Nausicaa Mark II: Planning is Important!

After sharing my work so far with fellow puppet makers (who also happen to be big fans of Nausicaa), it was brought to my attention that the armature I had made wasn't quite suitable for her character. I had been focusing so strongly on how to encorporate soft sculpture with an armature that I hadn't thought enough about her specific proportions, which are very different from the standard human skeleton.

Nausicaa has an oversized head, very large feet, a teeny tiny waist, extra-long lower legs - the list goes on. Despite my hard work on my first armature it seemed fruitless to use it for my Nausicaa puppet, and so I started re-planning. It began with going through the film and taking a lot of screen shots, my best reference material:

This is ther perfect front-on reference for her face and torso shape. See what I mean about the waist?

Then I began re-drafting my scale drawings, but this time starting with the 'finished' Nausicaa look and working backwards. That way I knew that the body beneath the clothes would have to be a bit slimmer, and the armature would have to work with the body shape.

So firstly the costumed layer is drawn. The tracing paper didn't like being photographed, but hopefully you can see Nausicaa is wearing a tunic with gloves, leggings and big boot covers.

From this I worked out the fleshed out nude version.

By doing this, I knew that the armature I designed underneath would fit the desired body proportions. As you can see, it's quite a bit different from my original design.

I did the same for all three layers for the side view. All the while I'm trying to keep my scale drawings as accurate as possible to Nausicaa in the film.

So it was time to build! I began by cutting and preparing all of the pieces I needed to make the armature and laying them out on my front-on armature drawing.

The new ribcage and pelvis are carved from blocks of plastazote foam, which is a very high density but also extremely lightweight foam. It was simple enough to carved with just a scalpel and mini files. I'm trying zote as an alternative to wire for soft sculpture, because its more accurate and less fiddly to shape. I also think the solidness of it will be more suitable for animating.

It was time to start glueing the pieces together. As you can see, the zote foam cores are sliced down the middle and hollowed out where necessary to accomodate the K&S brass tubing inside.

Putting the legs together is always satisfying.

I made the feet in the same way as my last armature, the copper toes secured with milliput and embedded with M3 nuts for tie-downs. I'm using a scale foot drawing to make sure that the toes are in the right position on the foot.

The final detail which I didn't get onto with my last armature are the hands. I'm using double ball joints for the wrists, because I want that twist so the hands can be positioned palm-side up or down. I'm using a double-twist of copper wire for the fingers, which is a bit stronger than aluminium but still holds its shape well.

The hand is made strong and secure with milliput. There are tiny M2 nuts placed in the centre of the wrists for potentially holding props.

I'm much happier with my second armature attempt. I think it will work very nicely for Nausicaa's proportions.

One last step was adding rig points to the pelvis. There's one in the front, one in the side and one facing downwards at the back so she can be slotted onto Kai's back.

Taking the time to plan very carefully is a valuable lesson learnt! Now I can get on with sculpting Nausicaa's head, Kai's feet and his beak.

Thanks for taking the time to check out my work again,  and look out for my next post soon!

Building Armatures: Kai the Horseclaw

Firstly, apologies for the lateness of an update! I've been suffering from an eye infection but am on the mend now, so let's carry on from where we left off: Kai's armature. Here's a reminder of this prehistoric looking bird's appearance:

I had already made a maquette from steel of the horseclaw which I was happy with the scale and proportions of, so rather than drawing out multiple angle scale drawings for the armature like I did with Nausicaa, I just made one of the side profile. This is my initial model; although crude, it has the desired shape of the bird:

It was important to look carefully at references of the film to check Nausicaa's proportions against Kai's. The Nausicaa puppet will be 15" tall, which makes Kai 18" tall.

I started off by cutting, filing down and sanding the pieces of brass K&S that would make up the legs and the pelvis.

In the same way that Nausicaa's armature was built, twisted aluminium wire protected by heat shrink tubing makes up the joints of the leg. There's a twisted loop at the bottom of the leg to create a base for the foot.

The toes were then created with four seperate pieces of wire, and glued into the loop for extra strength. The three front toes are the same length, the back one is shorter. You can see from this screenshot that when the horseclaws put down their feet the side toes are splayed right out, rather than being angled towards the centre front toe.

Here are the finished legs. The toes are made extra-secure to the leg with milliput, and M3 nuts are placed in the middle of the feet so they can be tied down. There are also little milliput blobs on the end of the aluminium to stop the armature from potentially damaging the skin of the foot later on. The pieces of K&S at the top of the legs that angle inwards will slot into the pelvis.

The ribcage is formed with a double strand of aluminium wire attatched with brass to the back of the bird. This will be suitable for the soft sculpture build up I want to experiment with.

The same is done for the pelvis shape. Once again, any joints that might not be strong enough with just glue are made extra-tough with milliput. At this stage the armature is nearly ready for the 'wrapping' process. The only thing that I forgot to photograph were the rig points added. There are rig points in both sides of the bird's ribcage should he need to be supported when animating. There's also one in the base of his back for Nausicaa to be slotted into when she's riding him.

The entire armature is wrapped in yarn so it has a sewable base for the wadding muscle to be built up onto.

I based this armature on a combination of different bird skeltons, looking at the leg shape of chickens and the ribcages and pelvis' of terror birds for reference. Ultimately it's been made to fit my scale drawings, and should be proportionate to Nausicaa's armature which I made alongside it.

Before I start giving this armature flesh I need to make the skull and the beak. The same goes for Nausicaa's head. Having the heads of my puppets on the armatures will help to keep the muscle build up even and in proportion.

Thank you for reading, do check back for another post very soon!

Building Armatures: Nausicaa

I began planning this project in April, and when the summer holdiays finally came around I was ready to start making. 

The first step was to draw scale images of my puppets from different angles, and use these drawings to design the armatures. Let's start with Nausicaa.

I knew that I wanted her to be 15" in height, the size of an antique Japanese doll I own. I scaled up a front, back and side profile of a skeleton diagram to use as a base, and traced over it to plan the armature. 

The skeleton I'm making for my Nausicaa puppet is a more advanced version of the previous skeletons I've made for soft sculpture experiments. Although the pelvis and skeleton will be steel, the arm and leg joints are twisted aluminium, which holds its pose best for animation.

The brass K&S metal forms the 'bones' of the puppet, the gaps inbetween where the aluminium wire joints are. These were cut to size and filed down to remove any sharp edges.

The aluminium wire has heat shrink tubing applied to it, which will prevent the aluminium rubbing against the brass when bent - any nicks in the wire will weaken it and might cause it to break. The wire is then glued into the brass tubing with a strong 2 part epoxy.

The square K&S creating the basic pelvis structure will also serve as a rig point. If the puppet needs to be supported whilst being animated, a smaller piece of K&S attached to a rig can be slotted in through the back.

I made the feet in a similar way to Lisa Lichtenfels, with the wire twisted to make that nice back heel shape. This will work as a nice structure for soft sculpture.

The toe shapes are then added on, formed from a very fine copper wire.

By adding nuts to the balls of the feet, they can be tied down to a set. The nuts were first glued to the foot and then encased in milliput. Milliput is an incredibly strong 2 part putty, and once cured goes solid as a rock. This will stop the nuts from potentially coming loose.

Now that I had the basic shape of Nausica's body, is was time to build up the 3D skeleton element for soft sculpture - the ribcage and the pelvis.

The ribcage has always been tricky; getting symmetry and that bell shape with steel wire is quite difficult. I decided to try something a bit different, using very small brass tubing on the spine to slot the wire of the ribcage into.

This seemed to work very well, as it helped with the placement and shaping of the wire. Here is is half built up. The ball joint at the top of the puppet is so that the head and neck can be posed in a natural way. 

I cut the threaded rod to size, which is where the length of the neck. In this image they're just temporarily threaded on - the thread needs to be soldered to the ball for permanence.

The finished ribcage - I'm happy with how it came out!

And here's the final armature, minus the hands (I'm waiting on some wrist joints, so will talk about those in a different post!).  I'm quite happy with how she's turned out, and have certainly learnt a lot along the way. The next stage will be wrapping the armature in yarn for soft sculpture, but before I can do this I need to sculpt as cast the skull for the head.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for my next post, which will be about making the armature for Kai the bird.

From Inspiration, a Plan is Hatched

I decided to make Nausicaa and her bird because I love her character and the world she lives in, a world of giant insects and spectacular flying machines. But committing to this project was just the first step; my next course of action was to research and plan just how I would make these puppets.

There are many ways that stop motion puppets can be fabricated, so long as they can be animated for their desired actions. Think of old school Wallace and Gromit, sculpted from plasticine, compared to the 3D printed faces in Laika's 'Paranorman'. In this sense my options were wide open, but I already had my mind set on pursuing a different making technique entirely, one which hasn't really been used in animation before...

Discovering Lisa Lichtenfels:

For me, research is ongoing and daily. I'm forever reading articles and scouring the vast ocean that is Google Images for new inspiration. On one fateful day I stumbled across an artist who would excite my mind so much that I had to buy her book straight away to find out more about her work. That artist is Lisa Lichtenfels. 

Lisa creates incredibly detailed, life-like human sculptures from the least expected materials - batting and nylon tights. She firstly creates a wire skeleton in the desired final pose, and then sews layer after layer of thin batting onto this armature. Once satisfied with the shape, she stretches skin coloured nylon over the body and stitches it into place. The results are incredible, like nothing I've ever seen before. Here's one of my favourites from her book:

As I naturally gravitate towards sewing, this idea of 'soft sculpture' was immediately exciting to me. Upon receiving Lisa's book, 'Figures in Fabric' and reading more about the process, my mind wandered  to the possibilities of using the same technique for puppets. If the wire armature underneath was reposed, would the wadding pose with it, and hold its shape?

I began making my own figures with her book as my guide, and experimenting with poseability. Although I never got past the wadding stage, it was enough for me to see that this could really work for puppets.

This is a skeleton from one of my early attempts. As you can see, the wire armature is wrapped in yarn, which means it can be sewn onto. The bones are then built up with felt.

This is the body at a later stage, after having been built up with many layers of wadding. She's stood next to my 15" tall japanese doll for scale. This is the size that I intend to make Nausicaa.

I love the challenge and patience required when sewing on this scale. The results are very satisfying.

From reading Lisa's book I discovered that she was actually once an animator at Disney, and made character designs for 'The Black Cauldron' using soft sculpture. I contacted Lisa to ask her more about the connection between her sculptures and animation, and what she thought the possibilities were. Her encouraging words to pursue this project have given me confidence that the results could be good!

Initial Research:

With the knowledge of how my puppet's bodies would be made, I started gathering visual imagery for their finished appearances. For Nausicaa this mainly revolved around her face, which is very particular in terms of shape and proportion.

She has those massive anime eyes, tiny nose and big forehead. Having a lot of references to hand when I make her face will be be important for achieving an accurate model.

My research for Kai the bird has been even more extensive. Finding many good pictures of 'Horseclaws' has proven tricky, but the discovery that they're based on prehistoric Terror Birds was helpful. I've studied their skeletons, as well as the general skeletons of birds, to help me think about how the armature will look. Here's a quick little maquette I put together to help me with visualising the shape:

I try to sketch and collect images every day - anything to help expand my understanding of what I'm trying to make. To me this will always be ongoing, right up to the point when I'm adding the finishing touches to my puppets.

In my next post I'll be talking final maquettes and scale drawings. Thanks for reading!

A Girl and her Bird - The Nausicaa Project

Introductions:

Firstly, thanks for visiting my blog! My name is Rachel Brown and I'm a Performance Design student at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff, Wales. 

I'm about to start my third and final year, and intend to use this blog as a platform for documenting and reflecting on my projects. I hope what I learn along the way will be of interest to those who also love making in miniature!

The Nausicaa Project:

During my third year I have to complete three specialist studies for my exhibition, which should be relevant to my desired career path. Stop motion animation is my keenest interest, and I decided a while ago that puppet making was something I really wanted to explore further. 

I spent some time thinking about the characters I could bring to life, and wavered between designing my own from scratch or realising existing images. I eventually decided on the latter, because although I enjoy character design, it would be another layer of processes on top of what will likely be an extensive making project.

My final choice of character comes from one of my favourite animated films, 'Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind'. Set in a post-apocalyptic world where giant mutant insects and a toxic forest dominte the terrain, Nausicaa must try to heal the broken bond between humanity and the earth.

I'm unable to pinpoint Hayao Miyazaki's design for the film, which is a wonderful blend of period and sci-fi. From the architecture to the costume, every detail is considered, which greatly appeals to me and my making sensibilities. 

One of the fantastical creatures in Nausicaa's world is the Horseclaw, a giant dinosaur-like bird, genetically engineered as replacements for horses. Nausicaa's love of animals is one of her strongest traits, so as well as making a stop motion puppet of her, I also intend to create Kai, her noble steed:

Stop motion puppet making is very new to me, and as I'm not on a course that specifically teaches it. Therefore most of my knowledge will come from online resources, friends in the industry and trial and error! I'm excited for the challenges that this project will throw at me, and the amount I'll learn about new processes and materials.

I'll base my puppets on a variety of references, my aim being to create two fully animatable puppets which accurately depict Miyazaki's original designs. I intend to fabricate every detail, from Nausicaa's costume to Kai's embossed bridle.

Stay tuned for my next post, where I'll be sharing my research and puppet design process!