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.
Tuesday, 7 May 2013
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.
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)