Hey Optik, its from Jiri Trnka's last film, 'The Hand' which I will be uploading to this site shortly. Though I will be making a sculpt from chavant out of him and definately ( after this film is done) produce a short with a character in the same style.

sry for the late response... but.... yeah i had a hard time finding it too.... they arent in production anymore so they are extremely hard to find... I would recommend ebay since no stores that i know of have them in stock

good luck

Hi, thanks for the comment.

The teeth question! Allways go for the hard option and style it so it looks like plastacine, if it fits your style.

We use fast cast, a simple two part chemical. Usually you fix the top set of teeth with  a K&S joint and the lower set are loose.

All these  things depend on what style of puppet and animation your after. Usually every project has a new set of problems to solve.

Anyway, keep up the good work.

Jase

   If you are having problems with cracking Van-Aken then melt the clay down you are using in a double boiler and then add a little olive-oil. just a little per pound of Van-Aken. Mix, Then keep taking a little out and test it. Bend it a few time and see if it's to your liking. If not add a little more oil. If you add to much oil it will seep to the surface while animating and start shimmering like the heavens or Your pupet will look like drenched koala in no time. The clay will also become very squishy, making animation torture.


        Also you have to remember what it is you're working with. It's clay! Nothing to special about it. so if you see some cracks while animating then just cover or seal them. there is no rush in between frames. So take your time and have fun. Hope I helped.

        Thanks man! if you want an over-all overview then I would definitly get the book first. The movies are a must have though. If you have any questions post them in the boards or send Marc an e-mail. He replies really fast.

I'm not familair with Acid and Fruity Loops (they are more geared for loop-based audio) but Sonar 3 is very very old and probably can't load something like Philharmonik. If you get Reaper, which I mentioned in my last blog post), it will handle more modern plugins like Philharmonik. Reaper is free to use for non-commerical use and is at least as good as Sonar (actually, I prefer it over Sonar).

Also, for Philharmonik, you'd want to get yourself a good music notation editing application like Sibelius or Overture that can load VST plugins. Sonar's music notation editor is terrible.

Hey Optik, not sure if that comment on the wire armature video is sent to you. But I think for you to use tie downs, just raise your set up with a square wood frame with four legs high enough to get your hand under. If you drill holes in the set floor just place a piece of tape over the hole later and paint it the same color as the floor. Thats how they have done it since the beginning of stop motion - it works good.

What would you like to know about my audio software, specifically? I am planning on doing some basic audio tutorials at some point.

Hey, what kind of camera are you aiming for? A digital SLR, or a point and shoot? I'll try to help you get an idea of what to get.