Introduction
ARMATURES
The differences and benefits of Ball & Socket and Wire Armatures
POSING THE PUPPET
Finding the best poses for your puppet
ANIMATION BASICS
Frame Rates, Ones & Twos, Ease In & Out, Anticipation, Style
WALKING AND RUNNING
Notes and examples on styles of Walk and Runs
In addition to these chapters, I've started a production blog where I have chronicled the progress of a new Gumby project. You can visit the GLog here.
SETUP NOTES
I will be working with a simple 4'L x 2'W x 4'H table with a white 4' x 8' PVC sheet creating a sweep lit by 3 lights, an Apple laptop running Dragonframe capture software, and shooting with a Canon 40d DSLR. If you are looking for frame grabbing software or puppet armatures, there are several options listed on the Resources page. For the first few lessons, I will be animating a Stikfas action figure. You can order Stikfas online from places like Amazon.com or you can use your own puppet. I chose Stikfas because they are inexpensive and easy to find, limited but fairly posable. They are small and light so they don't need tie-downs in their feet to secure them to the set, I will use things like White Tak and Stikki Wax to stick the puppet to the set and aluminum armature wire for flying rigs.
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