Exciting news! One of my favorite professors and honors project director, Ron Honn, generously allowed my friend and I to borrow his Stickybones action figure! Stickybones is an action figure that allows animators to test out different poses, and can also be used for stop motion.
This is the closest I've gotten to actually being able to animate with a real armature so it was very exciting, but also a challenge. I practiced with Stickybones for a few weeks and came to a few conclusions:
1. Stickybones has a lot of motion, but sometimes too much. His joints can go all over the place, and pop out of their sockets often.
2. Animating on the tiny magnetic plate provided with Stickybones was arduous. My friend and I started just pinning him into a piece of styrofoam instead. The magnetic plate was too small to complete a walk cycle. It was also too strong; when Stickybones had a leg up mid walk cycle, it would quickly slam back down despite being held by a rig.
3. Stickybones was great for smaller movements and showing personality. Moving the head and/or fingers always looked good, while hips and legs were much more difficult.
4. Animating is hard! I felt a lot more comfortable after practicing all summer, but I would love to practice with a real armature someday. As for my 3D printed pieces, this was a great way to see what did and didn't work. My biggest takeaway from Stickybones is that control is important for the joints. I need to make sure that the joints I design can only move in the way I want them to...nothing too crazy and no body parts flying all over the place. I'd also like my armature to be slightly sturdier. Preferably, I don't want fingers and shoulders popping off mid-shoot.
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