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Emur Armature


This is a replica display armature for the lead character puppet in my animated short film, Creature Feature. I used a Matsuura CNC milling machine to manufacture all of the parts.

Every body joint is made from 303 stainless steel and brazed with silver solder - except for the spine, neck, and hands which are made from 6061 aluminum. The white body plates are made from thermoplastic beads. The aluminum head wire is socketed and replaceable, and the hand wire is made from 24 gauge annealed steel.

Tentacle Armature


This is a replica display armature for a puppet in my animated short film, Creature Feature. I used a Matsuura CNC milling machine to manufacture all of the joints from 6061 aluminum. All the joints are of the same design, just at a different scale to hold either a 1/4", 1/2", or 3/4" 316 stainless steel ball.

I came up with the design after a lot of R&D, including one earlier prototype that used hose clamps instead of screws, but that proved to be bulkier and harder to adjust. This universal joint has a few unique touches that I came up with and am quite proud of, including a 0.005" lip that keeps the balls from popping out of the socket at any extreme angle.

Hinged two-toed foot.

Tappable toes.

Heel and toes tapped.

Ball ankle

Legs have a goat-like kink and are double hinged

Pelvis with a tap on the bottom for sitting.

Grab plates and a shruggable shoulder

Head allows for wire lips & jaw to be replaced with standard brass K&S sockets.

Close up several universal joints designed for my tentacles. CNC milled.

Replaceable wire tip for the tentacles, covered with heat shrink wrap

 to help contain any inevitable breakage.  

Final tentacle armatures with wire tip. All blocks are 6061 aluminum and made on a CNC machine.

Early tentacle prototypes, using a universal joint that used hose clamps. CNC milled.

Aluminum universal joints for a 3/4" ball, designed to use hose clamps as the tensioning mechanism.

Laying out a character armature for assembly.

A early prototype armature with the original head sculpt plugged in. The joints are all aluminum with thermal plastic body plates. Due to not being able to braze aluminum to steel, I used industrial adhesives instead. I now use steel and braze anything that needs to be permanently joined.

Prototype feet with hinged toes. Milled from 6061 Aluminum on CNC machines.

Pelvis, spine, and chest joints. All milled from 6061 Aluminum from CNC and vertical milling machines.

Milling a hand plate out of aluminum on a basic manual vertical mill.

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