Next phase?

Now that I have the script done, I need voice actors to record the dialog. I was going to try to do at least one of the voices, but I am still not up for it yet. When I talk too much I lose the ability to use my upper lip. Which is slightly disturbing, but still close enough to the actual injury I don't think it is permanent. Yet. But I need to get to animating, and I need to have the audio to go off of first. I have no idea where to find voice actors. I made an appeal to friends first. Tomorrow I think I am going to talk to my acting coach at the college. He is a nice guy. He may be able to help me find people. Unfortunately I can't afford to pay anyone, so that may limit my poole a bit.

So...while I am waiting for responses, I have been playing with making my own puppets. Here is what I have so far....

The bare wire armature....sans head. I used 18 gauge wire doubled on itself and twisted. I used a hand crank drill to twist it.

And the armature with "bones" added. I used epoxy putty for this. I also added a neck. I plan to sculpt a head out of an old wine cork.

I am just waiting for the epoxy putty to harden. I have decided I hate the stuff. It was suggested on several sites and blogs, so I thought I would try it. For one thing, it stops being workable after 2 minutes. Which means you have to work quickly. This wasn't close to what I wanted it to look like, but I didn't have time to sculpt it. It also feels a bit heavy. I worry that the wire joints might bow under the weight. It is also stinky and expensive. And sticky. I have it all over my hands. I couldn't get it all off. Well, we'll see how this goes. I am thinking of trying balsa and gorilla glue for bones next time. I also have pine fancy craft sticks. I might see what I can do with those. Though I would still have to figure out the torso and hips.

Ok...off to find foam build up instructions. I have some old cushions I am tearing apart for this. I also have some flat foam sheets that came inside other stuff I bought.....a long time ago. Again, I am not a craft hoarder. :P

EDIT: That....went horribly, horribly wrong. Mainly because I have NO idea what I am doing. The foam refused to stick, and then it refused to sculpt, which did not help my already piss-poor sculpting skills. So now I have a boned armature with a half sculpted cork head attached to my desk lamp by magnets in it's very very very undersized feet.

I suppose I could have made another post about this, but frankly I just want to hide under the bed. I need to whine, and I don't want to be obvious. So there is the evidence of my fail. Well, partial. I removed the fail foam. I am currently thinking of alternatives. It may be that I will never be able to create my own characters.  Or maybe I need to find a design and/or medium that I can work with. I don't think I will ever find a person who will just teach me. I have no money, and there are no Stop Motion schools. In fact, very few schools teach stop motion at all, and that is usually in the context of drawn animation. SOB