Wildlife on Mars Armature parts have landed!

I am very pleased to announce the arrival of my Anibuild armature parts from Animation Toolkit, which are based in the Manchester area. I am extremely grateful to also say that Animation Toolkit are sponsoring the construction of these armatures, an offer I am very humbled by and indebted to.

Animation Toolkit have been a real friend to me since 2012 when they announced their Ray Harryhausen Armacreature kit, as well as all the opportunities they have offered me over the years, from assisting the build of  250+ armatures for the Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires feature film to making a custom Dragon armature to display the construction possibilities with their parts.

I'll be publishing a future post about the construction of these armature.

Here I want to talk a little bit more about the parts I have ordered, starting with the Ball joints, Chest & Hip plates and finishing on the Paddles and Rods. I hope for those of you who have seen their site and are thinking about ordering from the company, you'll get a better understanding of what the pros and cons are about each part. 

One thing I will say is that when you do get your parts wash everything except the screws in 99% unscented acetone, this will remove all factory grease, grime and shavings, so that whether you are gluing your parts or soldering them, you'll get the best bond possible. Also, if you think you need 4 joints of a particular size, make sure to order at least one or two more, especially if your planning to solder your joints, you are helping yourself with making sure you have spares if your soldering goes horribly wrong and saving on postage fees.

Ball Joints

12mm- These are a relatively new joint to the Animation Toolkit site. They are very robust, based of the plated structure and can support a puppet, whether as a armature or as a rigging joint. However they are the heaviest joint in their current stock, weighing in around 35 g. So whilst they are ideal for supporting the large puppet they can also make it very weighty.

9mm- This joint is found in the armature kit Anibuild Three, but can also be purchased separately. I highly suggest to all students looking to get an armature that is around the 1/6th scale (that's about the size of a Action Man figure) to make sure you use a 9mm joint in the waist of your armature. For its size it's also quite light, only weighing in at around 14 g.

6mm- There are different kinds of 6mm joint in Animation Toolkit's Anibild range, there's the Double & Single Pro, the standard double, the long double and the three way joint. Out of all these joints the Pros are certainly my favourite, bringing a stability to a joint that sometimes a plated joint can't have and you can grind the inner part of the single joint to enable it to have a greater range of motion, if it's something you require of course. While the plated versions are much lighter, the Pro's are still within an acceptable weight, the Double coming in at 5 g and the Single around 7 g.

3mm- The smallest and sometimes the most troublesome of all the joints in Animation Toolkit's range. There are two kinds the Pro single and the standard double, again, I prefer the Pro variation of this size, but the disadvantage of this joint is that its quite big in comparison to the standard plated version. However, as I have said in my previous blog post "Armatures, What to know and what to avoid" it's what you need the joints to do, corresponding to your puppets design, to warrant choosing the joints you think you need. It's harder to measure the weight of these as they come with lengths of rod lathed with a 3mm ball joint, but your looking at below the 5 g mark per joint type. 

Chest Plates & Hip Rings

Chest Plate, Large & Small- These are thin steel sheets that have been cut to shape and have 6 M4 holes to allow you to screw them into Anibild parts. Both chest plates are about 1mm thick and are quite light both coming in at 1 g. 

Hip Ring XL- Now this is the largest type of the hip ring Animation Toolkit provide, its also the heaviest at 13 g. Its made from a 2mm thick steel sheet and is quiet robust so can take heavy manipulation from animators. There are also three other versions that they stock, the Hip Ring Small, Large and Oval. 

Paddle

Anibilds paddles have developed a lot since they first appeared, they now feature a second M3 screw point on one side of the paddle which enables you to use the paddle not just for hands and feet but also as a hip joint. The paddle is also fairly light, about 2 g. 

Rods

Threaded- Threaded rods (left) are a great beginners, they are available in two pack types, the Blister Pack  which comes with 10mm, 25mm, 50mm 75mm and 100mm, or just a pack of 100mm lengths. They are also customisable so if you need a odd length you can trim or cut the rod down. One thing to bear in mind with these rods is that any joints above the 6mm tend to make the rods "flexible" over lengths of 50mm or more, so make sure you reinforce the rod with balsa wood to retain its shape and strength.

Round Bar- This was a special request from me since I used it during my employment with the company, it's what I consider to be the upgrade from the threaded rod giving more strength to your puppets bones, but it isn't as strong as the Bone Limb. The only down side to this rod is that you have to solder the ball joints to this since very few "off the shelf" glues won't bond to well with it.

Bone Limb- These Bone Limb rods (Right) are new to the Anibild range and are much stronger than the Threaded option, but they are a little more pricey and are not really customisable unless you have access to lathes and mills. They come in lengths of 25mm, 50mm, 75mm and 100mm and are perfect for 9mm and 12mm joints.

If you think these parts are something you would wish to dabble in then you can find them at http://www.animationtoolkit.co.uk/