Stop Motion Puppet Test 1

So the first step in my stop motion journey is to learn and get good at building puppets. Or else what would I animate?

Unfortunately, I didn't document this one too well. My first attempt at a puppet was just a head. I thought I skull would be easy (Not sure if that was the right choice). The goal was to have a moving mouth (jaw/mandible) and moving eyes.

My initial idea was to be cheap and use silicone calking to coat this thing. I had seen some interesting hacks of it used on larger puppets, and I did a few little tests with it that seemed promising.

Basically what I did was mix acrylic paint with the silicone caulk (GE Silicone 2), and then applied with a palette knife. While the tests worked well (looked pretty good, actually). In practice, it did not work so well. It came out really blobby, and looked pretty unappealing. It also took a LONG time to cure (despite the youtube info I had gotten saying it had a 30 second to 2 minute pot time). Luckily I was able to peel it off once it did cure, and re-attempt with latex.

The latex worked a lot better. Cures super quick (a heat gun helps, but make sure not to hold it in one place for too long or it will bubble and ultimately burn).  Here's what it ended up looking like.

Not exactly pretty, but I'm happy with the results, and it functions as I would like it to. Some issues I need to work on are getting the latex to be a little smoother (an ongoing battle), and coming up with a good way to do the eyes. Coating over the eyes, and then cutting the eye holes sounded simple enough, but the latex is tough to cut through! Even on a more recent attempt, I had some small sharp scissors (vs exacto the first time) and they still didn't seem to work so well. In a future post, you'll see my latest idea...

Anyhow, first step. More or less a success!