Meet Stickybones, a Highly-Articulated Puppet That Makes Animating a Whole Lot Easier
Working in animation has plenty of challenges, one of the bigger ones being that your subjects aren't real and must be fabricated out of nothing.
If you've ever animated something, whether by illustrating by hand or crafting and adjusting puppets for stop-motion, you know how difficult it is to find a good model, one that can be put into virtually any pose you want and provide a reference for human gesticulations and movements in 3D.
That's where Stickybones comes in. Co-created by character animator Erik Baker, this highly-articulated puppet allows artists, animators, and other creatives to easily manipulate it into precisely the pose they want, no tie-downs or rigs required. This means that animators can use Stickybones for stop-motion, artists can use it as a model, and people like me, who don't animate or paint/draw/sculpt, can use it just to amuse themselves. And seeing as it raised nearly half a million dollars on Indiegogo, which was 557% more than their original goal, clearly there is quite the demand.
Here's a video demonstrating what it's like to get hands on with Stickybones. It also shows one of their accessories, the Fly-Rig. (Which is basically like any rigging system you'd see in animation.)
And this one demonstrates the Versa-Toe, a free upgrade that lets users remove/switch out the foot-magnets to allow for more control. This is especially useful when animating walks.
Key Features
- Pre-tensioned joints
- Wide range of motion
- Articulated hands and midsection
- Precision calibration
- Double-jointed head,neck, and shoulders
- Smooth joint motion
- Magnets in hands and feet
- Capable of micro iterations
- Highly wear-resistant materials
- Engineering-grade polymers
- Stickybones puppet: $89
- Performance stage: $28
- Fly-Rig: $32
If you're interested in learning more about Stickybones, or if you're ready to snatch one up for yourself, head on over to the Stickybones website or check out their Indiegogo campaign.
Source: Stickybones