Puppet Fabrication (Built-Up Method) and Clothing for Stop-Motion Puppets - Part 5

So we've finally come to the end of the Puppet Fabrication (Built-Up Method) tutorial. The video above shows one of the final puppets in action. One final thing that still needs to be covered is how I created the head. 

 

To create the head I simply sculpted it out of Sculpey. Sculpey is a clay that won't harden until you throw it into the oven. It can also be used to fabricate set pieces, props, body parts and anything else you can imagine. The great thing about it is that it won't dry out between uses so you don't have to feel like you have to rush to finish a sculpt. Once you do put the final sculpt into oven it comes out rock hard and can be handled/sanded without ruining any of the details.

Here's a before and after picture of one of the heads I used. The photo on the left is the sculpt right out of the oven and the photo on the right is the same head with the final paint. For paint I used some extra cell paint that I had lying around, but acrylics will work just as well.

Here's a sample of some of the heads I'm using for the towns people. As I mentioned before these are supporting characters whose faces won't really be seen in the final film other than in cast their shadows and silhouettes, so sculpting eyes and mouths weren't necessary in this situation. These same techniques however can easily be expanded on to create a more detailed head that can actually be animated with the use of different mouth and eye shapes.

-Al-Gonzo