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Photo Gallery I have fabricated many armatures over the years but unfortunately I was not able to record every project with a camera. Deadline schedules were usually, very incredibly short and there was no time at all to properly photograph my work. For instance, I did not take any pictures of the many animation armatures / puppets for Will Vinton Studio's, The PJ's ; did not take any photographs of the armatures I made for Tippett Studio's poseable dinosaur armatures for Jurassic Park dinosaurs; no photos of Galaxis armature / puppet; and other armatures & projects that I did not capture with my camera. Also, there are some armatures that I cannot show at this time. I regret my lazy attitude about not doing better documentation of my work and of course, I never thought that I would some day try this little experimental web site, on the subject of Stop Motion Animation. "Click" on the on the Images ____________________________________________ |
 The initial objective was, for me
to produce about 2 duplicate armatures a week (very
optimistic); I had to design, make schematics, then
painstakenly fit the armatures to the molds (not
the preferable method); the schedule was very rushed. For
each puppet character, I constructed anywhere, from 2 to
6 duplicate armatures. Some armatures were fully jointed
and some of the arm-hand appendages were wires because
joints would not fit. Other armatures, were some
combination of joints & wires. Again, I did not
photograph all the armatures. Just to remind you, these
armatures were for the background puppets. The notable
armature maker, Tom St. Amand & his crew fabricated
the armatures for the main puppet characters. |
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 I was
responsible for designing & constructing the jointed
armatures for one of the three main puppet characters
called Squishington. Also, I fabricated armature spare
parts, some puppet rod mounting rigs and accessories.
Into the production, they needed more quantities of
Squishys and they decided not to continue with the fully
jointed Squishy armatures & switch to a simpler Plug-in
Wire Armature System, that is, if any wire appendage
broke on the Squishy puppets, the wires could easily be
replaced via a clamping system that fastened the wires to
the armature torso or hip blocks. I did not get a chance
to photograph the wire armature version. So, I only have
a few images of just the Squishy jointed armatures. I
think, I made about 8 fully jointed duplicate armatures
for that one puppet character & all the rest were
wire armature designs.. |
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As I mentioned before,
the armature representation of the Warrior bug was not
covered with any rubber skin; when you view the images,
it resembles a cy borg-like mechanical version of the insect
creature. When Phil Tippett was intially hiring some of
the crew that would be animating on the Starship
Troopers project, he had an open audition call for
anyone who had the fortitude to manipulate this
multi-appendaged monstrosity; even I was intimidated by
my own articulated creation, and so, I declined to take
the stop motion animation examination. |
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