need help!!!

[cryspyfast]

Hi there :)
I've been watching "Nightmare Before Christmas" for a while and, after watching the Making Of, I came up with an idea about a story to do using the same technique. I know that they used Latex Rubber to make the sculptures but that's kind of expensive and hard to find. I was hoping that you could tell me some materials that would be ideal for the job.
I'm looking for something like Latex Rubber, that wouldn't be too easy to bend (I want to be able to bend it without it loosing its form), something ideal for a Stop Motion movie.
I'm sorry if this is not the place to post this thread, but I'm new around here...
Waiting for suggestions,
Thanks :D

[The Dark Power]

There are a number of methods available for building stop motion animation puppets. For the Nightmare Before Christmas they likely used foam latex rubber over a metal armature. That's a different substance to latex rubber which is actually very cheap, but not quite so well suited to creating solid shapes.

The movement of the puppets was controlled by the armature inside and the animator, not the actual rubber itself (foam rubber is very flexible).

If you've never done this before I'd suggest starting small with some claymation - that's figures made from plasticene which can be manipulated to create an animation.

Another (cheap) method which I've used before is to by some wooden artists mannequins and cover them in costumes or sculpted pieces. You could use latex rubber here to create some skins over the mannequins. More info here:

http://www.thedarkpower.com/php/stopmoknight.php
http://www.thedarkpower.com/php/stopmostatue.php

Next up would be to make a wire skeleton and again build up a character or costume over that. A technique Ray Harrihausen used was to cover his armatures with cotton wool and then to drip latex rubber over them to build up a skin.

Finally there's the expensive option which involves buying an animation armature and creating a silicon rubber puppet over that. I have a thread detailing my own trials and tribulations with this here:

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=90581

A couple of useful links. I'm sure a google search for 'stop motion animation' will uncover more.

http://www.stopmotionmagic.com/
http://www.animationsupplies.net/index.php
http://www.glasseyes.com/

Good luck!

[cryspyfast]

Hi, thanks for the very helpful reply :) actually I've already done some stop motion animations using plasticene, but now I was aiming for something with better quality.

I was really amazed by the sculpture you made in that thread you mentioned. I loved it, and those details in the arms and in the back.. really nice;) That's the type of thing I was looking for! It really helped.

In "Nightmare Before Christmas - The Making Of" (you're right, it's foam latex rubber) they used a very crazy armature, the armature itself would bend in the perfect way, it might be a bit difficult to achieve the same results using a wire armature only. But I guess I'll try that one, since I don't have a big budget x)

Congrats in the "A Tale from the Endless Stair"! awesome ;)
Thanks again.

[The Dark Power]

Thanks very much ;0)

Yes they have the big bucks to play with on film productions so they have very finely detailed custom built armatures. I paid about £120 for mine (around $250) which is expensive enough!

You'd be surprised what you can do with wire armatures though. Check out amazon, there's usually some pretty good books on this kind of thing. I have this one which is great but it seems to be out of print:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stop-Motion-Skills-Animation-Effects/dp/0240516591/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269359381&sr=8-12

There are others on there though might be just as good.