Made a Second Ball and Socket Armature

After making the first ball&socket armature and animating him, I started making a second one who is a smaller lady. I made her because making the first one was such an amazing learning experience, I became curious about what more I can learn and improve. I also figured a second armature would be useful if I wanted to animate interactions.

Since I made the first armature mostly out of brass and ran into some strength/tension issues, I approached the machine shop and expressed interest in machining my own steel joints. The head of machine shop was very generous and taught me everything I needed to know to make my own double ball joints from scratch. I didn't have a lot of time since my contract with Laika was ending, but I managed to finish her my last week there. I also managed to update his knee joints with some leftover joints. If I had time I would have updated his chest block, shoulders, elbows, ankles and probably made him his own set of steel joints, but I ran out of time for now. Maybe in the future.

Design sketches, joint fabrication process, some extra joints and screwed up test pieces, and his emergency knee surgery.

The armatures and some balance/strength tests. She probably weighs less than half of what he weighs.

And I animated her doing a little dance sequence.
dance_test from Tina T. Hsu on Vimeo.