First, I cut up a number of wires roughly double the sizes of the torso, arms and legs of the puppet. I then folded each wire in half and twisted them together to make it stronger. For the arms and legs I made a loop at one end which will be used for tie-down. Next I tied the pieces together by simply twisting the wires together.
Dismembered armature
Once the wires are secured together to create the 'skeleton' of the puppet, I worked on the clay to create the 'flesh'. I recommend letting the skeleton do it himself; it just comes out much better and you avoid getting blamed later for something like a fat ankle. For my puppet I've already given him a name - Blink; 'cause, uhm, he doesn't.
Slap on the torso
Work on the legs
OH GOD! Where is my head?!!
Found it. Whew!
My next step was to fatten it up and play around with reshaping the body parts. 'Cause all my puppets are well-fed and in great physical shape.
The clay is pretty hard when left alone. But under the heat of my lamp it softened very quickly which made it easy to shape it into whatever I wanted. This will work against me during animation since I need it to be firm and undisturbed when I change the pose. Guess I will have to animate in the cold somehow.
It's not quite finished yet. I haven't actually put that much time or thought into what physical characteristics I want it to have. More importantly, it needs the tie-down mechanism to be animate-able. I also think the alien head will have to go. It's fun for a pose but I think I prefer my puppet to be more human and with eye balls. That will have to wait till tomorrow. I already stayed up too late last night for my visual layout project (which I'll share at some point). All work and no sleep makes a something something a cranky bit.....
The Bewildered Alien
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