Posted by Steve | Posted in Modeling Materials and Techniques | Posted on 25-03-2010
Tags: how to soften modeling clay
What’s the best way to make model ‘actors’ for an animation?
I’ve decided to use dolls instead of making clay figures (kinda slack, I know, heh heh). I’ve bought a cheap doll from a discount store and an Action Man from a St Vinnie’s shop. So far, I’m just experimenting on how to transform them.
I experimented with both. ‘Barbie’s’ face melted (Action Man’s face barely burnt! Whoa, tough guy!) but her legs were thermostat plastic, which softened and warped when I applied the kitchen lighter to them. With her legs, I tried to ‘reattach’ them with plasticine and wire, but the plasticine was too soft, so I’ve decided to use a bit of plaster-of-paris next. But then there’s the issue of the knees (her legs couldn’t bend in the first place, so that’s why I experimented there). If the plaster-of-paris experiment works, what’s the best way to cover up the knees?
Then there’s the faces. I could remove the faces from teh heads and replace them with plasticine ones, but then, how do you go about making them stable? Maybe a small wire frame inside?
The majority of stop motion characters require an armature, which is essentially just a wire skeleton that is inside a character. The armature allows you to bend a character into an position required and stay in that position until you move the character again.
For any specific questions, you should check out http://www.stopmotionanimation.com
It’s a message board filled with stop motion animators helping eachother out. They even have a handbook section that has basic answers and info on a variety of stop motion topics (armatures, sets, cameras, etc)
http://www.stopmotionanimation.com/handbook/
Here’s what they had to say about armatures:
http://www.stopmotionanimation.com/handbook/5.htm
In robot chicken where they use a lot of real toys, the toys need to be gutted and fitted with an armature. I’m not entirely sure why you were burning the plastic, I don’t see why you were doing that in the first place. If you want to make plasticine faces, I don’t see why you need to remove the old faces first. Why don’t you just put plastecine on top of the old faces?
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