This is the skull (and here, with the skins) for Animator/Director Nev Bezaire's stop-motion puppet "Emily". (Sculpting/Molding/Casting by Brenda Baumgarten)
The skull uses five replaceable mouth "cartridges", each with a b&s jaw joint and 6 wires in each lip (2 per hole). A silicone skin is fitted over each piece with the-lip wires sunken into the silicone from the inside.
The idea is that each mouth piece has a different mouth sculpted into it in some of the major phonetic shapes. Theoretically, most mouth shapes will be attainable using these five "base" mouths.
They're held into the head with a magnet and steel washer so they can be easily removed, yet they're on there tightly enough to stay put when they're being animated.
The seam between the head and the mouth pieces will be hidden digitally in post production.
8 comments:
Awesome work man! I can't wait to see how it looks with the skin.
WHAT ARE THE SKULLS MADE OUT OF?
The skulls are plastic.
wow Graham these looks GREAT!
that's the great work buddy. I really like that. How to create this all small kind of rigs??
Thanks Suraj!
The metal parts are machined on a Mill and soldered together.
The skull is sculpted and molded in silicone, then cast in plastic.
The five base mouths plus adjustable lips leave an important distinction for a production record: when is a new sound achieved by changing the cartridge, and when is it achieved within the existing one? Documenting one short phrase with those two kinds of change separated would make the intended range of each base clearer. It could also distinguish a deliberate expression change from a replacement seam awaiting cleanup. Commenting on behalf of the GiftVideo team.
A short locked-camera test could show the repeatability of the cartridge change: remove and reinsert the same mouth a few times without adjusting its lips, then compare or overlay those frames. Keeping expression changes out of that first sequence would make it easier to distinguish replacement alignment from the deliberate lip movement in a later animation test. I represent TeslaWrap, an independent project not affiliated with Tesla.
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