Gopher Golf: Golfer Shoot - Part #1

The first scenes to feature the Golfer were filmed this week. The Golfer was extremely tricky to animate as, sometimes, the puppet was easy to stand up, other times it wasn't. Plasticine was often attached to the feet to help the puppet stand up correctly.

I have finished animating the scenes which feature the Golfer walking - all other scenes now will rely mostly on his facial expressions. Two versions of a golf swing also need to be animated.

The Golfer, a key for his new home, two leaflets and a golf club will be the only "live" props to be filmed in these scenes. A golf ball will be added in later with After Effects for the golf swing scenes.

The walk was very difficult to animate as it was hard to make the puppet stand up by itself some of the time, but the challenge made it all the more fun to work on.

Gopher Golf: Building the Golfer Puppet - Part #8

The hands and head for the Golfer were finally completed this week. The Golfer also now has a hat which, like the clothes, has been hand-knitted.

The hands were dabbed in watercolour paint and talc powder to achieve a colour similar to human skin colour. This took several attempts as it had to match the Plasticine.

The head was attached on with wires, stuck to the main body by Araldite. The joint between the head and main body will be covered by more Plasticine.

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Gopher Golf: Building the Golfer Puppet - Part #7

The final stage for my Golfer puppet is to create a head. Like the hands, it needs to be abnormally big to match the style of the film - but, at the same time, I needed to make sure the head wasn't so heavy that it would affect the body weight. The puppet still needs to be capable of standing up well on its own.

I experimented with creating heads which are, essentially, balls of Plasticine. The detail at the top of the head (the hair) wasn't too important at this time, since the Golfer will be wearing a hat.

The mouth has been left clear as I will be animating lip sync in Flash or After Effects, then tracking the mouth movements with the character's actions on screen. Eye movements and eyelids can also be animated separately.

However, the Plasticine was much too heavy on its own. The solution was to use a small piece of solid foam - a very light material - covered in a very small layer of Plasticine, only a few millimetres thick.

The feet are covered in a very light layer of Plasticine as well, which will add weight to the feet to help the puppet stand up correctly. However, I may not need to show the feet in the final film.

Gopher Golf: Final Hands

Below are pictures of the left and right hands I made from silicon and foam latex.

Both hands are made from the same mould and are almost complete - the only remaining stage is to paint them. The paint will need to be a blend of colours which will match Flesh-coloured Newplast Plasticine. The hands are abnormally big for when the Golfer needs to hold various props, such as a golf club or newspaper. It also adds to the unique style I am developing for the film.

Gopher Golf: Building the Golfer Puppet - Part #6

Here are some further pictures showing how the Golfer's clothes were knitted from scratch. Three alternative tops were designed for the Golfer, two including different colours of crests on them. All of the tops were mostly green in colour, as per the original design.