This slideshare discusses the process I underwent when making my characters for my short horror film.

1. The Making of My
Characters

2. Making the Armatures
Within animation, an armature is used in
order to maintain the structure of the
character, as well as forming a basis for
the characters features to form. It helps
to simulate the motions of virtual human
and act as the skeleton of the model.
In order to create the head of
the character, I had to create a
loop within the wire and twist
any excess wire to form the
spine of the character. When
creating the head of the
character, I had to take into
consideration the facial
structure of the character and
the overall size depending on
the age size and body size of
the character.
To create the
shoulders of that
character, the same
process is used when
creating the head. The
shoulders are then
applied horizontally on
the body, the excess
wire is then used to
wrap around the spire,
strengthening it to be
able to support my
character.
Again like the head, the structure of the
shoulders forms the basis for the
characters body shape. This means that
the hips then have to be proportionate to
the shoulders in order to form a realistic
body shape.
1.
2. 3.
4. 5.
To form the arms, they must be
proportionate and the right length.
They should not be any longer or
shorter than 1cm over the characters
hips. As my character wont be
dependant on moving their arms, I
have created only 1 loop within the
arms, that are interlocked with the
shoulders, and twisted the wire,
sparing some at the ends in order to
create hands for the character. This
makes the arms have less motion
than id created with two joints.
The hips of the character holds
the same method as the
shoulders. As mentioned this
needs to be in proportion to the
character’s shoulder., typically
making them wider if they are a
female or smaller if the waist is
aimed to be made smaller.
The legs of the character also use the same
process as the arms. They have to be interlocked
with the hips and the execs twisted. Agin if the
character is more mobile, another process can be
used to create a joint at the knees of the character,
allowing the character to be more mobile.

3. Final Product:
To secure the arms and legs from
moving out of place when moving the
character, I used electrical tape and
taped a small section of the shoulder
and hip, trapping the arms and legs so
they were in the right position, but still
had room to move and maintain stable.
6. 7.
By creating a figure of 8 shape
secured at the shoulders and hips
by more electrical tape, this creates
more of a figure for the body shape
of the character and also maintains
the characters stability, ensuring
that the character stands up
straight. I have also secured the
shape with tape within the middle of
the spine so that no parts of the
character sticks out when moulding
the characters body and features
with Plasticine. This completes the
armature of the character.
8.
To bulk out the character and not waste
Plasticine, I used paper to create a body
shape. Without this the characters within
my short film would be very thin and may
not stand up properly as they would be
too thin for my character to stand. Once
adding paper to the specific areas such
as the head, chest, stomach, back and
bottom of the character, more electrical
tape would need to be applied as when
adding Plasticine on top of the paper, it
would make the paper moist and
therefore wouldn’t remain a decent
structure and the characters wont last as
long.
This is the final product of the
character, before moulding the
aesthetic of the characters and
creating features to make the
character more life like. Any uneven
or incorrect proportions of the
character can then be added with
Plasticine ensuring that the
character is even and remains
constant. Overall I found this method
very quick and easy to use rather
than using a more expensive
armature found online. This method
also allowed me to create more
specific measurements for the body
type of my figure. It therefore does
not waste plasticine and makes the
characters less expensive when on
a budget.

4. Final result
I have used previous character sketches as a
basis of my character designs. When making
my characters I payed attention to detail
ensuring that the characters looked realistic so
they could easily be interpreted my a younger
audience. This also adds texture within the
animation.