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I have completed the sculpt for the main character M. This was made from Newplast as I find it easier to work with and you can still maintain a high finish. As this is a sculpt for making the puppet I had to make in parts.

I ran several tests to determine the ease of function with my armatures and the results indicate a few things that I will discuss in more detail through this post.

I found out in this test how much I cannot animate in stop motion. I am so use to digital methods that this woke me up a great deal about actual animation. It was difficult to measure up poses at first and it is evident in this tests below and the subsequent examples following that I have a lot to learn about stop motion animation.

The second thing I can confirm is that this armature is able to sustain a pose and even though it was difficult at times to work with, I believe that progress has been made to utilise this technology.

I would like to provide samples to professional stop motion animators and see what they think of this taking in to consideration that this is a supplement for students to use as the costs are reduced considerably if using one of my printed armatures. I hope to have Linda McCarthy and Barry Purves to try these out. Their input whether positive or negative will be most valuable.

As tests go, this armature does work but may be limited in movement. I have determined that the hips need another joint to allow more movement around this region. I will redesign the hips to allow for this or simple reduce the size. I will run several more test.

With regards to my animation ability, I can only practice using this armature, not only to understand and improve my animation skills but this is an armature that needs to be practice with to understand it’s limitations.

I wanted to practise 10-20 minute concept sketches to help me with my drawing and creative thinking skills. There series of sketches took between 10-20minutes using photoshop. The idea behind these is to provide a little bit detail into the environments that will feature throughout the film.

The tree where M seeks refuge from the start of the storm. I took reference from the tree image I found online where it bridge between two mounds. The ideas of having its routes exposed gives the impression that this feel more alive and roams around the lands. 

The cave entrance that eventually leads M to the Cave of Reflection is meant to look dark and full of history as if this place have existed for centuries. This invites some interesting lighting set up where I need some experience.

The woodland tree line. This is the start of the fantasy part of the film. This introduces the journey and triggers the storm. 

The bench and lamp resting next to the train line features throughout the film and it looks like that M keeps coming to this place. 

I wanted to narrate some of the scenes from my Previs to help explain some of the decisions made when solving the direction of the film.

I believe that commentating on my film could possibly encourage students to think more about how they set up shots and use cameras. The commentary also includes some reflection on feedback given to me during the making of this pre-vis. 

This is the current and hopefully the final armature design that fits into the main Character of my film. I assembled it using a combination of materials to maintain stability. 

The head and lower arms were made using square K&S tubing for replacement parts as I expect that I would need a supply of replacement hands. 

The head is made from foam and markers will be placed for object tracking purposes. The assembly was straight forward and simple to make with some clean up of the printed parts. The material itself is easy to file down and will still maintain most of its structural integrity.

The breakdown cost of this particular Armature are as follows:

20xPrinted parts: £6, 24xBall Bearings £14, 6xK&S square tubing: £1, 2xMagnets £1, Foam Free (from scrap), 3xM3 Threads rods: £2, Total: £24 

It is time to begin testing my armatures on how well it actually animates before I cast my puppet. This will help flush out any issues I may come across and see if there is any remedy for it.

First I needed something to reference by and so I looked for refeeencing material. I came across this great little character reference reel from the film Baby Boss.

I intend to recruit some student actors to play the role of the characters in the film. Even though I could probably do it myself, I could not achieve the level of performance I am looking for.

This is a brilliant tutorial the outlines some of the key techniques when animating a quadruped. Though the motion is not perfect, this gives me a starting point for when I animate the cat.