Su Blackwell

Doing research related to my project, I've been directed to Su Blackwell, and thankyou so much to my tutor Rob for steering me in her direction. Her work is incredible, mostly still pieces and installations but all made out of paper. They are so beautiful and inspirational, and I had to share them! You can find plenty more on my Pinterest account too, but these are the ones that relate the most to what I'm aiming for in my project.

Final Book Selection

        

            

                           

Check out my Pinterest!

To make my life a little easier, I have now joined Pinterest.

I put a lot of my own images on there, including photographs I've taken for the Taxonomy project and my own archives and reference material, so feel free to nip over there and check my Pins out.

ejackson1193

Taxonomy Ideas

This project will be all about Taxonomy; The practice and study of the classification of things or concepts.

The data collection is just a starting point though. I'm going to create a photographic reference board, if you will, and use them to create a final animation inspired by the original images.

As you may know from my previous work, I'm an aspiring stop-motion animator, so I want to collect materials that will ultimately allow me to work in my favourite medium.

Here's my idea brainstorm.

As you can probably tell, the best idea I've had is the one that will allow me to use Stop Motion as a medium. I'm going to collect images of books to start me off so I can start doing some concept art and storyboards, but my final piece will be a paper stop motion of a figure entering and emerging from fiction books (I think non-fiction will be too boring, and there aren't many characters to experiment with) with attributes of the book it has just exited. An example would be when it exists an Artemis Fowl Novel with a dapper suit or a Neutrino Blaster.

I know I'm going to enjoy this, my final idea made me more excited than all the others. Plus I definitely need to do more stop-motion animation, as I wasn't all too happy with my last project, but I now have a camera shutter remote and a determination to make myself proud with this project, because as they say, when it comes to the creative arts, the hardest person to please is yourself. 

'Imperfect'

My final film! It's a compiliation of the making of my puppet in live action, and then a few stop motion pieces to illustrate the puppet coming to life. The film is 'Imperfect' and metaphorically illustrates coming to terms with yourself and who you are, what you look like, and being happy with what you've got. Because nobody's perfect, and you can only really be yourself when you accept that you are happy to be Imperfect.

Puppet Climbing Stairs

Another video to be included in my final film is this of my puppet climbing a clay staircase to look at a drawing of 'the perfect model'. The camera is quite shaky because I couldn't get hold of a shutter remote before I filmed so my constant pushing of the shutter button made a lot of camera shake.
On that note I think this is a good time to review all the problems I had, as at this point all I need to do is convert the full film to a mov file.
Firstly, the clay I used for the original sculpt was the wrong sort, and the non-drying, oil based clay I made the second hand and feet sculpts from was miles better, plus using this clay means that I can reuse it when I'm finished casting.
Secondly, my lego leaked a lot, up until I learnt not to be too sparing with it and just about coated the inside of the lego walls.
Time was a big hindering factor, and had I realised that the plaster and silicone should have had more time to set I would have given it. Unfortunately I was hasty, so the plaster moulds repeatedly fell apart or were too wet to properly keep their shape. As for the silicone, the hands were OK aside from some bubbles, which will be solved as my pouring technique improves, but the silicone mould for the head could have done with another couple of days to really dry and hold it's shape.
If I had done that part this problem wouldn't have occured, my mis-shapen head. Because the silicone was still very malleable I didn't realise that as I put it back in the cup to make the plastic cast it became bent out of shape on the inside, so my puppets head is slightly caved in on the upper side, but I saved it from being too noticable by redesigning the hair piece.
And finally, the camera shake, which can be rectified as soon as the shutter remote I ordered has arrived. 

Armature Final

This is the final cut of the armature to be used in my Stop Motion film.

The Head in Silicone

This unusual contraption is my puppets head in a silicone mould. I have had to try to suspend the sculpt in the silicone off the bottom, and as I didn't fancy holding the neck tubing for a couple of hours while the silicone set, I had to improvise. When this is set completely, I'll give it 24 hours to be sure, then i'll split it in two, take the sculpt out, reassemble the mould and pour in the liquid plastic.

Taking Silicone Hand from Mould

At this point I have already made plaster casts of the hands and feet and filled the moulds with silicone. This video shows a hand being taken out of it's mould.

Applying Wadding to Armature

I've applied wadding to the armature to pad it out and provide some form for when the clothing goes on.

Failed body casting

This is an attempt at making a plaster mould for the body. Unfortunately there were several major problems. First of all I didn't block the lego properly and the plaster started leaking out. Then it turns out that my sculpt is made from the wrong type of clay and when the plaster had settled it started to disintegrate the clay. So that was a no go, but I found one way not to make a cast or sculpt. This unfortunate delay means that i'm going to have to find an alternative way to make the body. Looking in a couple of stop motion books i've decided to use furniture wadding to pad out the body for when i put the clothes on.

First Stop Motion Experiment

This is my experimental armature film made using the first armature. This is the first stop motion film i've ever made, and it is so exciting to have it done, even though it's only four seconds long. It was made using Windows Live Movie Maker.

Second Armature

The revised armature is much more delicate and the hands arms and feet are all detachable due to the complications of the limbs snapping after prolonged usage.

Clay Sculpt of Puppet

Armature 1

My first armature based on design 1.

Studio set up

My home set up for creating the first armature.

Body and Facial Expression

A movement shown in terms of body language and facial movement/expression.

Second Armature Design

I have revised my armature design. The filled out areas of thighs and arms are epoxy putty and give the puppet some rigidity, this way it's movements aren't as bendy and it looks like it has bones.

There are magnets installed in the feet because my set will include a hidden steel sheet for the puppet to magnetise to.

I have also decided on a very light skin tone, fitting to my complexion.

Storyboard example

Storyboarding the beginning of the film.

Drawn Model

This is the model on the wall that the creator is meant to be working from, but as the creation progresses the model is changed. This drawing of the model comes to life at the end of the film. She is upset because she isn't happy with how she looks so the puppet draws a loud outfit on her and makes her feel individual and happy.

Character on Set

Putting my character in context of the set it is easier to see the scale.

First set design

This is my set design, but there's room for change. It is a simple studio space with a cutting mat and 'helping hands' mechanism.