Armature for The Mechanic

The armature for The Mechanic is slightly odd. The character is not a regular shape and I do not have to show his feet so it took me a lot of thinking to try and work out how I would build him. I hope what I have made will stay intact while animating and will allow me to move the puppet how I want to. Here is what I did...

As I did with The Man's Armature I cut the K and S and wire I needed to the correct sizes. 

The structure for the armature will come from these three washers which the arms and one set of leg wires will be joined to. This will give the puppet a solid foundation that I can build around.

I then began to bulk out this section so that I could attach the K and S for the second set of leg wires.

Here are all the limbs, the beginnings of the bulking out and the feet blocks. I have made the feet/legs out of a heavy wood so that they will be solid.

I drilled holes in the bottom of the leg/feet wood blocks and glued in some more nuts so that I can tie them down the same way as The Man.

I drilled holes in the top of the wood blocks so I could put K and S in so that they would also be replaceable.

I made the second set of leg wires bendy so they they would support the first set as they will move in a different way. Hopefully having the two sets of wires there is less chance of the wire snapping.

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.

Pre-Production Selection

I have now just about completed all my planing and pre-production flat work for my film. I now will have to make a start on the build.

Here is a selection of my work to give you an idea of what to expect.

This is an idea of how I want the title card to be like to give a feeling for what the film will be like.

This is the model sheet for them main Man character.

This is the model sheet for The Mechanic character.

This is my design so far for the machine but I may have to change the size of the coin slot and number dial.

This is a quick mock up of the surface set a made to get an idea for the scale of the characters and the lighting of the set.

I did the same for the cave set. Making this helped me work out how big the cave would need to be and how I would build the cave.

This is one of my colour script pages to give you an idea of the contrast and flow the film will hopefully have.

Teaser for Final Film (made with after effects)

Here is a spoof advertisement for The Machine that is in the story for my final film. I made it as part of the Adobe After Effects Uni Project. This project taught me the basics of After Effects and so I will hopefully be able to use this knowledge in my final film.

Final Character Designs

I have finally finalised my character design.

This is the hero of the story  I will call him John. He is going to propose to his girlfriend but does not think she will say yes. To help me stylise my designs I looked at 'Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs' which helped he simplify my designs.

 This is his Girlfriend. She will only appear as a photograph. If I have time I will sculpt he head or either collaborate or just use a drawing of her.

This is The Mechanic who lives in the cave in the centre of the world. He guards and takes care of the coin operated machine that rotates the earth. I hope that he will move quite oddly to emphasise his eternal nature.

This is the design for the trees on the surface of the world and the old wishing well where John makes a wish that his girlfriend will say yes when he proposes. 

 This is the rough design for the machine but, I will have to change it as I have changed my story slightly.

I now plan to make an animatic to time out the changes I have made to the story.

Character Development and Sculpting Practice

I attempted to develop my character designs more this week. To do this I practiced my sculpting with plasticine.

This is the sculpt I did last week but I pushed the head further down to stylize the proportions so that he would look more otherworldly.

I attempted to sculpt the Man's head but was not happy with the results. I will have to develop this character some more I think.

I also attempted to sculpt a girls face to help me design the Girlfriend. It may not look female but gave me a good practice at sculpting heads and an idea of the difference between male and female faces.

Here are my character designs so far for the two main characters.


I hope to collaborate with some people to help me design these characters as I know design is not my strong point.

Afternoon Sculpt

I sculpted this old man chcharacter to help me with my character design.