Hi Ruly, I don't think I've seen latex sold as "latex 101", is that a brand? Or are you referring to the DVD we carry? A quart kit of foam latex can do a few nice sized puppets.

Thanks Dean, that water looks nice - and the veggie scenery is pretty cool too. You know my son has these DVD's called veggie tales. I had one of those songs stuck in my head all last night....it almost gave me nightmares heh.

Hey Dean, well the master course has the Ron Cole mold tutorial (think it's on YouTube somewhere) and Kathi Zungs video on foam latex in our store is probably the best one for molds. Also the face replacement video will help to understand a little about sculpting the faces you want to make and how to make simple mods for those. You might want to check out our Zombie Pirate page over here to see some silicone molds for ideas too: http://www.zombie-pirates.com/cpg133/thumbnails.php?album=2

Hey Dean, your test looks good so far. I can give you a tip on the eyes. If you place resin eyes behind the resin replacement piece, you can magnetize the eyes that you cast with a small magnet inside them during the casting. Then for the iris you can use a small piece of metal that you slide around. That's one way to do it. You can also cast a head with sockets to fit some plastic (delrin or acrylic) round eyes into. The front part of the face could hold them in place as well as some vasilene (how do you spell that?), sticky wax or a tiny piece of clay. Then you just take a pencil eraser and move the eyes a little for your animation. So there's a few ways to go about it. Your initial design will determine a lot of what you can do. So far your stuff looks good. If you want a better green screen program, use the chroma key in Sony Vegas. That line around your puppet will disappear. It's a great program for that.

Hey Freddie, that karma thing is just a way to show who is most active on the site. The more you help others on the site in the forums - or if you post pictures and videos you get more karma.

aaaaahhhhhh i see, thanks :D

Hi Nicholas, to join the challenges what you need to do is make your video based on the theme. Then post it in the forums for the challenge you're joining. Here's the current monthly challenge: http://animateclay.com/index.php/forums/topic?id=218 That's all there is to it!

Alrighty, I just entered.

Hi Ruly, foam latex usually has a few ingredients at the minimum. Gel, foam and base are the three main components - but there are alternative versions that I've seen where they combine the curing agent to one of those. Michael Davey makes such a version. So you just need 3 parts. I would suggest the foam latex 101 video in our store. Kathi Zung shows how to mix the ingredients, make the molds, bake, seam and paint. Basically everything. It really is the best resource I know of if you are new to foam latex puppets. You will need a cheap mixmaster blender, usually garage sales and thrift shops carry those.

Thanks Dean, I'm glad you like the site!

Hi mark, need to make a number of mouth pieces. I watched your videos & i've been using the trial dragon stop frame animation software.

I'm ready to do Lip synch but it certainly don't look easy, I have the book cracking animation so I think most of the mouth shapes I need are within that but I also noticed on JlipSych there may be other letters I need to do. I'm thinking of downloading your latest secrets of clay animation does
this have images of different mouth pieces.

The armature i'm using is a pro plus one from Animation Supplies in the UK (See test)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9ZHDpzdgr8

I have made numerous sculptures in the past from character designs & at first my animation puppet will be created using newplast plastercine, once this animation is finished I will want to learn how to make a cast in resin & create a silicone molded character but one step at a time! How in depth is your tutorial about casting/mould making?

Many thanks for your time

Kind Regards

Dean

Hey Dean, ok you're looking at the tutorials in our store? There are a couple of good ones I'd suggest. The Kathi Zung foam latex 101 explains how to mold for foam latex puppets. Then for replacement mouths our replacement mouth tutorial explains how to make replacements out of van aken clay (melting into molds), resin if you need to and also newplast where you make special press-molds. It's not that difficult actually. The e-book Secrets Revealed goes into molds a little but Kathis video deals specifically with molds in a lot more detail. It's probably easier to watch than read if you're like me.

Hi Jordan, I just reset your download so you can download it again. Let me know if you still don't see it. I hope the audio will work on your computer this time around. You should try to watch it with Windows Media Player, that's probably your best bet.

its all worked out...i played it on a different computer and it worked fine! no idea why that is but thank you for your help.

Hey Jordan, that is strange. It may be because back when I made that DVD the audio was mono and only played I think on the left speaker. It was a limit of the camera I used. You might try playing with your audio settings or reversing your speaker wires. Sometimes that helps. I need to make a new sculpting DVD in the future I think. For now I'm still working on re-making the animation DVD.

its not you video it was from my side it stuffed up. i recently had a bad virus pop up in my computer, ive gotten rid of it but some of my movie file's audio dosent work anymore. i checked the properties and noticed they had been altered around the day i found the virus. so ill just re download the movie :)

im going to buy your video on how to build sets at the end of the year but i was wandering if i should hold off buying it if just incase you bring out a new one?

thanx

Hey Jordan, There is a software conflict when I try to use the procaster program and an audio recording program. What happens is only one program will allow me to use the microphone, but not at the same time. So I guess it's not possible unfortunately. I wish it were, it's a good idea.

O ok but wouldnt it work if you uploaded it after youve filmed it?

Hey Charles, didn't see your reply. Yeah, brass tubing is a good way for removable parts in case your wire breaks. It's complicated to explain, we've got the DVD on how to do that. But from what you describe you already got the right idea. That should work too with epoxy and aluminum wire or lead wire if you can find it. Just be careful not to spread lead shavings or dust around, it's toxic if you rub it in your eyes by mistake or it gets on your food etc.

soory miss spelled some words didn't check, like always lol

see

Hey Charles, it's an involved process. Why did you choose brass and lead? The simplest way is aluminum wire armatures and it's the least expensive. With brass you need to buy a saw, propane torch, solder, flux and at the minimum a bench vice. With aluminum wire you just need some epoxy, a few wood toothpicks and maybe a few nuts and bolts. Here's a link that should help:

http://www.animateclay.com/index.php/articles/70-beginner-guides/135-wire-armature-construction

o sorry i forgot about my last comment

Hey Cool, yeah try craigslist.com or ebay. I don't know any particular place other than somewhere like Sears or Lowes here in the US. But they usually have stoves on top, so you pay a little more and it takes up more space too.

Hi Cool, I would try craigslist.com or ebay.com. You don't need a huge oven if you aren't going to make really big molds. Just something that is 2 foot by 3 foot or so inside. A lot of restaurants will get rid of them so you might see something locally on the craigslist site.

Hi Justyn, I've been working on it a little every day. I've got a lot done on it, but I can't predict an exact date. It's going to have a LOT of information in it. I'm still not sure if it will be two or three disks.