Armatures.. the things to know and what to avoid!

I've been studying stop motion armatures now for over 10 years, 3 of those years has been actually fabricating them with Animation Toolkit on Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires, and at Telegael studios on Morten and the Spider Queen and Project 390.

What I have learned, both historically and technically would be of great interest to future students in stop-motion. I know what your thinking, you take one look at a ball & socket armature and think "this is way to hard to do, its so complicated", well, I once thought exactly the same when I started my animation path back in 2002.

The trick is learning how to use it right, ball & socket armature kits are like a steel equivalent to Lego construction kits, you have many tiny pieces that when assembled create a final item, in this case a armature, so understanding the mechanics of biological joints and translating that movement into a engineering solution. Wire is simply understanding how the wire and which wires will react the way you want and how to prolong its life. You should always put rigging points in your puppets no matter how simple or complex they are, this comes down to planning ahead for your puppets, design and performance.
Understand though that what I am telling you is in no way suggesting which is the right way or the wrong way, there is no one true armature to rule them all and there is no one path to take, much of the decision lies in your hands, I just hope this blog helps you make the right decision for your project.

Wire Armatures:

These are the cheapest form of armature to any animator, they are the easiest to make and the lightest of all armatures with many ways to construct one, BUT they can have a very sort life span depending on your production. Animations between 10 seconds and 3 minutes (depending on your puppets required performance) will allow a reasonable life span of your wire, anything more than this and you need to take other things into consideration, such as replacement limbs, maintenance and rigging. These are popular for simple puppets, background puppets and fluid puppets (such as the arms of an octopus)

Things to know & Avoid.

Wire- Aluminium, copper and all other types of wire have a lifespan, every time you bend the wire you are reducing that lifespan, there are ways to help reduce this issue but its not possible to stop it from happening. Using cotton wrapped wire can also give a gripping surface and help reduce movement of the wire in clothing like gloves or give silicone something to grip to. Always over use a wire type, for example, if you think you need a 2.5mm wire for a arm, use 3mm. if your unsure a 3.5mm gauge wire strong enough for a spine, then use a 4mm or 5mm gauge wire. Its best to use thicker wires on limbs that carry the puppet, namely the legs and the spine, only use equally strong wire in arms if the puppet is required to hold or lift something reasonably heavy.
Another thing to add is to mix your wire types, when I worked in Ireland on a feature film, we mixed copper wire of one thickness with aluminium wire of a different thickness for puppet fingers, this gave the wire different strengths, and allowed you to control the wires flexibility when moved. It's something worth testing for yourself, if you have different thicknesses of copper and aluminium try make some samples, you'll soon find the differences very noticeable; just remember to make notes on which wires you used to and which ones work, or could work, for you.

Doubling up- You can twist together or layer (wrapping together two lengths of wire with a wool thread) two or more strands of wire to help reduce the strain, one of the wires will eventually break, its inevitable, but it can strengthen the wire. BUT BEWARE, twisting together lengths of 0.5 wire to create a 3cm wire or stronger will not work. It will create a thick wire piece that will have a have a springiness to it that you will not want in animation, the technique can work for short areas like hands and feet, but for long areas like arms, legs, spines, etc, the technique will only lead to frustrating animation.

Shrink wrap- Using heat shrink wrap around wire can also prolong a wires lifespan, these same affect can also be done with cotton wool by wrapping it around the wire more than two or three times.

Wire "joints"- Everyone will most likely want to make a joint in wire, be it for a leg or a arm, by creating bones you are focusing all the wire strains into one point, this will greatly reduce the wires lifespan even more with this method, but by giving a space between the bones, approximately 2.5cm or 3.5cms, you should be giving the joint a fighting chance.

Make more than one- Because there's a strong risk of breakage, you will need to make more than one limb or armature. Depending on the length of your film a 3 minute short film could use up to 2 additional arms before completing your production. Even if you don't think you'll need to make any replacement limbs, its always best to make them, and not need them; than not make them, and need them!

Tutorials- There are many online tutorials that show you how to make wire armatures, some are very good, using ideal techniques and give advise that are perfect for students to learn from, but there are also just as many unsuitable tutorials. It is down to you to seek out the the wheat from the chaff of content that genuinely works an suits your skill level.
One tutorial I have found that is not only given from industry professionals but also teaches you how to build wire armatures and gives good advise and points of view is the Stan Winston School of Character Arts Stop-motion Animation Part 1: Puppet Creation. You do have to purchase the tutorial to view the content, but you can always wait for discount opportunists (for example Black Friday deals) to make it cheaper, its certainly worth the money and once bought you can watch it over and over again. Remember, the techniques used in this tutorial are one of many ways to make a wire armature so don't worry to much if they do something you were told by your tutor not to do.

Ball & Socket Armatures:

The more costly form of armature but the most long lasting option of all armature types. These can be heavier depending one the scale of your puppet, so making sure your armature can hold itself up on one foot is an important requirement, yes you can use rigging to help with this issue, but if your puppet can't walk from one end of the table to the other without a rig, you may end up making more work for yourself without realizing it.

Making sure you also use good joints is very important, there's no point purchasing an armature if the joints have little to no tension to hold a decent pose or if you have to use two hands to tighten up a single joint. The best kind of joint to use are John Wright joints (high quality but high cost), followed closely by Animation Toolkit (value for money with industry experience behind the designs) and settling with Animation Supplies (expensive but a long standing company for armature kits).

In my personal opinion, students should use Animation Toolkit armatures due to being the middle ground, with armature joints being very close to a John Wright quality whilst keeping the cost low, but I'm not trying to convert you, its simply an opinion based on many years of use and feeling the differences in all three joints. You have your own opportunities to make your own opinions on companies and their products.

Things to know & Avoid.

Weight- Because ball & socket armatures tend to be made from steel, depending on the size of your puppet can result in it being very heavy or light weight. Remembering to have a rigging points on your armature will help with most weight issues but a good armature should "never" truly need a rig unless its running or jumping.
There are products out there that claim or are using light weight materials to eliminate the weight issue with armatures, but you must also consider how brittle it "could" be, I'm not suggesting new products are a bad idea, but as technology develop and newer materials are brought to the market, it is wise to tread carefully when spending money on a armature that may become problematic...for a student budget anyway.

Joints - Students often overlook the importance of joint placements, especially those bought as ready made armatures. Being able to understand how joints work, their movement capabilities and how they will respond with your puppet once covered in farbic or latex is very important. Studying anatomy and movements through films like Eadweard Muybridge, as well as self examination, will help you build a understanding where joints should be placed and how they could react in your final puppet. Also making sure your armature fits inside your puppet if you are molding, I have seen in some cases students sculpt to close to the armature making too thin a skin around the joint which can damage easily or they haven't taken into account the positioning of the joint in reflection to the puppets movements.

Joint size is everything when it comes to joints, most puppets will use 6mm joints (or a similar size) on limbs with a 9mm joint in the waist, but this is not the same for all armatures, for a character that has quite a large body mass, using  the largest sized joints at the core of the body, with each joint getting smaller the further away from the core they go. For example, 12mm joints sit on the waist, shoulders and hips, 9mm joints on the elbows and knees, and rounding off with the 6mm on the wrists, ankles and neck. Of course however, you will need to remember the bigger the joints the heavier the puppet becomes.

Ready Made vs Handmade- There has always been a debate about ready made armatures over handmade ones, the pro of a ready made armature is that you don't need to make it, just assemble it and away you go but the con is the cost that's attached to it, since you are effectively paying someone to make you an armature and should the armature break due to a soldering bond error or the plates become unusable you have to send off or pay for a replacement.

You are also at the whim of the fabricator as to how big or thick the joints are, normally these are displayed on blueprints often available via their websites. With handmade armatures you have the control how the armature is made, how big it is and what kind of joints to use, but if you don't have the understanding of how to make one it can take time to build confidence to do so, but should anything break like a solder joint you can easily repair it at your own convenience.

Hybrid Armatures:

These are a mixture of both wire and ball & socket armatures, normally the ball joints are in places where greater tension is required or more movement is going to be a issue. These can be cheap or costly depending on the budget you have, they can also be fairly weighty, but do take some planning in advance to design the armature you require, so here is where the importance of understanding your joint mechanics comes into play.

Things to know & Avoid.

Since the rules of Hybrid armatures have a foot in both fields of ball & socket armatures and wire armatures, which as you have already read, they also inherits the pros and cons of each. The pro of having a hybrid armature is that it can be light weight, cost effective and sturdy (if you have done your homework right), the only con of a hybrid armature is that you will need to make replacements of the wire parts, its up to you however to decide which of those parts you make wire and the reasons behind it.

As I mentioned at the start, there is no right of wrong way to make a puppet, but there is a right or wrong puppet for your project. It's all about making decisions and trusting your instincts or listening to your peers thoughts and making those decisions. I pass on my experiences to you in hopes that they will help you understand, question and think of variables you never thought of before, if even one person ends up with a great armature with perfect animation, I know I have helped their future.