In September of 2009 I ordered a French "Skeletoon" ball and socket armature kit. I was quite excited by these kits, because of their price and ease of construction. The components were cast in such a way that the rods and balls were one piece, and to assemble the armature one needed simply cut the rod to the right length and this clamped easily into the other component. It was an ingenious idea, but unfortunately I was not happy with the way the joint seemed to swing around rather than smoothly turn the way I wanted. Though I was quite upset with the quality of these kits, I would not discourage people from trying them, as they had great advantages as well, and deserve to be given a chance.
On the 7th of March I decided to make a full scale drawing of myself as a base for the armature design. Those who know me probably don't need it to be explained, but one of the characters in my puppet films is always a self portrait.
After designing the armatures for the five characters in the film, I ordered the components from two sources, one being Andy Simmons, at animationsupplies.net, who I had used for Solo Duets five years before.
In January of 2010 I submitted a proposal for an Arts Council of England grant to fund the film. Though the assessor said she gave the proposal top marks, she could not grant it.
I started rethinking the proposal, to resubmit for a smaller grant to fund research and development, as the assessor suggested, but the time wasted in doing this seemed to make the small amount the grant would be worth, almost worthless.
Instead, I rewrote the proposal and sent it to possible producers and such. Interest came back, but it became clear that I need to finish the puppets and create "film stills" to properly illustrate the project to funding agents.
Anyway, during all this I got married, travelled back and fourth, moved from home to home, and now find myself in Cardiff.
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