Constructing the Stop Motion Puppet

        In building the stop motion puppet, the influences of the theatrical puppet were to be found in the structure, so it is upon this area that I concentrated, rather than the surface design, as while stop motion does share theatre's artifice, it often relies upon a greater sense of verisimilitude, of disguising the inner structure and armature beneath. Theatre puppet's on the other hand are at greater liberty to leave everything on show. However, from watching animation tests of partly finished puppets, such as Corpse Bride it is possible to be caught up in the illusion of life, even without a finely decorated surface. 

        Initially, I was tempted to construct a miniature anatomically correct deer skeleton, joint for joint. However, by stepping back and concentrating and learning from the construction of the theatrical puppet, I have realised that this is just not necessary. While fluid movement is no doubt important, especially for an elegant regal animal like a red deer, I would not in all probability be animating each and every vertebra. The War Horses seem to manage very well without any movement in their back. While I wasn't quite sure enough to commit so entirely to the theatrical influence as to completely leave the armature on show, I did reduce the back to three joints, to create the distinct hump evidenced in my designs.

        Constructing the armature gave me a chance to put some of the knowledge shared by Animation Toolkit into action, beginning by carefully cleaning any greasy residue away in order to enable the Loctite to fix firmly, assisted by a generous 24 hour period for it to fully go off.

        Another way in which the stop motion was influenced by the theatrical was in the use of the bulkheads. Taking Animation Toolkit's advice on the use of car sponges for fleshing out the armature, I combined this with my plans for the theatrical stag, itself inspired by Handspring's hyena. Rather than attempt to sculpt the sponge freehand from a single block, or several blocks attached over the armature, I scaled up the plan I had drawn of the neck and body sections, using these as templates to cut out 'slices' of the puppet's body. Once each of these segments was cut, some were thinned at the top, to accommodate the curve of the body, particularly around the thicker, barrel chested front end, before being stuck together and fixed in place over the armature

        Over the quite delicate armature (which has some troublesome joints which loosen very easily) even the soft car sponge seemed quite dense and rigid. This is no trouble for the back, which as previously discussed will not need great levels of articulation, and may even be beneficial as it will provide support and structure, preventing the armature from moving in unwanted ways. However, in the areas with the looser joints, the sponge would fight the armature, and force it out of position while being animated. Consequently, I chose to shape the legs with a thin packaging foam, which can be layered up to create body around the threads of the armature, but not over the joints. Of course, appropriately sized bits of car sponge could be applied, leaving free the joints (which will need readjusting regularly), and then sculpted to shape.

        Having never worked with foam before I was pleased with the results. Employing the bulkhead templates has enabled me to accurately reproduce the shape of the theatre puppet on a small scale, and the puppet already more closely resembles a solid, living breathing animal, than when it was simply a bare armature. It would have been beneficial to hand over the armature to an animator, to enable then to experiment with the structure, and see whether the theatrically influenced armature is capable of producing a performance which convinces one of the illusion of life.