Frog security guard
ResearchThe frog character will follow more of an anthropomorphised anatomy. He will run on two legs, but with a stylised cycle. The design will still be fairly proportional, keeping the legs long and the torso short. The feet and hands will be stylised and altered in order to suit what is required of the frog in the animation, especially keeping in mind how the screw downs will fit into the feet. The frog will have very little torso movement and rely on the eyes and mouth for extreme facial expressions.
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Design
Maquetting
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This armature maquette follows the first technical drawing for the frog, it's useful in testing to see how the armature functions without going further into the skinning process. Findings from these animation tests are that the feet need to be a double twist of wire, and that the tie downs can be in the middle of the feet rather than the toes.
I researched the anatomy of frog's legs, mainly focusing on the aesthetic of the shape. The structure being accurate isn't important for this character as he will be completely bipedal and move in the same way as a human.
The first leg I made was very basic, with no shape or character to it, whereas the more recent one has been built up with foam and latex to create a much more appealing leg. |
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I tested a couple of pin down legs but am using screw downs for the final puppet. The picture on the left shows a basic foot with the screws in place. I then thought about how to incorporate the nuts into the design of the foot so that it functioned practically as well as kept the look of the previous maquette (above).
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This head is made by carving a neoprene type material to create a solid armature structure and then building up the shape of the head with sponge, hollow fibre and skinning with tights. At first I found it difficult to control how the tights fit around the head, but after persevering it worked well. The stitches are quite obvious at the back so would need to be worked into the design or tactfully placed so that they wouldn't be seen. This technique animated nicely, allowing plenty of room for the mouth to move and plenty of pliability to make many facial expressions.
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Another method I used to skin the frog was green mueller wrap. I really like how it looks, but after animating it, it was obvious that it didn't move as nicely as the tights, but also that I had put too much hollow fibre and sponge inside the maquette, causing the mouth to be quite springy. A reason that this prototype looks more appealing could be that it follows the design of my character and fits the technical drawing. For the final puppet, I'll use tights, but skinned over a puppet that follows this design.
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