Biting Bullets

So there I was, all excited about getting started on my animation exercises… I created a little character (see below) and started with a walk, but then the legs weren’t staying straight, the body wasn’t staying in the right position, things were moving after I posed them, the usual.
So of course, I need to make an armature. Well the armature wasn’t cooperating with the plasticine.
So I guess I’ll use sculpey instead and bake it, but yet again the results weren’t what I was after…

And so there I was, faced with a reality that I (for some reason) chose to ignore when initially researching and planning the project, but is now obviously and abundantly clear: I need to use silicone puppets.

In the making of Skullmonkeys they talked about their process - modelling in clay and casting to silicone. I didn’t think it was as authentic as clay, and so I ignored it and now I feel a bit silly.

So the good news is that I still get to create the clay models, and when it comes time to animate them I won’t go insane.
The bad news is that there’s another, somewhat complicated step, and I’ll need to paint the models.

This sort of thing has happened several times with the project, and each time it’s a little bit painful but ultimately a huge relief.

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