Started the puppet last night by building the armature. I’m making a wire armature from strands of 16 gauge Utility Wire ($4.48 at Lowe’s.) 2 or 3 strands of this wire are twisted together to make pieces, using a bench vice and a power drill to turn it. Apparently, it’s a good idea to shoot for 3-4 twists per inch for the pieces.

The arms, neck and head are each made from 2 strands twisted together. The chest, legs and feet are 3 strands twisted together. The 3 strands are pretty tough to bend. Since they aren’t going to be supporting clay, but rather foam, I probably should have used 2 strands. I’ll be swearing about that when I animate. Also, my needle-nose pliers seemed to be taking small chips out of the wire as I was manipulating it. I fear that this will weaken the wire and shorten its life. I should look into rubber-lined pliers or something for handling the wire.

After I had the wire shaped, I fastened it to a scrap piece of wood using machine screws. To create “bones,” I used “FastSteel” epoxy putty, ($2.47, Lowe’s.) The putty is a tube of two differently-colored putty materials. You cut a slice from the tube of putty and then knead it together until there is no marbling. You then have about 5 minutes to shape it before it hardens. Within a little while, it’s completely solid. While molding it, I dipped my fingers in water to keep the material from sticking to my fingers and then to smooth out the “bones.” One mistake I made here, I think, was in making the hip bone too large. Later when I played with bending the legs a bit, the hip started to crack. Poor fella will probably have a nasty limp now.

I carved a head from blue insulation styrofoam. Since the head will be clay, the blue foam takes up mass so that the final head isn’t too heavy. The hands will be clay, too. Not sure about the feet yet.

This morning, I began covering the armature in foam. I had one of those foam egg-crate mattress pads that I wasn’t using that will provide the foam for probably a hundred puppets. I cut up pieces and built up the foam body using Liquid Nails adhesive ($2.27, Lowe’s). Then I used small sewing scissors to trim the body into shape. I’m still working away on this. The sculpt doesn’t need to be perfect because I’m going to cover the body in clothing, anyway. Sculpting in foam mattress pad with scissors and liquid nails is a little bit messy right now, but I’m a messy art-and-crafter.

(I learned about this stuff from reading posts on this website and watching this video.)

It’s off to Omaha with Jen, visiting some of her friends there. I’m looking forward to Omaha steaks and meeting Jen’s friends and living amongst lots of corn for a few days. I’ll have pictures eventually.

Work continues on Gweeb Puppet Theater, or whatever we’re calling it. Over the weekend, I setup a small animation set in my studio and animated a Xevoz (http://www.hasbro.com/pl/page.viewproduct/product_id.13923/dn/default.cfm) skeleton figure kneeling, standing, stretching and walking. (These figures are sweet, by the way. You custom build your own figure and then battle your friend’s figure. You get to knock off armor, weapons and eventually body parts. Kinda like “Army Dodgeball” that I played as a kid.) The movie didn’t turn out so hot, but I’m getting a feel for how to make movements seem smooth, easing in and easing out, anticipation, that sort of thing.

I have a short 7 minute film all storyboarded and ready to go, but I think I’m going to do some simple, short test films before I start the “big” one. (Yeah, 7 minutes is pretty huge for me right now.) I’ve drawn up a simple “everyman” type character and I plan to begin work on the puppet this week. Still thinking about simple, short story ideas.

Yesterday, I found myself in “Babies R’ Us” for the first time ever. I was there with a coworker whose child kept pointing at me and saying “dada.” I think it’s great that she’s already familiar with the art world, even if she’s currently only interested in an irrational and cynical art movement from the early 1900s.

As it turns out, much that I thought was clay is actually foam laytex. For example, the puppets on MTV’s Celebrity Deathmatch looked just like clay, but they are actually foam puppets made from a mold. The artist who created most of those puppets, Kathi Zung released a DVD that explains the whole process. ( http://www.angelfire.com/anime4/zungstudio/ ) Aardman, the guys who created “Chicken Run” and “Wallace and Gromit” creates foam puppet bodies and then uses plasticene, a type of modeling clay that doesn’t dry out, for the hands and heads. Foam has several advantages over clay. It retains its shape, so there is no need to resculpt between frames. It is not as heavy as clay, so the armature isn’t strained and it’s easier to animate. Foam doesn’t get as dirty as clay can get - it just looks cleaner. Of course, with clay you can achieve more dynamic movement - it’s maleable. Some characters, like blobby, transforming characters need to be created in clay. It’s also much easier to build a clay puppet. No messy chemicals to fuss with or molds to create. To generalize, clay puppets are easier to make and harder to animate. Foam puppets are difficult to make and easier to animate.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this. I believe that for my story, I will build a foam puppet. This is a scary undertaking for me. I’m not especially crafty with my hands, nor handy with tools. I figure that after a few puppets, that should change.

The process of creating a foam puppet is fairly well documented on the web, I think. There are also a few good books that discuss the process. Incidentally, this is the same process that movie effects studios use to create various props, and that Henson uses to create puppets. I’m chomping at the bit to get started on learning such a cool artform.

Watching the Rankin Bass puppets of “Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer” planted the notion on Christmas Eve. The characters, though not animated entirely well, are wonderfully designed. The sets are simple and have a nice homemade feel. I began thinking about other stop-motion and claymation films I had seen. “Nightmare Before Christmas,” “The Wrong Trousers,” and “WIl Vinton’s Claymation Christmas” all had their effect on me. I spent the better part of the 2004 holidays watching anything I could get my hands on that was animated puppetry of some sort.

I started thinking insane things like, “I can do this,” promptly followed by, “yeah, but who would want to?” I thought about all the things you would have to do to make a film go - and as the list got bigger, I got more and more interested. Now, I suffer from a serious but hopefully not fatal case of lack-of-focus. That’s why this is the perfect project for me. There is so much to do, including drawing, writing, sculpting, music, etc., I can move on to another area when I become restless - rather than dropping the project altogether like I’ve done in the past. Turns out THAT’S why I have little to show artistically. The many facets of stop-motion film-making, and a whole lot of self-discipline, should hold my interest/attention fast.

Once I get an interest, I research the hell out of it. I used to do that as a kid, but without the Internet, it wasn’t very easy. I love the Internet. I heart google. Sometimes, after researching something and learning about it, I burn out on the idea and stop. I move on and learn about something else. Unfortunately, you can’t show your brain cells to people - looking at brain cells won’t elicit an emotional response in an audience, or at least not the kind I’m after. Neural maps are only interesting to psychologists (and just barely.) I need to do something with the knowledge so that people respond.

I google-searched for information on how Rankin Bass made and animated their puppets. This led to some great websites. I’ve since moved on from Rankin Bass-specific info to anything and everything that is homemade stop-motion film-making. Here are the websites I have found most helpful:
Marc Spess’ http://www.animateclay.com (Marc is creating his own series of stop-motion shorts called “Zombie Pirates.” He has written about his process, and that information has been extremely helpful to me.)
Anthony Scott’s’ http://www.stopmotionanimation.com/ (Anthony has created a strong community of stop-motion artists through his website. I currently lurk around the message boards - no end to the knowledge there.)
Nick Hilligoss’ Online Album, http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?username=hilligossnic (Nick is a true do-it-yourselfer with lots of advice from years of self-producing. I’ve been learning a lot from his posts at stopmotionanimation.com and from his website of photos from his productions.)

One possible definition of stop-motion is that it is the art of making stopped things move. For awhile now, creatively I have been at a stand-still. On Christmas day, I watched “Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer,” on DVD, a gift from a friend. It sparked a notion in my brain - the tactile, realness of puppets and the homemade quality of the world in which they lived. This really appeals to me. There is personality in imperfection. It also seems like fun to try to fool the eye with physical effects. I love CGI, but I’ve tried that on my own and struggled with the tools. Though I would love completing a CGI short film, the tools don’t interest me enough to put in the effort. The tools of stop-motion are real-world crafts with application to real life projects, skills like woodworking, molding, sculpting, painting, photography, tailoring. These are the skills of handy-folks, and who doesn’t want to be handy?

So this is what inspired me to create a stop-motion film - a chance to create characters, (the true meaning of the word “character,” see Chuck Jones,) tell a story, sculpt, paint, build, animate (bring something to life), photograph and use computer programs to bring it all together. My creativity has been given electroconvulsive therapy and is flying over the cookoo’s nest. There are plenty of obstacles between this moment and the moment I’m sitting in my living room with friends and family premiering my short film. I hope to document the process from start to finish, capturing as much as I can. You never know, it might be interesting someday.