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Animator Charles F. Hamper of Monterey Motion Graphics published a cool tutorial on how he makes his own adjustable stop-motion puppet armature parts from hardware-store raw materials including stock brass, threaded rod, and lamp parts. The images are small, but they’re big enough to see what’s going on.
I was pretty excited about this until I saw he was making the joints completely from scratch. Yikes. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen those double ball-and-socket things somewhere else, pre-made.
Those remind me of the ball-link control linkages you see in model airplanes. There is a really clever use for the ball-screw in a safety-breakaway hold down for cowlings on remote control boats using some O-rings attached with landing gear straps. The O-ring stretches over the ball-screw and is secure enough until a crash when it pops off preventing any unnecessary damage.
Those joints are used on “third hands”, those little stand mounted crocodile clips that are used to hold stuff when soldering.
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DIY Hologram Kit
Make your own holograms! Just set up the included jig, use the laser to illuminate your object, and expose the self developing film. You'll have your very own high quality hologram in less than an hour!
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