Custom figure for stop motion animation
Custom figure for stop motion animation
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Custom WorkstationHi, I'm new, this is my first post here. I'm interested in customizing a few figures for stop motion animation, because the figures I'm using right now are Marvel Legends characters, and I want to start animating my own characters. Since I'm going to customize anyway, I thought I would build my 3 main characters (2 males, 1 female) from the ground up to be as articulate as I could possibly want so I won't have to switch parts like hands and such between frames. They are also going to be pretty basic figures, because I'll be relying on different costumes.
My first question is, what figures have really super posable hands and digits? I'm looking for as close to total finger control as I can get. I thought I read of a spiderman figure with amazing articulation, including hands, in a toyfare magazine a few years back, but I don't remember what it was called, who made it, or what scale it was.
One of my characters is a woman tho, and it wouldn't be good for her to have man hands. I don't know of a whole lot of female action figures with posable hands, but then again, I haven't been keeping up with toy collecting in recent years, so if anyone reading this knows of any, tell me please
I did get an idea for posable hands from watching a youtube video on model making. Pretty much I would start with a flat hand, cut all the fingers and thumb off the palm, drill a hole for each, and put in a piece of wire. Then I could dip the wire in something like latex, or rubber tool handle dip, and with a little sculpting I could have fully bending fingers. Is this a good idea? Has anyone tried something like that?
I will admit that I'm trying to stay away from a lot of sculpting, I'm not very good at it. There's also going to be a lot of acrobatics and action, so I'm concerned for the most part about articulation of the figures, and them being able to go into all the poses I'll need. Any recommendations for a base to go off of for male or female with this in mind?
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the reason is so when the hand in closed or positioned it will look more natural. also use loctite glue mixed with the matching color paint and you should'nt have to worry about gaps. loctite is also flexible.
that should be exactly what you need.
hope it helps.
I found a tutorial on articulated hands using flex pipe. I can't post a link otherwise I would, but if you google Jin Saotomes dangerous toys it's on his site in the tutorials section.
I've sculpted fully-articulated fingers on hands twice, and both times it was a royal pain to do (I used wire for the articulation, but the fingers themselves are hard sculpts, not rubber like you're talking about). It's feasible if you've got the patience, but it's not much fun. Might be worth the investment of time and energy tho' if you're going to be using the figure a lot for your stop motion animation. 12" figures might be a better scale to work in than 6" ML, just because the hands will be larger, and thus, easier to mess with.