Non-human Armatures, Understanding a Niche Design
If you look at most animations today you'll see a running theme; most, not all, armatures are based on a humanoid or a bipedal character. This has many factors, mainly down to story or the imagination of the creator, but there is also a subconscious decision too. humanoid designs are easier to understand because, basically, we are surrounded by them, we see them in the mirror everyday, observe them in the streets and even watch them on TV. The humanoid form in biology is one of the most complicated feats of bio-engineering and evolution, concurring issues like balance and controlled falling (walking). All of which have been mastered in ball and socket armatures and continues to improve with new technologies and techniques.
But what about the non humanoid designs, like the Quadrupeds, Theropods and Avian types?
When stop-motion armatures started to be developed more seriously in the early years of cinema, many of the effects were based on non-human characters, such as dinosaurs. Only since the late 80's has this style of armature fabrication seen to been pushed to the dark corners of stop-motion and the mere mention of building such armatures seems to be met with a somewhat "but there's CG for that" view.
But with the success of "Ilse of Dogs", the latest Wes Anderson stop-motion feature that utilized over 1000 dogs, meaning quadruped armatures needed to fabricated and animated.
You might be thinking "but four legged puppets have always been a thing" which is true, but this is likely because you can lift two feet of the ground and still have a stable puppet.
An armature for a Theropod (a Tyrannosaurus design for example) has three issues to overcome or find a solution to; weight, balance and stability. No mater how you posture the armature, whether this be through the classic "Kangaroo" posture of the 1900's or the modern "see-saw" balanced posture, if you don't account for the weight of the armature or the balance and stability of the joints when trying to make it walk, you'll be in a world of issues; of course most people will say to rig the character for all its intended shots, but then I feel you are then requiring to work around a "third limb" so to speak. If animators of the past could do it without "rigging" then I think its just as achievable with today's materials and tools!
Depending on your scale, most of the weight will be taken in the hips, knees and ankle joints, if none of those are tensioned right with the correct ball bearing and joint plates, the whole legs becomes nothing more than a glorified stand. Whilst it is hard to say what joints each puppet requires, I can say that sandwich plates are not the best for high tension joints, unless your using 9mm-12mm sandwich plates, step block joints are the best way to go, just be sure to get them from a industry recognized supplier as the cheap versions can be made from lesser material.
But what about the non humanoid designs, like the Quadrupeds, Theropods and Avian types?
When stop-motion armatures started to be developed more seriously in the early years of cinema, many of the effects were based on non-human characters, such as dinosaurs. Only since the late 80's has this style of armature fabrication seen to been pushed to the dark corners of stop-motion and the mere mention of building such armatures seems to be met with a somewhat "but there's CG for that" view.
But with the success of "Ilse of Dogs", the latest Wes Anderson stop-motion feature that utilized over 1000 dogs, meaning quadruped armatures needed to fabricated and animated.
You might be thinking "but four legged puppets have always been a thing" which is true, but this is likely because you can lift two feet of the ground and still have a stable puppet.
An armature for a Theropod (a Tyrannosaurus design for example) has three issues to overcome or find a solution to; weight, balance and stability. No mater how you posture the armature, whether this be through the classic "Kangaroo" posture of the 1900's or the modern "see-saw" balanced posture, if you don't account for the weight of the armature or the balance and stability of the joints when trying to make it walk, you'll be in a world of issues; of course most people will say to rig the character for all its intended shots, but then I feel you are then requiring to work around a "third limb" so to speak. If animators of the past could do it without "rigging" then I think its just as achievable with today's materials and tools!
Depending on your scale, most of the weight will be taken in the hips, knees and ankle joints, if none of those are tensioned right with the correct ball bearing and joint plates, the whole legs becomes nothing more than a glorified stand. Whilst it is hard to say what joints each puppet requires, I can say that sandwich plates are not the best for high tension joints, unless your using 9mm-12mm sandwich plates, step block joints are the best way to go, just be sure to get them from a industry recognized supplier as the cheap versions can be made from lesser material.
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