Playing with my new puppet (shel)

Arch Enemy Waltz from handmadeheroes on Vimeo.

here's my new puppet in action.....he's got a bit of a crush on lola....

HERE COMES THE ARMATURE TECH TALK PART, VERY SKIP-ABLE IF YOUR NOT A STOP MO GEEK: i'm not so happy with his most of his armature (ball and socket that i pieced together, and wire from the elbow to the finger tips). you can't say i'm not LEARNING ALOT though! he's too fat, actually i think he's perfectly fat, but the armature isn't strong enough to hold more than the weakest bend in his beefy torso or his muscular legs. and i didn't make a big enough "grip" for the inside of his head, so i'm having a hard time turning it, and even if i had, his neck doesn't hold small enough increments of "yes" or "no". and as for his legs, i want him to be able to squat deeply and stay there without bouncing back (he IS a wrestler afterall!). and i want clavicles so he can shrug. ...and i want....and i want....

on the positive side: his shoulders are good, and so far so good with the wire elbows and fingers too. but the best news is that i LOVE his feet. marvelously maliable-toed supportive feet that i've decided to make even more awesome next time by putting a tie down in his heels as well as his toes. his feet have a socket at the toes and a tie down made simply from a threadable ball.

so i'm not giving up on armature for him yet, when his fingers break i will tear this puppet apart and give the next him a wire spine and i'll figure out better clavicles, but i want to keep the ball and socket shoulders, it'll be a bit frankenstien-y....i'm thinking i'll keep the ball and socket legs but wrap them with some hefty wire that will support the bends and hopefully take up enough space so there's not so much foam in the way. i'm making it up as i go, which is the happy go lucky story of my life, but if anybody has any suggestions about this stuff i'm all ears!

oh yeah, and sorry for the quality, i accidently set the camera to crap size pics.....opps!