Mould Making

Today I arrived at uni, with a mission: to make a cool mould for my new pair of hands. I made the mould, but it wasn't cool. Here are my steps:

 I placed the pair of hands on top of a block of water based clay.

 Then, I raise the clay  half way up the hands, in this picture I've done the first 2 fingers :

I continued with this long an precise process until I had both hands covered in clay up to half way. Once that was done, I stack a couple of "keys" that have the shape of a weird pyramid that will help both sides of the moulds stick together in the right place:

After a quick spray of Crystal Clear, I built the walls around the clay:

And we are ready to pour the plaster, in this case Keramicast, but I made sure I mixed it really well for almost  ten minutes so I achieve the hardest plaster possible:

Once the plaster is set, I took the walls apart, and I got something like this:

And now, I removed the clay. Here I had some difficulties: The plaster, as it sets, reacts giving out quite a lot of heat, and the platicine the hands are made out went really soft because of that heat. As a consequence, a little finger got ripped off, and some detail was lost when I pulled off the clay. For next time, I'll just let the whole thing cool down a bit, so the plasticine hardens again:

The next step is to clean off all the clay left in the first part of the mould, and rebuild that little finger. Special attention needs to be paid in the line where hands and plaster meet:

After cleaning all the clay, I build up the walls again, rubbed the plaster with vaseline all around the hands, put a couple of blobs of clay on the edges (this is to stick two screwdrivers and pull the two parts of the mould apart) and poured plaster again. Waited until it was set, and pulled the two parts of the mould apart. (The pictures from now on are from a different mould I made about a month ago):

You see in that picture there are already two hand armatures that fit in the mould. Also, notice that from the wrist, there are two holes that go to the edge of the mould. Those holes are where the copper tubing for the replacement mechanism goes.They are also the point of reference to where the armature is going to fit.

All there is to do from now, is to mix some foam latex , shove it in the kiln for a couple of hours, and this is the result I get:

You take it out of the mould, gently, Here I had a picture of a cast I made in regular latex (not foam)to give a reference of the sacale I am working on:

Now, all I do is trim all the remaining latex around the edges, and my hands are ready to ....snap!!
Tomorrow, a lot of armature making.... (boring)

Finally, expressions!!

This morning was one of those mornings when you wake up in tension, expecting some kind of news, maybe good ones, maybe just the opposite. I took my bike and sprinted to uni to empty the kiln. I couldn't of dreamed better, the latex was perfectly cooked, and the armatures were in the right place!! (well, at least most of them).

There, you can see a bit of wire sticking out of his upper lip. But, the lower lip is perfect, it gives me all the rage of expressions I need. And the eyebrows work very smoothly. I am very happy with the internal armature, as I have being playing around with it to push the expressions, and it's responded great. Also, the clamps I used to push the two parts of the mould together worked better than I would ever expected.
 The hands I was so happy about yesterday, turned out to be undercured, and lost all their detail as I was trimming the latex surplus.But I can still use them for long shots, not close ups.
 In the big body mould, I decided to stick two balls in the eyes, so the cast would come up whit two holes where I could stick the eyes, and it has turned out very well. I might adopt this method for the head mould:

After testing the range of expressions I could get in both heads, I decided I wanted to make some more moulds for the hands for three reasons: I don't really like the hands now, I want to be able to make six or eight hands at a time, not only two. And I always end up with some leftovers from the latex run, and it is good to have spare moulds to fill so you don't waste such expensive material. So here is how the new hands are coming together:

They need more detailing tomorrow, and a little baby oild to smooth the surface, but I think the nails will give them a good realistic look..
Tomorrow mould and armature making!!

Same Old Story

Yes, just as it happened last time I cooked latex, in the same kiln as last time, it wasn't fully cured by 5:00pm. Only the hands, being a very small mould had cooked properly:

They came a bit dirty, because the brush I used to apply the mould release was not as clean as I thought. But I have a good feeling with this armatures, they look much tougher than previous ones.

Following the same instructions as first and second run:

Base Latex: 150gr   Foaming Agent: 30gr   Curing Agent: 15gr   Gelling Agent: 12gr

1. Increase from speed 1 to 12 during 30 sec.
2. Maintain speed 12 for 5 min
3. Reduce to speed 4 gradualy
4. Maintain speed 4 for 3 min
5. Add Gelling agent at speed 4 for 30 sec
6. Backbowl for 30 sec
7. Ultrarefine speed 1 for 2 min

Here is a little edited video of the main stages of the process. It's a bit too long and boring, but the music is nice! (sorry for the quality, and specially the format):

 

There was a difference today, I used clamps to put preassure in both parts of the moulds, the result is a much tighter link in the foam cast, I'll never do it it without them again.The head mould and the big body mould  were left inside the kiln to rest the night with the kiln's residual temperature. I hope I don't have the same problems as last time when I left it overnight. This time I rubbed quite a lot of vaseline int the moulds to make sure they didn't stack together. Nevertheless I opened the head mould and it was almost cured, it looked pretty good (I am feeling too lucky...) I left it opened in the kiln.

After a very long day in the uni, I went to some friend's exhibition, Aaron Golding and Alberto Deleze, glass artist and ceramicist:

Alberto was aiming for more than a hundred fishes, but I still think this few are very impressive.

I love the colors in Aaron's work, quite psychedelic!. And  this is all for today, looking forward to see if the head armature finally works tomorrow.
 

 

Sunday, Sunny Sunday

First of all, I wanted to say, that the blog is one month old today, and has had 500 visits in the first 30 days of live, which makes me very happy!! To that, you have to sum that the Sun has being shining today in Farnham.
 I started the day doing some juggling in the main street to make some extra money. After that, I went to the fields with some friends to enjoy the sun, and I don't know why but I thought of Andy Goldsworthy, one of my favourite artists (I strongly recommend his documentary: Rivers and Tides) and we came up with a piece of Land Art I wanted to share with you: The Dizzy Daisy

When I got home, I started making what I think will be the final design of the head armature, as well as some ultra resistant hand armatures (I hope this ones don't snap so fast because I've covered the wire with protective plastic tubing)

Tomorrow I am doing some foam latex, so we should have some interesting stuff going on, also, I've already sent a foam latex head and some hand for the make up artists to start making paint tests...hopefully it wont be to long before I have a completely finished puppet!!
Let's hope the week starts well

Meeting Aardman

What a busy week, as I've come back from Spain. My room was invaded by all the house's furniture because they are shooting Dear Ana... (the film) in the house. On Thursday they shot in a basement, and I helped the production department to cook food for the whole crew. The highlight of that day though, was that I started chatting with the two make up artists involved in the film, and the conversation derived to foam latex. Guess what, they  are amazing foam latex painters for prosthetics!!! So I got myself a deal!!

On Friday my idea was to continue helping my housemate with her film, but I had to go to uni to book a kiln for baking my latex next week. Funny enough, I had forgotten about the lecture we had in uni, but I arrived just in time to be reminded.

Merlin Crossingham (Aardman's creative director) came to Uni to share his knowledge with us :

Here he is, with all the puppet he took with him (I hope you can appreciate the scale) And now a close up video of the characters!!

I am sorry for the quality, but this is what my phone gets up to.... Anyway, I notices straight away, that the were-rabbit was made out of foam, and I couldn't resist to ask how the head was animated. He answered me with images and videos:

This was part of the character development of the Curse of the Were Rabbit, I think it is quite helpful!!
During the lecture, Merlin explained to us how he became what he is today: he has being working in Aardman for 16 years and started as a temporary runner for some projects. After that he was trained to became a senior animator and  some time after, he was creative director.

Yes, that is Wallace's armature, created in Aardman studios. Normally they make their own armatures, but sometime thy order them to Taiwan, I can't remember the name of the man that makes them, sorry. Very surprising was to hear that unless there is a camera move on the shot, the shoot at two's (that is two frames for each pose of the puppet). A camera move doesn't work with two's so the shoot those in one's.

 He explained to us how to make the motion blur on the persecution scenes, and is a very interesting strategy:
The make high exposure pictures (lets say 2 sec) and they maintain the puppet in his pose for the first second, and move it backwards on the second second (that sound weird) but what you achive is a clear image of your character followed by a blur that gives a great sensation of speed.

 He also commented on how to prove your animation skills, and that is, if you are still thinking in how much you have to move the puppet to get the next interval right, you are not ready for character animation. It is when you think only about the performance of the puppet and not the animation principles to make it move that you really understand character animation.

 He told me he hardly looks at previous frames while animating, maybe the previous one, but he already knows where everything is got to be for the animation to go fluid. 

 He also made a lot of emphasis in the importance of the poses. Everyone can learn the technique of animation, but to find the expressive poses of the character to transmit all his personality, that is another story.

 Also interesting is that  an animator is expected to make ONE second of animation a day (while shooting feature films). Shooting at two's, that is only twelve pictures a day!! I thought it was very slow, but then he explained all the modeling involved between frame and frame, and I had to shut up.

Merlin also mentioned the importance of minimal animation, this is, trying to express the most, with the least animation possible.Subtle movements of the eyes, or the eyebrows. A slight tilt of the head can express much more than a lot of overcharged animations.

After the lecture, he was cool enough to concede tutorials for whoever was interested. I was certainly.
So I asked him the questions I have being looking to be answered for some time :
How do I fit my head armature in the mould for my foam latex puppet?
He looked at me and said : I am sorry but I don't have the answer to that: foam latex is a craft itself and if I were you I would try to make the puppet in clay!! I almost started crying!! Then he said ,you have to take into account, that in Aardman, our foam latex technicians get one batch right out of five!! (I am two out of two...hehehe) and finally he recommended to shoot my film in white screen

I think I am going on for a bit too long now, so if you have any further questions please just comment the post and I'll answer shortly. That will be all for today.

Animatic

Hi!!
Sorry I´ve been absent for a few days...those are side effects of visitting Madrid. I haven´t being working too much on my film, only putting together the animatic, with the pictures I took last week.  This helps me with a reference of how long the shots are going to be, and also, if the puppet is able to make the posses I require from him. This is an example of a shot (I didn´t pay any atencion to the lighting, sorry about that)

I can judge how the shots fit together and is all around a very usefull thing to have. When I finish it some time next week I´ll post it , so you´ll be getting an idea of the film. Apart from that, Madrid has being to bussy for me to work on the handcrafted side of the film. On Sunday, I went with Repaté to the shooting of a Coca Cola advert for a competition. I had lot´s of fun, and I think there´s going to be a great end product!

The other good news, is that and interview about my film has being published in a very interesting blog about stop motion animation: Interview . Hopefully this will help me meet some new people in the proffesion.

Not much more to say,I hope I´ll be able to post some behind the scenes footage of the coca cola advert soon, and I arrive to England on Wednesday, so prepare for battle!!

The Camera Loves Him, He Hates Me

Today has being one of those long, long days, with a lot of things done.....so prepare for a long and boring post!
Before getting the puppet to stage, I had to  cut the edges. I don't have the necessary elements to make the Pro-Paste, so the middle line across the puppet is quite visible.

After getting the puppet clean and isolated, I had to dress him up. I had plan to cut the hands off, as the are replaceable, but I found it also made the job of dressing the puppet much, much easier.

 After suiting him up, it was time for his hair style. I divided the hair in three parts, making one of them animatable. :

After the hair was ready, the was nothing left to do before shooting. Here are some Studio Pics: 

Yes, he hates me. But I think he looks fairly good. I have to work on the hands A LOT, because I snapped 6 of them today. But the body armature responded great!. I placed the puppet in all the possible posses I am needing in the film, and it survived them all! But I still need to work on the final head (of which a have o make about six replicas ) and make as many hands as I can.

Tomorrow I am going to Madrid, so for the next week, I'll be working in Orli Ivanov's porcelaine sculpture animation, and the animatic of my film. I didn't have time to shoot the face closeups of the character...so I'll also be doing that. I hope to be able to upload the animatic soon!!

So just a few hours from now, I'll be Home!!!! Speak to you from there!

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

The good :

I finally have a foam latex puppet ready to go on set (I haven't painted it yet), with internal armature, tie downs and replaceable hands!! And it feels really good! The extra pair of hands look resistant and have casted really well.

The Bad :

The foam latex could have cured better, there are some rough surfaces in the shoes and neck of the puppet, one of my moulds had to be destroyed in order to rescue the puppet inside, and the main mould suffered serious injuries...This will teach me not to forget rubbing vaseline on the mould ever again.

The Ugly:

My new head mould, made of a harder plaster, looks just fine, but the head that has came out of it is one of the ugliest I've ever seen... The foam latex was not cured, and was stack to the walls of the mould. There can only be one reason as to why this one hasn't worked. It was the only mould that hadn't been "prekilned" to take all the water molecules out. That water has reacted with the foam latex and has done a hell of a job with it! (Another head armature to the bin)

But just as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was a great film, so has being my day. I am getting closer and closer to a fine, resistant, light puppet. I'll be cutting off Mr. Marshal's edges, hair dressing him and dressing him up for the occasion. Tomorrow is his first day at the studio, lets see if he can put an animatic together without snapping the armature!
Wish me luck!!

Unspected Failure

Today, I am not a happy man..... After spending all week making a new mould, making head and hand armatures and getting it all ready for the foam latex run, bad luck has come to me in the most important of all process.

  After repeating the exact instructions as last week for the mixing of the latex, setting the kiln at the same temperature and cooking it for half an hour longer(as the moulds were thicker), the foam latex has turned out to be undercooked...

The only reason I can think of, is that the kiln was under-fireing today, or over-fireing last week. Either way, it was already 16 :45 and with the studio closing at five, there was not much I could no. I've decided to cook the latex for another hour and a half at a slightly higher temperature, but I wont know the result until Monday.

What this means is, as I've being thinking about ever since I came out of the studio, that I will probably have a lot of difficulty in opening the mould on Monday. Specially when I just remembered a few hours ago, that I didn't rub the mould with vasseline...... The worst that can happen then, is that I have to start ALL the process again...and the best is that the puppets are fully cooked, and the moulds are as good as new. Between those two possibilities, there are a huge range of things that can go wrong, so I am very pessimistic towards Monday's encounter with the kiln. 
The suspense continues once again....

Ohh! I just wanted to show a little piece of ...whatever this is I made with the remains of the latex during the everlasting two and a half hours of the foam cooking :