The Making of My Characters

Making the ArmaturesWithin animation, an armature is used in order to maintain the structure of the character, as well as forming a basis for the characters features to form. It helps to simulate the motions of virtual human and act as the skeleton of the model. In order to create the head

of the character, I had to create a loop within the wire and twist any excess wire to form the spine of the character. When creating the head of the character, I had to take into consideration the facial structure of the character and the overall size depending on the age size and body size of the character.

To create the shoulders of that character, the same process is used when creating the head. The shoulders are then applied horizontally on the body, the excess wire is then used to wrap around the spire, strengthening it to be able to support my character.Again like the head, the structure of

the shoulders forms the basis for the characters body shape. This means that the hips then have to be proportionate to the shoulders in order to form a realistic body shape.

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To form the arms, they must be proportionate and the right length. They should not be any longer or shorter than 1cm over the characters hips. As my character wont be dependant on moving their arms, I have created only 1 loop within the arms, that are interlocked with the shoulders, and twisted the wire, sparing some at the ends in order to create hands for the character. This makes the arms have less motion than id created with two joints.

The hips of the character holds the same method as the shoulders. As mentioned this needs to be in proportion to the character’s shoulder., typically making them wider if they are a female or smaller if the waist is aimed to be made smaller.

The legs of the character also use the same process as the arms. They have to be interlocked with the hips and the execs twisted. Agin if the character is more mobile, another process can be used to create a joint at the knees of the character, allowing the character to be more mobile.

Final Product:

To secure the arms and legs from moving out of place when moving the character, I used electrical tape and taped a small section of the shoulder and hip, trapping the arms and legs so they were in the right position, but still had room to move and maintain stable.

6. 7.By creating a figure of 8 shape secured at the shoulders and hips by more electrical tape, this creates more of a figure for the body shape of the character and also maintains the characters stability, ensuring that the character stands up straight. I have also secured the shape with tape within the middle of the spine so that no parts of the character sticks out when moulding the characters body and features with Plasticine. This completes the armature of the character.

8.To bulk out the character and not waste Plasticine, I used paper to create a body shape. Without this the characters within my short film would be very thin and may not stand up properly as they would be too thin for my character to stand. Once adding paper to the specific areas such as the head, chest, stomach, back and bottom of the character, more electrical tape would need to be applied as when adding Plasticine on top of the paper, it would make the paper moist and therefore wouldn’t remain a decent structure and the characters wont last as long.

This is the final product of the character, before moulding the aesthetic of the characters and creating features to make the character more life like. Any uneven or incorrect proportions of the character can then be added with Plasticine ensuring that the character is even and remains constant. Overall I found this method very quick and easy to use rather than using a more expensive armature found online. This method also allowed me to create more specific measurements for the body type of my figure. It therefore does not waste plasticine and makes the characters less expensive when on a budget.

Final result

I have used previous character sketches as a basis of my character designs. When making my characters I payed attention to detail ensuring that the characters looked realistic so they could easily be interpreted my a younger audience. This also adds texture within the animation.