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.
I can’t figure out how to actually view the artical Help please
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