Madam Thrunch - Stop Mo Animation Model Production Pics

Madam Thrunch is a minor character so instead of creating a hand puppet for her parts I'm going to put her in as a Stop-Motion animation. Here are some production pics of her creation from "blueprint" to completion. Go here for her original concept sketches.

These first three are rough designs and the beginning armatures laying out next to them for comparison. The materials used are, armature wire, plumbers epoxy, tooling foil and balsa wood.

Here are armature shots of the head. Regular wood shapes held together with armature wire and epoxy. Then covered with more epoxy to shape out the head. The tube in the center is where the different mouth shapes will go.

Hands and feet are being made and attached to the body.  The fingers are twisted floral wire and the knuckles are small plastic beads. All held together with epoxy and hot glue.

Now I'm covering all the exposed parts with latex so I can manipulate them for the animation.

Now I'm making her set. Madam Thrunch is the CEO of Gandermoon Studios. She's pretty terrifying so she's got a very strong Evil Emperor vibe going on.

 

The back of her throne is made of a television antenna, piece of an old alarm clock and half of a plastic ball painted blue. The two pedestals are made from left over pieces from ceiling fan installation kits. They're cold and shiny to help with the "Death Star" feel.

 

Here's the finished set. The pylons are made from plastic tubes painted with the same blue paint from the throne. The cool toppers are caps from syringes we got from the pharmacy. The black tubing on the edge is normally used to hide telephone cords.

Now here's the finished set with Madam Thrunch sitting in it. I made her robe from a T-Shirt. Now she's got rings and other jewelry made from cheap rhinestones and wire and foil. Her eyes are shrouded to mimic the evil emperor again.

This last shot is to show scale. The whole set is about 14 inches tall and 16 inches wide.

 

Thunderstone - Ultra Galactic Prima Dona

"Ok, I was trying to get some editing done today and in walks Thunderstone. For most editors they like to work alone. Having the director there for editing is one thing but to have the lead actor show up can be disastrous."

" At first I tried to accommodate him. He wasn’t too bad. A few suggestions on timing and a little comment about pacing. Nothing major. I finally had to send him out when he asked me to motion track a piece of lint on his face and remove it. I refused and he said something about my momma."

  

"I thought he was gone but well he showed back up outside the window."

"I think I am going to have to re-locate if I want to get this edited."

Lee.

 

 Believe it or not these images are composited into the shot from the green screen shoot. So, Thunderstone is not actually in the studio with Lee. It's all cinematic magic... and Lee's sense of humor.