Armature For The Man

I started building my Characters last week. First they both need an armature. (a wire skeleton to keep them in position while I animate them)

This was how I built the Armature for The Man...

I started by cutting out the K and S Brass Tubing I needed to make the joins and 'bones' for the armature. I made the hands, arm,s body, head and feet replaceable so that if some of the wire snaps on either of these parts I can quickly mend it without having to take the whole armature apart. I also made a few rigging points so that when the character needs to be off the ground I can keep him in the air with a rig.

I then filed the edges of each to the pieces of K and S so that they would not scratch the wire when I put it through them or cause too much friction when I put the smaller pieces inside the bigger ones

I then twisted three strands of 1.6mm thick wire and cut the sizes I needed for each limb. I then covered the parts of the wire that will bend with heat shrink tubing. This helps keep the wire together and gives it extra support which helps reducing snapping.

I glued the wire to the K and S using an epoxy glue and made hands using twisted 0.5mm wire (two strands).

Then using a hammer and the top of a file I punched dents in the K and S that joined together. This is so that when they slot together they will have somewhere to connect with and they will stay in place once connected. This is important as you do not want the K and S slipping while animating the puppet. 

Here is the final armature without the feet...

I made the feet using metal plates and 4mm nuts for tie-downs. I drilled a hole in the toe of the feet and stuck the nuts to them so I and hold down the feet with threaded bar and a wing nut.