Gopher Golf: Rigging the Gopher

Now that the ending of the film has been changed to give the Gopher a larger role, the Gopher's puppet needed a new armature for a better performance in animation. Initially, the Gopher was just to be featured in two shots in the entire film, so there was no need to create a complex armature as with the Golfer.



Here, the Gopher's armature from the previous version of the film is being re-used and re-worked to be made more sturdy. I am using pieces of foam polystyrene to fit in the lower jaw, the paws and the back of the main body. These were sanded down to the correct shapes and attached on with Araldite glue. A cut had to be made in the back of the Gopher puppet in order to fit the armature inside properly, which will be stitched back together again later.