Poster

Production well underway!

We haven't updated the blog for a while. The reason is we've been really busy animating all the shots to get them done for our deadline. As of today we have about three and a half minutes of animation done, and the final month will be spent doing the remaining shots and writing the method report. In the meanwhile here are some photos from our set! You can also view some early test animations we did here:

http://vimeo.com/39413207

Puppets finished!

The puppets are done, and ready to animate. There was much rejoicing and fun.

 Some test poses.

Puppet Heads

After we searched for different methods for creating replaceable expressions for the heads, we decided to sculpt all the different expressions. We would like to thank the Flynn brothers for sharing their process on creating puppet heads. After studying their work, we used the same approach.

The heads was sculpted in Super Sculpey Firm and Milliput. 

 The heads were then cut in to three pieces, to make silicone molds. 

 The head pieces were cast in resin..

...and expressions were sculpted on top. 

 Finally everything was given a layer of white base coat...

...and painted with miniature model paint.

Finished with our first set: Clocktower ext!

Our first set is done! It is a cropped version of the exterior clocktower. It measures 120 cm broad and 100 cm in the height. Below are some process pictures.

First we cut out a rough shape in an MDF and attached it to a support frame. 

Since the set is going to be seen mostly from the front and slightly angled, we only had to attach small walls on the sides.

The bricks on the wall where cut out in styrofoam and glued on with pva glue. We also attached cardboard  to make old weather beaten cement.

We applied a layer of light filler on top of the cardboard to get some cement texture.

We used akrylic paints and "drybrushed" everything to get out the details.

Hello!

Skomaking

We sculpted the shoes in Chavant clay, and covered them with crystal clear varnish.

Then we made molds using fine plaster.

Our first cast we used Mold Max 10 silicone. We found out that this was a bit to soft for the shoes. Later we will use a harder silicone.

The cast curing.

Here are our test casts.

Making armatures and padding

Here are the ball and socket armatures for our two characters. We ordered the parts from John Wright Modelmaking, and soldered them together our self with silver solder.

Then we carved out pelvis and shoulder pieces in balsawood to get solid parts. This will minimize "boiling" in the clothes during animation and give us a solid area to manipulate the puppets. After this we cut out soft foam to further flesh out the puppets.

A little snapshot from our puppet lab!