It's up!

Finally finished... oh how I need sleep :)

Coraline Entry

My dragon skin has arrived and is acclimating itself to room temperature as we speak :) It required a few days before playing with it, which suited me well as I was finishing my entry for the Stop Motion Animation Coraline contest they've had running. I'll be posting the final version tomorrow (cutting it close!) but in the mean time here's a teaser.....

Then back to our regularly scheduled work on the new animation and dragon skin!

Silicone Puppets

So, I've decided to give it a go... silicone puppets. A big part of the decision was the Coraline box (dang them and their making me do more work!) I knew I wanted to try something different, and being able to handle a silicone cast piece gives a better idea of the feel and look I'll be pursuing. Foam Latex is a very popular and tempting choice, but as I've never handled it before it's hard to be as concretely sold on it as I'm sure others are.

I've spent the last two days reading everything online I could about Dragon Skin in particular and silicone in general; I've gone through the handbook on SMA, as well as most of the threads referencing it; Strider's blog, and a good chunk of threads about it at the Effects Lab - a great place to catch up on information!! My plan is to paint intrinsically, airbrushing thin layers of FW Inks between thin layers of the silicone, then filling the mold with a mix of the silicone and slacker to create a softer inner bit. I've read this might cause wrinkles, but as it's for an older character I'll be sculpting quite a few into the master sculpture to begin with. The only catch is that it will still be awhile before I can order the materials safe from freezing; in the mean time I can get some NSP clay and start the master sculpt!

As for knitting... the problem with knitting with itsy, bitsy, teeny, small-as-a-hair kneedles is that.... they're a tad easy to loose. You drop one, you'll never find it again. So I'll need to be ordering a replacement before I can finish the gloves!

I've also been creating something for the Coraline contest over on stopmotionmagic - hope to get alot of filming done over the long weekend and soon have something to show for it! I don't want to post any pictures yet, but lets just say that roller coasters are a time consuming prop to make!! ;)