Articulations

Once your pieces are traced, you can proceed to the completion of the articulations.

Articulations are an important aspect of any cut-out break down because without them, a puppet cannot move properly and will not look good.

Classical Articulation

Classical articulation is the most popular technique for basic characters. It is quite simple and produces excellent results, but it is not the most efficient method. In many instances, it causes limitations and extra drawing corrections. For example, there may be a gap in the articulation if the part is bent too far. Joint design is usually a circle; the overlapping part cannot be sent behind without showing the joint.

Classical articulation is done by erasing a part of the line from the overlay layer, leaving the colour overlapping the bottom one. You can use this technique for all the articulations on your puppet.

Harmony has a very efficient module to automatically patch an articulation without you having to do any line adjustment or colour overlapping. You can draw your two pieces with their complete lines overlapping each other in semicircles and the Auto-patch module will create a perfect articulation from it.