The key character in the poem is Jock McFee. In this film he will be 250cm tall and made largely of plasticine (the Wallace and Gromit influence). This puppet requires a moving 'skeleton' or 'armature' to make him movable but able to stay in whatever pose he's put into.
The core of the armature is a frame made of twisted aluminium wire with epoxy putty used as 'bones' between the bendy wire joints.
His chest is made from balsa wood which supports square tubes into which the arms and head will fit.
I've deliberately used this sectioned construction as it allows me to change or remake the arms and head easily.
Here you can see the square tubes for the arms and neck. Smaller tubes are a close fit into these. Square tubes are used instead of round to make sure the parts can be put back in exactly the same place if repairs are needed during the animation.
The Hunter of Dunoon
This blog will follow the making of an animated film called 'The Hunter of Dunoon'. The story is taken from the soundtrack which is a recording of my late father, Tim Norfolk, reading his own poem of the same title.
This is my first attempt at animation and will be a serious learning process for me. No doubt this blog will chronicle many mistakes and pitfalls along the way to the final result. It is also my first attempt at writing a blog so we'll see how that pans out as well.
Brief Encounter
This short animation started out as a test of my home built motion control rig and it's control from Dragonframe animation software (more on this later).
It ended up as a full blown love story! My first animated film.
Click here to see 'Brief Encounter' at Vimeo
First Sculpture
I had though I'd need someone else to sculpt the heads of the puppets but thought I'd have a go myself first. After finding a really good on-line tutorial at the 'Doll Maker's Dream' website describing how to make doll's heads from clay I set about following the instructions using Plasticine.
I was amazed at how easily the following chap fell out of the clay!
Not the most handsome face you'll ever see but good enough to convince me that a bit more practice might be well worth the effort.
