Introduction
A recent project of mine required four puppets for stop-motion animation. I had already done some ball and socket armature making but I decided I needed to find a faster solution. Enter wire armatures. With the proper support and the right materials wire armatures can make excellent puppets, especially when the sequence is short. Actually creating a good wire armature took quite some experimenting, so I hope by writing this, I’ll save you some trouble. This is by no means a definitive guide, it is just a method that works for me. If you have suggestions or comments, I’d love to hear them.
Update (Feb. 16, 2006)
I wrote a follow-up of this article, which you can find here
Wire Armatures vs Ball & Socket Armatures
The general opinion seems to be that ball and socket armatures are easier to animate. Because of the fixed joints, bending is also more consistent and they are more sturdy. On the downside, building one of these ball and socket armatures is more work, and requires quite a few machines and tools. Making wire armatures is cheap, fast and the end result is of relatively good quality. They make excellent extras.
Prerequisites
You need some tools. Not much though, you probably already own everything you need. As for the components of the armature; you should be able to get them at any DIY store. The skeleton will be made from two aluminum strings twisted together. If you are going to twist the aluminum wires together yourself you also need a drill. Just insert the tips of two strings of wire into the muzzle and slowly twist using the drill. Be careful when gripping the wire; when dented the wire will be come much more fragile. And as far as the feet go, unless you have a bad-ass metal saw I strongly suggest asking the nice man at the metal shop to cut the steel for you. The sizes I mention are from my puppet, which is about 25cm high.
Required Tools
- Metal saw
- Some metal rasps
- Nice tongs
- Gloves
- Wire clippers
Components
- Twisted aluminum wire, ∅ 3mm per wire (joints)
- Copper tubing, ∅ 8mm (bones)
- Bison Universal Permanent Repair (shoulders & pelvis)
- Steel strip, 1cm * 1.2cm * 5cm (the feet)
- Bison Metal Glue (for putting it all together)
Design your Armature
Be careful judging sizes. Keep the dimensions of the wire and tubing in mind when drawing your skeleton. It is also a good idea to draw your model on paper with a grid. This will help keep things symmetrical. If you want to keep your drawing, make a copy of it because the one you’re going to use will probably be smudged with glue, metal and other grime. Define the joints by measuring the copper tube and leaving gaps where the joints should be. Don’t make the gaps too small, the more room you give the joints to bend, the longer they will last. When drawing the legs, make sure you include the length of the foot. The pelvis and shoulders are made from Bison Permanent Repair. The cool thing about this stuff is that you can get basically any shape you want.
Cut the wire & saw the copper
Ok, let’s get busy. First we have to cut the wire to size. Just place the wire over your armature design and clip away. Then measure the sizes of the copper tubes on your design and saw them. Use the rasps to smooth out the edges. 
Create the pelvis and shoulders
This is the tricky part. Take the Permanent Repair and slice off a chunk, squeeze until the inner core has blended with the outer shell completely. You will feel it getting sticky and a bit warm. Then try to get it in the shape you want it to have. This can be hard because it’s very sticky, if this is the case just wait half a minute and try again. Pretty soon the hardening will start and it will be a lot easier to get it in the right shape. When you have the overall shape take your copper tubes and stick them in. Three in the shoulder chunk, and three in the pelvis. 
Gluing it all together
With your shoulder and pelvis hardened, it’s time to attach the aluminum wire, and add the remaining copper tube. We’re going to glue all this with Bison metal glue (or whatever you like; this one works very well). This glue takes a long time to harden so take your time. Glue everything on and then let it sit for a day. 
Feet and Hands
Almost done. For the feet I use a bit of Permanent Repair which I wrap around the foot wire. When hardened, I rasp the bottom completely flat and glue a piece of steel on. This allows you to use a strong magnet under your animation set for posing your character. The hands are up to you. You can make them out of thin metal wire, but you might be better off making them from plasticine if you want to animate the fingers a lot. I like to use plasticine hands.
You’re done!
Congratulations, you can start dressing up your armature now, or throw some latex around it. Or just be done with it and start animating. Here are some pictures of my (unfinished) puppets. The photos are crap, but I am currently several hundreds of miles away from them and these are the best I have. 