It's time for the fun part! Let's bring these kittens to life!
I used terrycloth fabric towels to create the skin for the cats. I sewed the head using four pieces, and filled it with polyester fill and small block of foam. The polyester fill gave it that nice spherical shape, and the foam served as the part for the armature's head pipe to connect to. Because the pipe was simply slid into the foam and not secured with glue, I am able to turn the cat's head left and right (the joint on the neck of the armature only allows the head to move up and down).
Also, I ordered some stuffed animal eyes and noses online that I secured on the face. The ears were made of the same towel, and the inner part of the ear was made with the lighter colored band that's newer the border of most towels. I glued a round, ring shaped magnet to the inside of the face so that I could control the facial expressions while animating! Pipe cleaner is already magnetized, so it worked really well! Plus, pipe cleaner can be bent in any shape, so I could create whatever facial expressions I wanted to. The main reason I am using this method is so I do not have to sew multiple heads. Additionally, it will look less jerky to have the pipe cleaner animate directly on the face of my cats rather than attempting facial swapping as is typically done in professional stop-motion projects.
So close to animating!
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