Final Photos Of Set

Also here are the final images that i managed to take before my hand in of my set.  

Im a little bummed i couldn't get it into the studio, but argh well these will have to do :)

Collaboration

To add to my Collaboration I did some more props for another student to go with her animation showreel- Laura Jones :3

All i needed to do was make a table and boxes with records for her characters to interact with. 

To make the boxes i used normal cardboard a glue gun then used acrylic paint to paint them.

I made the table out of balsa wood which i measured and cut, the main thing she wanted was to have something coverings the front of the table so you carnt see the lower half of the puppets. Using PVA wood glue to put it all together, once dried i painted it with acrylic paint. 

For the records in the boxes i used a mix of cardboard and mount board cut all the same. 

Finished Puppet- Editted Photos

So here is my puppet all set up under lights looking all dapper :3

These were all key frames of how i wanted the personalty of my character to come across.

Building My Set

WARNING LONG POST!!!! 

So in this post im going to show how i made the house set for my project. Not sure if i took pictures of everything but do have alot of them...... 

Started by mapping out the plan onto a MDF board which will be my base. 

Collaboration :D

Adding to my Collaboration I made a puppet for the lovely Hannah Griffiths and her film "Biddy And Bunny Adventures"

The puppet I was making was of the polar bear "Peter" :)

I started by making the base which was of MDF with a armature coming from the base, because he was technically only a head and arm they were detachable with K&S fixtures from the main skeleton. Using balsa wood i carved and sanded the main shape of the two pieces.

I then made a pattern for the fabric so i could cut, stitch and glue it all together myself. I also put wire through the claws so that they could be animated.

Here is a Screenshot of the finished puppet on set :) 

It was really nice to work on another persons work other than my own, because i was luckily enough to get the reassurance of it being what it should be :)

Casting Hands and Feet

So making the Silicon Hands and Feet!

Firslty i mixed up some silcon and added some oil colour that matched the skin colour of the spray paint. 

Added the cataylst to a small amount of silicon and painted them into the molds,  this is help lessen the air bubbles. 

Fabricating a ONSIE!!!!!!!

Simple as it goes i had to make a ONSIE!!!! :D so i started by making a pattern by taking clingfilm and wrapping it around the padding of the puppet, then using masking tape i wrapped that on top. Taking a pen i then marked out the seams.

The material i used was polar fleece, ITS REALLY NICE!!! and its good because it tends to hide the seams so thats a +,  also i used the hair thin invisible thread. :D 

I actually made 3 Onsies until i final got the right one :) 

Heres the last picture i took of the making of the onsie, i don't have a photo with the cuffs and colar on except the final. BUT it does have a zip!! 

Be back soon! :D 

Making the Head- Part 3

KKKK So now i have all my faces sculpted and dried i began to spray paint them.

From here i used a White Acrylic spray paint.

 Then after i added the skin spray and hand painted the mouths i wasn't happy, because the lines were still visible. So i had to use some lighter fluid to strip off sections of the paint.

Making the Head- Part 2- Casting

Once the "Master" replacement face was finished i started to prop it up with a funnel, to help pour the resin into once the mold is made.

Casting Hands & Feet

Here is a post of the process i took to casting a 2 part mold for the hands and feet of my puppet so that i could use them for a silicon mold.

I used Super Sculpey to sculpt the hands an feet over the armature, an i used processes such as baby oil and powder to soften and smooth the clay. they turned out nicer than i thought :)

I then mixed some plasticine to clay up the mold.  

I used foam board to box it out then the process of vaselining up so the plaster doesn't stick to the sides of the box.

Once one half had been set I applied extra keys to the mold, to help limit the waste of silicon later (or so I'm told)

Making the Head- Part 1

So it has been a very long time since I've blogged!!!! mostly due to me hitting SERIOUS MODE and eat, sleep and breath model making. So from here on out all my posts will be blogged recent, however they have been on going since my last update of the collaboration :D

As Mario Says "HERE WE GGGOOOOOO!!!!" 

I found the build of the head very challenging, mainly due to the process which i felt would be best to give me a great finish for the replacement mouths.

I really want to say a big THANKS!! as I am really grateful for the huge help given to me from the 3rd year stop mo students! 

Especially with this process, i also really had a lot of help from looking at amazing work on blogs such as Nathan Flynn, Joshua Flynn there work encouraged me to do this process!

BUT THE EVEN BIGGER THANKS is to Sean Gregory! (check out his work it is AWESOME) he helped massively with many of my mess ups, ESPECIALLY SILICON! and it was really good to talk to someone about tackling various processes in different ways :) 

Once I made the Armature I started making the core for the head. I first made the eye sockets out of super sculpey firm then built up the head in light weight material-balsa wood.