I'm Back with my idea

I'm sorry I know I haven't been posting much lately. This is partly due to personal issues and my inability to accurately time other things. The point is I've either haven't had time or haven't really had much to type.

You'll be glad to know that I have been working on with other things (for this project) this last week which I will get into soon.
I do seem to have forgotten to write up something very important. My idea.

While watching animations featuring stop motion like "Jazz's general problem" or many of the other transformers stop motion out there (theres too many to count), I got really excited about actually trying to make something like this so I set my eyes on stop motion. One of the reasons I want to try this is because it is new territory for me and while I like and am comfortable with Adobe Flash I feel I need to challenge myself.

In the General problem and other movies and shorts I've watched like animtor vs animation or Guyver (enen though I hated it) there have been fight scenes where the characters will do battle. While I did try to animate a fight scene in my youth it didn't turn out so good so this time I'm going to look at fights in the movies and try to create something with a similar feel and energy.

For a fight scene I felt poseable figures would be ideal but then I thought; why not use plastercine afterall its flexability would make for some interesting movements.

So esscentially I want to make a claymation fight scene. I have already chosen the title "Fists of Clay" in a sort of homage to the fight movies that were very famous in the seventies.