Designing your Character
When designing your character you must think about the movements
that it needs to make before you can begin. You should also think
about the attitude of the character if it should be a cute lovable
character or a mean moody character as this will affect the way
it is designed. Examples of this will be available soon. It also
helps to base your character on animals, machines, etc to help
make them believable to the audience.
How the Character Moves
As described
in the Designing the character section the character should be
able to do all of the movements that you require of it consider
this before you begin construction of your character. If this
is overlooked you may spend considerable time making your character
and it is unable to perform the required movements to convey
the story properly.
The Skeleton (Armature)
Armatures are the skeleton structure of your character and allow
it to move freely but still giving it stabilty and strength a
bit like the bones in our own body. An armature can be made from
a simple wire structure to a proffessional armature with ball
and socket joints etc. These can be made or bought from various
suppliers. For a list of armature suppliers check out the links
page.
A useful book
for constructing your own armatures is the Stop motion Armature
machining book with lots of helpful information on the subject
to buy it click on the book below.
Armatures don't
allways have to be used but it prolongs the life of the character
and keep the character the same throught the animation. Otherwise
there is a danger that the character may change in appearance
by the end of the animation.
For a more in
depth look at armatures and information on constructing your
own check out our selection of books available to buy in the
shop
Constructing
the Body
For details of this check out the selection of books in the shop.
Modeling Details
Modeling the details of the character requires patience and the
ability to work with intricate details. Various tools to help
help you do this task are available. These can range from specially
designed modeling tools for ceramics or dentists tools or some
features can be modeled using kitchen utensils. The price of
modeling doesn't have to be an expensive one. A selection of
tools are available in the shop and other sites that seel tools
can be found in the links section of this site.
Adding Features
When you have your story and know what characters will perform
in it you will then be ready to create your characters. Normal
3D plasticine characters are made with just the plasticine or with an armature which is a skeleton structure
that hold the plasticine up and enables characters to have thinner
legs etc.
However for my animation I have used clay instead of plasticine. This is because
the subject of my animation is about the process of ceramics.
This is difficult to work with because it dries out quickly under
the lights and I am not using any armatures. But the nature of
the characters means that it is possible using this method.
My next animation
will be using plasticine characters and armatures and more detailed
information on this method and material will be available soon.
For more information on creating characters for animation check
out the book Cracking
Animation
Available to buy
from the shop now.
To buy materials
for creating characters check out the shop or the links section
Clothing a Character
Clothing can be made or bought as for dolls etc.
How the character doesn't fall over
The character can either be fixed to the set by screws in the
base of his feet or by the simple use of magnets. The magnet
should be powerful enough to stop the character from falling
over when unsuported. One magnet would be attached to the characters
foot the other to the underside of the set which would probably
be constructed by the use of a thin piece of sheet metal covered
in the appropriate floor covering for your story.
Spare Part's for the most used features
You will undoubtable need spare parts for hands and mouths etc,
so it's always better to make extras before hand saving you time
later when you begin filming.
More than one mouth
needed for speaking
For more information
on the speaking of characters and how to make it look convincing
why not check out cracking animation by peter lord as this gives
a good guide on whats needed and how it should be done. The book
and others is available to buy from the shop now.
Tips and tricks on character construction
Tip1.
Links to suppliers of materials and equipment.
Check out a growing
selection of books available to buy in the shop now.
Compare the prices
on various items from books ,dvds, software, tools, materials
and lots more. Visit kelkoo.co.uk to see how much you could save.
Alternativly check
out the links page for lots more links to sites that help you
in your animating.
