From: Kerwin Rabbitroo
Subject: FL: Re: Digitigrade Legs

Super Jay asked:

I need digitigrade feet for my GARGOYLE costume.. I've tried to prototypes
and it's not going well at all :/



I've asked various FX artists and other people and everyone has bailed on me :(

From: Robert King

- –Kerwin's Rabbitroo costume incorporates “Jump Soles” which give you a
kangaroo like digitigrade effect - I'll call this a “90 degree” leg because
that's about the leg/foot angle. The “extension” (length beyond human toe)
is good on this costume because he isn't trying to stand on tip toe.

From: Dondi Meerkat

The only digitgrade feet I have made were for the Kerwin costume, and they
turned out pretty well. What was done for that costume was to use special
training shoes for athletes called JumpSoles, training in them actually
reshapes your leg muscles so you can jump higher, longer and run faster
(more cat like than human like), as the shoes force you to have a
digitrade stance. These were then covered with foam and fur to give them
the shape of the foot, the final effect worked out quite well and the
person wearing it could actually more more animal like.

The jumpsole solution worked pretty well for a rabbit-y thing because rabbits and kangaroos tend rest flat on their feet when still. Even bouncing along on tip-toe for prolonged periods begins to wear on the human anatomy as we're better designed for plantigrade motion. Expect to do significant physical training with most digitigrade solutions and shorter performance times until you'll be needing a break. Jumpsoles don't overtax my sense of balance, but experiments with the “locked-ankle approach” would suggest that some time on stilts would not be a bad idea if more than a few inches of unsupported extension is going to be attempted.

To attempt a full Disney-style gargoyle,(such as Goliath or Demona) looks to require about 20 to 30 inches of total ankle to toe distance to get the proportions right. The anctual portion of the toes which rest on the ground when standing are probably going to need to be at least six inches to give an average person enough platform to support their upper body given the somewhat wobbilly center-of-gravitry that will result from attempting to simulate digitigrade legs on an upright creature. Given average size feet, this alone suggests that 12 to 18 inches of artificial foot would need to be simulated.

First, an artifical ankle support would be required to prevent the thigh-to-ankle angle from exceeding much more than 110 degrees and allowing enough freedom to close to about an 80 degree angle. Otherwise you'd get the “athritic” satyr that Robert observed when the brace locks the foot into a fixed 110 degree angle. This joint could be fabricated similar to an external knee-brace or artifical knee and would likely need to be constructed of steel to withstand the strain. (The angle could be restricted by using slotted disks meshing together with about 30 degrees of rotational freedom.) The joint at the end of the foot (were the toes meet the main part of the foot) would need to be equally constrained and made of a similar kind of bracing.

The joints would need to heavily restrict any side-to-side rotation to protect the performer's ankles and keees. A 15 inch lever on the foot versus even hundred pounds of body weight makes for quite amount of strain on the ankle which is usually quite restricted in digitigrade creatures. A bad step could easily snap an unbraced human ankle (and probably wouldn't do the knee much good either!) In the end I'd expect you'd end up with a mechanism something like this:

[Begin ASCII Art]

	       /      <-----   Brace attachement to thigh
	      /
	     O    <-----   Knee Brace (normal knee movement, no side-to-side)
	      \                            
	       \      <-----   Brace to leg
		\ 
		 \
		  O      <-----   Ankle brace (restricted to 80 -> 110)
		 /
		/     <------  Brace for human foot
	       /
	   ---O    <-----   Artificial Foot (restricted 10 - 90)

[End ASCII Art]

The joint braces at knee and ankle would need to keep those joints from much side to side motion, so the walk would be rather bird-like (probably acceptable for a gargoyle) since what little pidgeoning of the legs would come from the thigh and hip. The knee brace is can be flexed by the performer's knee and the ankle brace could be similarly be flexed by the perfromer's ankles. The joint were the toes meet the foot would need to be worked automatically by some spring-like mechanism to give a realistic appearance of the foot lifting from the ground.

I can sketch out the idea in a little more detail, but I would suggest examining prosthetic knees and ankles a bit for mechanical ideas. I suppose a mechanism could be fabricated in some way from wood, but more likely steel would be required because of its greater strength. (Some parts of the fabricated brace would need to be relatively thin to keep from bulking up around performer's own limbs.)

From: Jeff Jonas
Subject: Re: FL: Digitigrade feet

I need digitigrade feet for my GARGOYLE costume.. I've tried to prototypes
and it's not going well at all :/

I think it was at Philcon that I attended a room-party by an active Disney Gargoyles fan-club which renewed my affection for the Golaith character. Perhaps they have leads on gargoyle costuming? I had the impression that many Gargoyles fan clubs were still going strong. I have a medium sized PVC figurine of Golaith and yes, those claws are HUGE and powerful and very digitigrade. But I can't see balancing on them without his tail.

Well… Scudder Kidwell's wife Gene wore a “Beth the Dancing Unicorn” costume at ConFurence 5 that featured stilt-like hooves for a real digitigrade effect, but she required a staff for balance (which went well with the outfit so some folks may not have noticed her essentially hobbling along). I'm unsure construction details of that costume was ever published in any electronic form.

The abovementioned costume - http://www.whiteponyproductions.com/bethcostume.html