Bricks in Motion
We are a friendly filmmaking community devoted to the art of stop-motion animation using LEGO® and similar construction toys. Here, you can share your work, join our community of other brickfilmers, and participate in periodic animation contests!
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I want to purchase an armature but I really can't justify these prices:
http://store.upuno.com/armatures/
Has anyone got one and used it? Where did you get it from?
Cheers.
If you want a good one that is the price they run, they are small run items that require a lot of preperation of hard to machine stainless steel and they just cost a lot of money, I tried to build one in my dad's shop years and years ago and the quality was very poor and materials ran around $80 and I probably spent 15-20 hours working on it.
If you want a cheap armature get a twisted aluminum wire armature, they are cheap, easy to make and most big budget productions have the background puppets equip with the cheaper twisted wire armatures anyway.
I have built my own armatures out of wires before (they were terrible so I threw it away), and you can try it too.
Anyways, the website you're on is pretty self-explanatory. Vat stands for "Value-Added Tax" which means the price of the product including taxes.
Lisa models are in the shape of a female and Milo has a masculine shape. M is for mini, L is for large. Ben is like a lego set where they give you the parts you have to build it unlike the others.
Ben is the cheapest but may take a while to build.
It's all up to you. Do you want a male or a female figure? How big do you want it to be? Will you build it or have it ready made?
There are more brands out there that also sells armatures for a good price so don't just stick to that site.
I have never used professional armatures. Armatures can't be found at Walmart, I am online is the best place to find them because they're not common. Other places to look can be puppet stores, or animation studios but I can't guarantee that you'll find them there. If it's your first time ever using armatures then go with a less expensive one.
Good luck!
Last edited by Kd2000 (April 8, 2015 (09:13pm))
These look like a pretty good deal and are rather affordable, however anything cheaper then that is likely to be pretty poor quality. While doing armature research for Smeagol we settled on these as the best looking kit options, but they tend to be a bit more expensive.
I made my own wire armature and covered it with clay. It was absolutely aweful. 
I have stikfas as well - which is not really an armature, but it has no means of tie-down (apart from using tack!)
Thanks for those links Sloth - after currency conversion I would save about $70 bucks! 
how big was your wire armature? I have had great luck with wire armatures, they work well, I recommend you watch this.
Hi there,
Depending on the project you have at hand a wire armature could be enough. There are plenty of tutorials online and combining polymer clay that can be oven hardened with the wire, you can get a decent armature for your character. Bare in mind that with use, the bendy parts will snap, it does happen quite quickly so if your project is a mid-long one and/or includes many movements you'll be better off with a ball and socket or hinged armature.
You can find many good armatures out there, each have different features such as the number of rigging points, the material is built (mild steel, which can rust, aluminium, stainless steel, etc), the size, the flexibility to adapt it to your own character, how easy it is to replace hands, how big are the joints, etc.
UPuno armatures have many features which you can read on the products' descriptions, including hinged knees and elbows. For more information about the difference between joints of ball and socket and hinged see here.
Now, for the price, if you are outside of EU (European Union) you do not have to pay VAT as UPuno is based in UK so you will save 20% of the price. (See the price of product exc. VAT)
I hope this information helps! Happy animating!
PS: I work for UPuno, so if you have any questions or need more information I would be very happy to help!
Last edited by Noemi (January 11, 2017 (09:38am))
Hi there,
Here's the link to a ball and socket armature: Tim - Stop motion armature kit which may be good enough for your project.
HAPPY ANIMATING!!!
Last edited by Noemi (January 11, 2017 (09:36am))
This is a great, inexpensive armature design: http://younganimatorsclub.com/stop-moti … armatures/
The link at the end of that article points to a more comprehensive article on Puppet Building.
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