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Making a Gorilla puppet

I am fairly new to the stop motion model making and want to be an animator as a professional career. I have wanted to make a puppet for a long time now, the past experiments used wire and foam. Now that I have liquid latex I am thinking of making a puppet of a gorilla to star in a King Kong movie. The plan is to make the armature out of strong wire with wooden blocks for the head, hands and feet. The armature will be held together with epoxy putty and then muscles created using foam rubber. Over this then I will apply many coats of liquid latex. The face will be sculpted with epoxy. Don't know about the fur though.

Sound like a plan?

The two images show the sculpts of the face and chest plate.

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Attachments:

2012-07-28 22-20-08.308.jpg, 153 KB
2012-07-28 22-20-17.184.jpg, 153 KB

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Permalink Reply by Wallace Jones on December 13, 2012 at 10:02am

Glad you got your Kong puppet back together. I hope to start my own gorilla puppet soon. I think I will try Jack Liddon's technique for the fur.

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Permalink Reply by Angus Lamont on December 18, 2012 at 12:13pm

OK Guys. Now my next thing is to build a T-Rex/Allosaur puppet. No plaster moulds and ball and socket armatures - just wire and foam with latex skin.

Trying to achieve this type of look (I know Ray used a moulding process for the making of "The Animal World", but to make something similar looking without the horn). Any tips?

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Permalink Reply by Wallace Jones on December 18, 2012 at 1:40pm

http://www.stormthecastle.com/stop-motion-animation/create-a-stop-m...

The only caveat would be to use traditional tie-downs instead of magnets as described in the article. Those particular magnets worked ok, but I am not so sure they are the best way to go.

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Permalink Reply by Tim Smyth on December 18, 2012 at 3:09pm

Hey what happened to the gorilla? Is it finished?

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Permalink Reply by Angus Lamont on December 19, 2012 at 1:43pm

The gorilla was only a test to see what it would turn out like. The wire I used was not good so I will probably make another some time in the near future.

Tim Smyth said:

Hey what happened to the gorilla? Is it finished?

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Permalink Reply by Wallace Jones on February 16, 2013 at 8:37pm

I finally started on my own gorilla puppet. I hope to use it in a King Kong '33 homage. The head was built up over a wood and wire armature using upholstery foam, cotton and liquid latex. The body will be built up in similar fashion once the feet are finished:

Attachments:

kong head.jpg, 80 KB
Kong Armature.jpg, 83 KB

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Permalink Reply by Angus Lamont on February 18, 2013 at 2:09pm

Love that head sculpt Wallace! Are you sure that one strand of aluminum wire will hold though?

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Permalink Reply by Tim Smyth on February 18, 2013 at 2:20pm

That one strand is much stronger than the two strands you used. It also depends on the size of the puppet, but he will probably be fine. At some point all wires will break, but that has rarely happened to me due to the small moves one makes on the armature while animating. That last gorilla puppet I made, I did use two strands to make it even more sturdy, and that puppet is 13" tall

Hey Wallace, how big is that puppet?

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Permalink Reply by Wallace Jones on February 18, 2013 at 5:30pm

Thanks, glad you liked the head. That was really a challenge to make. There are actually two wires, twisted together, coming out of the back. It appears to be just one wire due to the angle of the photo.

Angus Lamont said:

Love that head sculpt Wallace! Are you sure that one strand of aluminum wire will hold though?

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Permalink Reply by Wallace Jones on February 18, 2013 at 5:33pm

Tim,

The puppet will be approx. 11 inches tall including the head, once its attached. I have since had to cut away some latex and foam from around his mouth so it would open more. More pics forthcoming.

Tim Smyth said:

That one strand is much stronger than the two strands you used. It also depends on the size of the puppet, but he will probably be fine. At some point all wires will break, but that has rarely happened to me due to the small moves one makes on the armature while animating. That last gorilla puppet I made, I did use two strands to make it even more sturdy, and that puppet is 13" tall

Hey Wallace, how big is that puppet?

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Permalink Reply by Wallace Jones on February 25, 2013 at 9:29am

I am almost finished with the build-up. A little more bulking up on the upper arms and he will be ready for fur. I was going to use fake fur fabric, but tests on his leg did not look good. I think I am going to use the "shingle" method of gluing on the fur on with liquid latex.

Attachments:

Kong Build-up.jpg, 299 KB

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Permalink Reply by Angus Lamont on February 25, 2013 at 10:08am

Nice! Love the head, but shouldn't you add more muscles to the arms?

Wallace Jones said:

I am almost finished with the build-up. A little more bulking up on the upper arms and he will be ready for fur. I was going to use fake fur fabric, but tests on his leg did not look good. I think I am going to use the "shingle" method of gluing on the fur on with liquid latex.