Experimental Animation - 2D Paper Puppet

-






After finalizing the character design, my next step was planning each puppet. 

I started with the 2D paper puppet, because I was still waiting on some materials for the 3D stop motion puppet. I first planned the joints and pieces digitally. That way, I could get a rough idea of how the final range of motion would work before I start carving the black for the final puppet print. All the parts worked well digitally, so I printed out a test puppet on cheap paper to see how well it worked physically




 



For the most part I was happy with the first physical test. There were a could weeks that needed to be made, like moving the thigh in front of the shin (video below) and changing a couple of connection points, but I was satisfied with how the the whole puppet moved. 


I could then move on to the next step: carving the lino block. Using the modified digital copy of all the separated, I transferred the lines onto the block using graphite and baking paper.









Cutting the block in total took around 4-4.5 hours. For my first time cutting a lino, I'm pretty pleased with the result. Some of the more delicate lines don't translate as well from the original design to the lino block, but I already guessed that would happen. As long as the face can still be read on the final print, I'm happy. 






The next step for the paper puppet is cutting and assembling. I'm very happy with how it turned out. The texture is exactly what I imagined when I thought of making this puppet with linocut. 

In total I would say this puppet took me around 3 days make, from designing the parts and layout to printing and assembling. 









Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Experimental Animation - Stop Motion Puppet

-
Image
The stop motion puppet is done!Its body was built out with quilt batting, which I then was able to needle felt into to create the fur texture and markings.  I used aluminum foil for the base on the head, and then covered it in air dry paper clay. There are 2 tiny magnets embedded on either side of the muzzle for the replacement mouths. I then covered the paper head in felt. The ears were made by sandwiching some wire between two layers of felt. There are two holes in the head the they slot into, making them removable and posable. The eyes are wooden beads that are stuck in the sockets with a bit of blue tack. The toes were all sculpted with paperclip and covered in felt, just like the head. They're stuck on wire, so they are also fully articulated.  After building out the body with quilt batting, needle felting didn't actually take too long, I would say maybe a day or two. Animating the walk cycle took about an hour and a half, and animating the expression test took around two...
Read more

Animation 2B - Rough Animation

-
  Before starting in on the actual animation, I went ahead and made some headshot turnarounds for the two owl characters. That way I can use them as reference to keep all the shots consistent with each other and the character designs.  The first scene I animated was the bit right after the older sibling pulls the younger one out from under the bell. I figured this one would be good to start with since it is a very close, intimate moment between the two with a far among of small character acting in their interaction. 
Read more

3D Modelling - Assignment 2

-
Image
Assignment 2 is complete! For this one, I chose to model a telescope. I've always been interested in astronomy and antiques, so an antique telescope was the perfect choice. Because I have never done any sort of 3D modelling, I wanted to make this project non-organic to get a good basic grip on the concepts and tools. That way I didn't have to worry about whether or not it was smooth enough or detailed enough for something naturalistic. I started out with the telescope itself, using spice planes and the extrude tool to create the brass rings. Then I moved onto the stand. The base was made out of a cylinder and a lot of slice planes, just like the telescope, to get the right look. The legs were made out of an elongated chamfer box. The end caps and the sections were again made with slice planes and the extrude tool.  The most complicated bit was definitely the two rails on the side that connect the telescope to the stand. At first I tried booleans, but that didn't give me the...
Read more