Assembly Of a Stop-Motion Puppet Armature

Stop-Motion Animation is one of the most unique art forms in the world. Since the early days, the techniques and technologies used by the animators in the various disciplines of stop-motion animation have developed by leaps and bounds, be it in design, sculpting, armature machining, filmmaking or acting.

Every Stop-Motion puppet gains its dexterity and freedom of movement from its Armature, which acts as a skeleton, hidden within its clay or foam exterior. The puppet Armature pretty much decides how easily and efficiently the puppet will perform during animation. Hence, it is vital for every animator to carefully design a puppet Armature according to his or her requirements. The Armature is the carrier of Design Intent in every Animation.

The Metal-Joint Armatures used today by most animation professionals and hobbyists consists of a combination of simple mechanical joints linked with one another in a manner that suits a particular form and generates the required movement during animation.

We shall take the example of a Standard Armature Kit available commercially and see the various stages involved in the assembly of its various components into the shape of a human being.

The first step of any Armature construction involves a rough sketch or layout to define the scale of the puppet. Fixing the size of the armature at the early stages of the armature construction helps to avoid unnecessary iterations in the later stages.

Before we proceeded to the CAD Modeling of the puppet Armature, we realized that one of the ready made joints available in the kit needed a slight modification. The joint which was to be used for the feet, used a fixed multi-purpose block attached to a ball and socket joint. We wanted a normal block to replace the multi-purpose block.

We then translated our proportional sketch to a CAD System to further optimize the proportions and build an exact dimensioned ‘Master Layout’ for the Puppet.

The next step was to build the 3D-Model of the Armature using ProEngineer, taking size and proportion reference from the master layout.

Once the 3D-Model was complete and verified for its size and proportions, the required machining drawings and dimensions were provided for the workshop.

The various parts of the armature were cut and the sharp edges rounded off. The parts were then identified into respective subassembly joints before the actual assembly process began.

The Standard Armature kit provides for a modular and easily interchangeable set of joints that can be used to build your puppet. Yet, in most cases during animation the diverse range of characters and the variety in movement expected of each puppet puts the conventional modular armature kits at a clear disadvantage. More often than not, the animator is forced to adjust his or her puppet’s character and movement styles to suit to their standard Armature kit’s limitations.

Armature Design is an Art form and each new challenging character in any animation deserves a in-depth analysis into its character and range of activities, before building its Armature. We believe that an Armature should infuse character into the puppet.

Emantras explores and brings out stable, movement specific Armatures that are custom built for a specific application. Our Armatures are driven by the puppet’s character, not the other way around.

Sajan Rajagopal

Design of a Three Phase Portable Reference Standard

Three Phase Reference Standard (TPRS) is a device used to measure the load and test the accuracy of three phase energy meters at residential as well as commercial installations. The device is used primarily by State Electricity Boards and electrical laboratories.

Being a low volume product, the TPRS is manufactured by only a handful of manufacturers across the globe, only one of them being Indian. The Indian model is relatively less expensive but leaves much to be desired in terms of functionality and styling. Emantras Product Design was approached by Signals & Systems India Private Limited (SANDS) to design and develop a new model of TPRS for the Indian as well as international markets. SANDS is a ISO 9001:2000 certified company specializing in DSP and embedded solutions for the power sector.

The product being highly technical, we were completely at sea when SANDS engineers showed us the bare circuit assembled on a table! The first step for us was to understand all the parts, accessories and their inter-relationships.

Our team observed SANDS engineers performing all possible operations on the TPRS, namely Calibration, Error Checking and Data Transfer. We prepared a flowchart of the steps involved in each of these operations. Based on our observations and discussions with the SANDS team, we optimized the Usability Cycles of the product for efficiency and fool-proof performance.

The next step was to work out a physical embodiment for the product. All the loose parts and accessories were measured accurately in order to have a dimensional database of our building blocks. We generated five different arrangements for encasing the main console and all the accessories.

For each of the arrangements, we tried numerous configurations and compared them in terms of volumetric efficiency, usability and number of casings required. One of the options in arrangement 5 was selected for development.

For the outer carry case (housing the hand-held unit and accessories), our client preferred to go for ready-made instrument casings due to the low volume of the product. We surveyed the internet for ready-made casing models suiting our dimensional requirements. The selection was made based on volumetric efficiency, material & construction, self-weight, available colours, appearance and of course, price!

The dimensions of the hand-held unit were frozen and styling possibilities explored for the same.

The selected design was modeled and detailed out in ProE.

Special attention was paid to the design of the keypad, with due consideration to ergonomics, logical clustering and relative frequency of usage.

3D rendered images were generated for the design so as to convey a realistic picture to the SANDS management, and in turn, to their customers.

A rapid prototype of the hand-held casing was generated through the FDM process. The internal components were assembled and the unit was tested for ergonomics and electrical performance. After some minor dimensional adjustments, the design was approved for production.

Being accustomed to designing consumer products, this project (an industrial product) was a welcome break for us. We realized that however technical or complicated a product may be, design has the power to significantly enhance its usability and of course, its aesthetics.

Shoubhik Dutta Roy