Golden Dragon - Armature Construction

        Whilst at Manchester Animation Festival, Animation Toolkit had on display the armature for what looked to be a dragon or winged dinosaur. There looked to be about 15 ball and socket joints in the tail alone, in gradually decreasing sizes, with only marginally fewer in the neck. This was obviously a beautifully made custom armature, far outside of my reach. Even if I adapted an armature kit, purchasing additional joints, the cost would be astronomical. Fortunately, during their presentation, Animation Toolkit mentioned more cost effective ways of constructing armatures, namely twisted wire covered with metal tubing. The exposed wire would form joints. While time consuming, this technique would be far more economical, while allowing me the opportunity to gain a greater understanding of the nature of armatures.

        Working closely to my design, I proceeded to cut the correct lengths of tubing, before fixing them in place along lengths of twisted wire (three or four strands depending upon the required flexibility of a limb or body part) using JB weld.

        There are however large disadvantages to this technique. Joints which bear repeat manipulation and stress can be liable to snap and break, while there may prove to be too much freedom in some joints, as they can bend in any direction without restriction. Also, the springy nature of the wire means that the puppet may bounce back when being posed or animated. It is for this last reason that I attempted to keep the wire malleable, yet strong enough to support the weight of the puppet (fortunately it will only be covered by stuffing and knitting).

Golden Dragon - Air Brushing

        The only problem with my plan to knit the entire Golden Dragon is that so far none of the yarns I have been able to source have knitted up looking suitably gold, coming out rather more mustard yellow or sandy brown. How might it be possible to make the knitted yearns appear more metallic and golden?

        I distinctly remember many years ago visiting the V&A and seeing a knitted dress which appeared to have had silver foil melted to it. Yet unfortuately I did not make a note of the designer to research how this technique was achieved. Surely the heat required to actually melt the foil would cause damage to the soft yarn? 

         Perhaps then painting the knitting would be the best solution. Painting the material manually with a brush might apply too thick a coat, causing the paint to seep into the yarn, causing it to stiffen and lose flexibility when dry (and flexibility was one of the key features which led me to knitting in the first place. Then perhaps spray paint? But again, spray paint can be quite forceful, meaning the knitting may become saturated, when ideally what I am looking for is a metallic sheen on the surface of the wool.

        An air brush seemed to provide solution, offering a little more control than a spray paint, and compatible with oil, acrylic or enamel paints. I decided to test this method using some of the knitting samples I had already produced.

        While the effect of the airbrush (using Humbrol acrylic paint) does not show up particularly well in the above image, there is a slight metallic coating. It was only after painting that I realised I had mixed the suggested paint ratios incorrectly, making the paint used here far more dilute. Perhaps with a stronger paint mixture, or indeed more coats (or a different gold paint) a brighter, more noticeable effect could be achieved. What I am pleased about is that the paint remained on the surface of the samples, not soaking all the way through, which means that despite being a little stiffer, the knitting has maintained its flexibility.

Golden Dragon Knitted Scales Tests

        Last year I conducted tests for ways in which to make scales using gold chocolate foil and thin card. While I was pleased with the outcome of these tests, upon further consideration it has occurred to me that this technique would result in a rather stiff puppet, unless individual 'scales' could be attached to a more flexible material beneath. This would be incredibly fiddly and time consuming. On the more flexible and mobile areas, there might also be the risk of the overlapping scales catching on one another.

        So I began to think of other ways in which I could create golden scales. As I had already intended on using knitting for the soft underbelly of the dragon I began to consider whether knitting might not be a suitable option for the whole puppet. After all, there are an infinite variety of stitches which produce so many textures there were bound to be some which could create the impression of scales. Also, as the story is aimed at children, and the dragon a comforting and amiable character (rather than dangerous or intimidating), the knitting may bring a necessary softness to the puppet.  

        The best knitting stitch which I was aware of is a berry stitch, which incorporates rows and rows of small bobbles. However, it seemed a shame to abandon the idea of using the god foil entirely. I had the idea of placing the foil beneath a piece of lace knitting, which has a delicate pattern of loops and holes, hopefully letting through glimpses of the gold beneath. The samples which I created were perhaps knitted on too small needles, meaning the holes are too small for foil to show through. I will need to experiment with thicker needles. Yet the idea of creating the dragon from a variety of lace, berry, moss and cable stitching has grown on me. I believe it could produce a charming (and flexible) result.

Golden Dragon

        The Golden Dragon is a project which has been in development since mid way through second year. I was approached by a fellow student, Fiona, who asked if I would be interested in creating the titular dragon for a short stop motion animation she was writing:

One day the little prince was strolling in the woodland, behind his mother’s castle.

When he stumbled upon a 5,000 year old baobab tree, 

He knew baobab trees contained magical properties, and that they were also very fun to climb..

However as he stumbled closer and reached up, a secret passageway was revealed.

He stepped inside and as eyes adjusted to the light, he realised, he was in the presence of a malnourished dragon.

He was whipped back to reality when he heard and felt her belly grumble.

He immediately noticed all her shiny gold scales and though of all the toys in the kingdom he could buy.

He jumped backwards. But as he looked into her eyes, he realise he had no reason to be afraid. She was too weak to move.

He suddenly felt very guilty about all his previous thoughts, and realised this magical creature had a soul and needed help.

He ran as fast as he could back to the kitchen and looked for food for the dragon.

But he didn’t know what a dragon would eat. All the knights had killed all the dragons long before he was born.

He decided upon taking chocolate cake and chicken wings.

Together they ate a feast fit for royalty and the little prince got all the BBQ sauce in his eyebrows!!

As he rubbed the dragons belly he saw her pearly white teeth flash in front of face and said:

‘Oh no this is it, the dire end!!’

He was a melodramatic prince, the dragon just licked his eyebrows clean!

As he left that night he vowed ever evening, he would take some of his tea to the dragon in the magical tree.

A few weeks passed. The little prince looked into the eyes of a chicken and realised this creature had a soul too, and it was unfair to be eating such a gentle soul and to not expect a dragon to eat him!!

By now, the dragon was no longer malnourished. She was almost as big as the castle itself! One false move and the dragonslayer blood in the townsfolk would be reignited.

But she surprised them, even the little prince when she flew round the castle and clipped all the flowers,

bluebells, irises and forgetmenots,

and showered them all over the townsfolk.

She granted the little prince one wish for making her better, she shined better than any toy he’d ever owned and he asked for them to stay together forever.

So together they went away and travelled to lands where dragons were accepted for safe refuge.

The little prince met a lovely princess with skin that oozed the scent of chocolate. And all together they settled on an island they called Paradise. 

My responsibility would be limited to designing and constructing the dragon. The responsibility for the other characters, sets, storyboarding et al. would lie with others also working on the project. I began by experimenting with ways in which I might be able to create stop motion dragoon, covered with golden scales.

        The technique which I experimented with initially was creating the scales from thin cereal card, covered by gold chocolate foil, and layered together. While aesthetically I feel these tests were successful, practically they may not work. The samples came out quite stiff and rigid, which would cause problems when the dragon moves, particularly on the neck and tail, as the scales may catch. This issue may be lessened by attaching the scales one by one to a more flexible material, which could be laid over a padded armature, but to to this would be rather fiddly and time consuming.

        A key feature of the story is that the dragon changes from being thin and malnourished to being plump and healthy. While this change could be achieved through the use of multiple puppets of varying shapes, I had the idea that if the dragon's underbelly were knitted, and capable of being opened up (say with button fastenings) then stuffing could be added or taken away as necessary. There could even be multiple rows of buttons along the stomach, to allow it to expand beyond the natural stretch of the stitches.

Initial scale tests and knitted underbelly samples.

         Having already experimented with knitting in this capacity, why not take it further and use knitting for the sales too? There are an infinite number of knitting stitches which produce beautiful and interesting textures, some of which (berry and moss stitches) are bumpy and bobbly and may be able to emulate the texture of scales. Lace patterns with delicate and decorative eyelets could be placed over the foil to allow glints of gold to show through. Cable patterns too could produce an interesting effect, if laid along the length of the dragon's body. I was quickly becoming enthused with the idea of covering the whole dragon with a variety of knitting stitches.

Unfortunately, when I experimented with the lace knitting laid over
gold foil, the foil did not show through clearly. This may be due to the knitting
being too tight. If I repeated the pattern on thicker needles, the eyelets
should be larger, and the foil show through better.