External Tutorials Related to Stop-Motion Animation

There are a few video tutorials available online, mostly to do with making puppets for stop motion animation.

Tiedowns are used to secure the puppet's feet to the set floor, so they can stand and walk without falling over.The most common type has a nut or threaded hole in the foot, with a matching bolt or machine screw that comes up through a hole in the set floor, screws into the foot, and then is tightened with a wingnut or knurled nut that can be turned by hand. This video from StopMotion Magazine shows how: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rlG5_KWZFo&feature=relmfu

This is a variation, the T-and-Slot tiedown: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK1tAh_kCZE

It is quicker to use while animating, as it slips into the foot without having to get the angle perfectly right before the thread starts going in. But there is more work in making them, and they need a bigger hole in the set floor.

A third approach is the use of rare earth magnets, and a steel plate in the puppet foot.

This shows the making of a simple wire armature, with the body shape built up in polyurethane sheet foam, and hands finished in liquid latex. The same armature could be used with a puppet sculpted in clay, and cast in foam latex or silicone rubber: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbF6m3BeGUQ

Here's Richard Swenson's approach to a wire armature: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XniNAc1mfw0

The head can be made in a similar way, with cut foam and latex over a wire head armature: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uG-ZIOXZ7w&feature=related

Or, it can be sculpted and cast in a flexible material - in this example, in platinum cure silicone rubber: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fWdZnQRzB0&feature=related

A more detailed tutorial from Ron Cole, in three 10 minute parts, covers the process of making a plaster mould over a clay sculpture in order to cast a puppet in silicone or foam latex. Here's the first part: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDW1NKIfgQQ

Going to any of these tutorials at Youtube will bring up a number of related videos that may be of help. Stopmotion Magazine has a whole series going through all the stages of puppet making, and so does Richard Swenson (Bluworm), and tutorials from other sources will also appear.

It is expected that this article will need updating as new material appears.