Gopher Golf: Building the Golfer Puppet - Part #1

The Golfer is the main character in my film "Gopher Golf" and the main puppet I am currently building for the film. I was aware from the beginning of the film's production I would be limited for time on pre-production, so I decided I would have an advantage only building one main character for the film. I would be able to spend more time focusing on the one character's performance - how he moves, his reactions to certain events and emotions, etc.

 

The character is currently being built using a Ray Harryhausen Armacreature Kit - a multi-purpose make of armature. His face, hands and shoes will use both plasticine and silicone rubber, whilst his clothes will be hand-knitted.

 

          
 


Some early animation tests were done earlier in the year, mainly to visualise how movements such as a golf swing would look on screen.

       


Some changes were made from the Golfer's original design to make the model's construction easier. The Golfer's shorts will be changed to trousers, since either can be worn in the golfing world. It will mean that I won't need to separately construct the Golfer's legs using plasticine or silicone rubber; the trousers, made with fabric, can cover the legs entirely and the two different materials (fabric and plasticine/silicone rubber) will not need to interact.

The other important change in the Golfer's final design is the hands. It was decided that the Golfer's hands should be larger and more exaggerated, since he will be handling some large and heavy props on set (i.e. golfing clubs, golf ball, newspaper, etc). This is a technique often used in children's animation such as Postman Pat and Bob the Builder - in both of these shows, a character's hand will also have four digits instead of five. Again, this is to make handling of props much easier for the stop-motion puppets. This technique is also used in the 2D animated The Simpsons for all characters besides God, although this is more due to Matt Groening's unique art style.