Hand Armature for Kia motors AD

작년에 기아자동차 광고 시리즈에 사용할 실제 손 크기의 뼈대를 제작했습니다. 이 광고 시리즈에서는 손 캐릭터가 등장해 사람처럼 움직이며 춤을 춥니다. 손가락은 마치 팔 다리가 된 것처럼 움직입니다. 작년에는 퀘이 형제의 작품에 들어갈 아주 작은 손 뼈대도 제작했는데, 그 때에는 힌지 관절을 사용했습니다. 이 실물 크기의 손 뼈대에는 인간과 같은 움직임을 구현하기 위해 볼앤소켓 관절이 들어갑니다.

This year, I had some clients asking me to make a hand armature. Earlier this year, I made tiny hand armatures for the Quay Brothers. And last month, I made a real-size hand armature for Kia Motors commercial series.

In the Kia commercials, this hand turns into a puppet and dance. Its fingers move as if they were arms and legs. Unlike the hinge jointed hand I made for the Quays earlier this year, I’ve used ball and socket joints for this one to create humanoid-like movements.

This armature is made based on a real human hand. So its size as well as the positions of its joints are exactly same as the real model hand. While finishing up this project, I once again realized that the human body is asymmetric. When you look at the fingers, you can see that the joints are machined to have curved surfaces. It takes longer time and harder work to machine parts in this way. And tie-downs are hidden in fingertips.

 

/by

Customized brass nuts

이번 사진은 워커 또는 리깅에 부착하는 비스듬한 각도의 너트입니다. 미국과 영국 쪽 스튜디오에서 주로 사용됩니다. 이 너트는 영미권에서 만드는 것과 같은 방식이지만 사용자의 편의를 위해 제가 다시 디자인한 버전입니다.

This is a picture of customized brass nuts, which are used as supplementary parts for rigging. I usually make my armatures in various materials including alloys of steel and aluminum as well as brass. Some clients specifically order brass armatures.

Brass is highly machinable and offers greater corrosion resistance than steel. It is also easy to braze and weld thanks to its relatively low melting point.

Even with such advantages, however, stop-motionists in some countries have underestimated brass as a material for armatures. They say that brass is weaker than steel and corrodes under alkaline conditions.

It’s true that brass has some disadvantages, but I still think brass is a very good material for armatures. With a brass armature, it is possible to create smoother movements and control tension more precisely than armatures in other materials.

/by

Mermaid armature

Mermaid_Wuchan_Armature

2015년 초에 Adrienne Dowling이라는 영국 NFTS 학생의 졸업작품 “Fishwitch”에 들어갈 인어 금속관절뼈대를 만들었습니다. 인어 뼈대에서 가장 중요했던 건 물 속에서뿐만 아니라 육지에서도 자연스럽게 움직여야 한다는 점이었습니다.

In early 2015 I made a mermaid armature for an NFTS (National Film and Television School, UK) graduation film titled Fishwitch directed by Adrienne Dowling. Adrienne told me that the film will soon start screening in festivals. I’ll post the link for the trailer when it comes out.

The trickiest thing about this character was that it had to move not only in water but also on land. I figured that the most important part was to make it move naturally in both environments. So I designed all the joints to have different ranges of motion in order to make it move like a human as well as fish. It’s possible to replace the mesh fin in case it breaks.

The hip part is made to install a square brass tube and a screw rig. You can choose to install the tube either horizontally or vertically. The client wanted the mermaid to swim in water horizontally and walk on land vertically.

/by

Tiny Part of Hinge Joints

Hand_Armature_Wuchan

These days I’m working on a project for a studio in the U.K. I’ve recently made a prototype of little hand armatures specifically for this project. This tiny item is a machined part of a hinge joint for a finger. Making an item this small and thin is really a pain in the ass.

/by

The smallest one so far

 

아래 사진은 일본 스톱모션 애니메이션 장편 <치에리와 체리>에 등장하는 쥐 캐릭터의 금속관절뼈대입니다. 이 뼈대는 너무나도 작은 사이즈 때문에 이 프로젝트에서 테스트 버전이 가장 많이 나온 캐릭터가 되었습니다. 제가 이제껏 만든 볼앤소켓 금속관절뼈대 가운데 가장 작은 사이즈이기도 합니다

This is an armature for a mouse character in a newly released feature, Chieri and Cherry. For this Japanese animation, I’ve made various types of armatures including humanoids, four- and two-legged animals in different sizes from about 5cm to 50cm.

It was quite time-consuming to make various types of armatures in a small quantity. Yet the most challenging part in this project was to make all the customized parts in so many different sizes. In order to make these customized parts and finalized armatures, I needed to spend a lot of time communicating with the puppet fabrication team and the animation team.

This mouse character had to go through the same process. It was supposed to have a lot of movements, so the studio definitely wanted to have a ball-and-socket armature for it. Due to its tiny size, this armature became one of the most tested versions in the project. And it’s the smallest full-bodied armature in ball and socket I’ve ever made so far.

/by