After many discarded castings figuring out how to get the armature to register properly in those little fingers, I have finished my first arm! Aluminum wire armature wrapped in thread, silicone arm and paints.
Pin Badge Stand
4 weeks ago
Monday, July 20, 2009
Arms!
After many discarded castings figuring out how to get the armature to register properly in those little fingers, I have finished my first arm! Aluminum wire armature wrapped in thread, silicone arm and paints.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Progress!
Henry has an arm! Still needs to be trimmed, and now that I'm more confident with painting inside the mold I might write this one off as a test. But I love this stuff! It's got this great feel to it and can do a complete fold at the elbow without any problem or distortion at all. I ran out of time with the armature so I'm chalking the wooden experiments up to experience, and am going with wire wrapped in thread.
It's been a whole month since I last posted which is a bit scary! In the time during I lost a week to some sort of cold/flu, but have been making progress... The main newness is a new scroll saw! New to me - bought it from someone who bought it used 40 years ago. So it's got a history of lasting! This is Henry's giant art unit - the two side pieces will hinge open revealing all the shelves stuffed with paper and tubes of paint.
Some more scroll-saw fun - a mail-desk (still needs full length legs) and a little dresser, awaiting knobs.
This was made for me - Henry's bedframe! Instead of a mattress he'll have a quilt tied to the posts like a hammock. The quilt pieces are painted up and ready to sew.
Henry's skull - he has a removable armature wire lower jaw. The holes were originally for small wires to manipulate the mouth but it's so small I'll probably keep it very simple and push it a bit further in TVPaint afterwards.
Some paint bottles for that big unit - I made some out of Sculpey, cast them in DragonSkin, and have been making plaster copies - 50 so far. After casting in Silicone I can't think of anything else I prefer! It's amazing stuff for making molds.
It's been a whole month since I last posted which is a bit scary! In the time during I lost a week to some sort of cold/flu, but have been making progress... The main newness is a new scroll saw! New to me - bought it from someone who bought it used 40 years ago. So it's got a history of lasting! This is Henry's giant art unit - the two side pieces will hinge open revealing all the shelves stuffed with paper and tubes of paint.
Some more scroll-saw fun - a mail-desk (still needs full length legs) and a little dresser, awaiting knobs.
This was made for me - Henry's bedframe! Instead of a mattress he'll have a quilt tied to the posts like a hammock. The quilt pieces are painted up and ready to sew.
Henry's skull - he has a removable armature wire lower jaw. The holes were originally for small wires to manipulate the mouth but it's so small I'll probably keep it very simple and push it a bit further in TVPaint afterwards.
Some paint bottles for that big unit - I made some out of Sculpey, cast them in DragonSkin, and have been making plaster copies - 50 so far. After casting in Silicone I can't think of anything else I prefer! It's amazing stuff for making molds.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Set progress and updates...
The set is up! Though it'll need some structural reinforcements - had to bring it in before it was ready to avoid a series of rain-storms lately, soon as we get a nice few days it'll be fixed up. This is the flooring so far; the wood is from a bamboo rug from JYSK that's been sanded down, cut to size and stained (rest to be stained tomorrow). The set is 5' across and has one extra room at the back still to be added on.
1 lb of Sculpey to make this tile piece!
Mostly out of focus, but along the lines of some of the shots in terms of perspective to the set.
Henry now has hands!! Which is good since...
He also has gloves. Just set on top since the clay is still quite squishy, will be able to put it on properly once the silicone version is cast.
His other glove (mis-matched) is also quite worn out - the fraying is knitted in by dropping and adding stitches. Can't sew this one shut until it's right on the hand with all those loopy bits.
And his first painting - there will be visible cross-hairs over it as it hangs in replacement of a window.
Some lightbulbs - still need to make the boxes for them. These will all be burnt-out ones (42 in total) and will be airbrushed greyer.
The gray on the floors is just some slip, I'll wipe it back until I get the levels right. Pretty behind schedule, but it's slowly coming together!
1 lb of Sculpey to make this tile piece!
Mostly out of focus, but along the lines of some of the shots in terms of perspective to the set.
Henry now has hands!! Which is good since...
He also has gloves. Just set on top since the clay is still quite squishy, will be able to put it on properly once the silicone version is cast.
His other glove (mis-matched) is also quite worn out - the fraying is knitted in by dropping and adding stitches. Can't sew this one shut until it's right on the hand with all those loopy bits.
And his first painting - there will be visible cross-hairs over it as it hangs in replacement of a window.
Some lightbulbs - still need to make the boxes for them. These will all be burnt-out ones (42 in total) and will be airbrushed greyer.
The gray on the floors is just some slip, I'll wipe it back until I get the levels right. Pretty behind schedule, but it's slowly coming together!
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Painting
I had a great chance to try out the airbrush - painting a mural for a new library opening up in Dugald, MB. This one measured about 5' across - it was alot of fun trying out the airbrush on the book and worm.
Now heading out to Dugald means seeing... the Praries. This one was taken just beyond the perimeter. It's crazy how fast you can be surrounded by one massive field...
Normally I'm not much inspired by the praries, and always find it exciting to go some place with hills, let alone mountains! But this trip came at just the right time - figuring out what Henry's paintings will look like. I shot about 300 pics through 3 trips out there, and will be using them as the basis for compositions of Henry's painting - happy to be inspired!
Henry is a painter, an artist... though he hasn't really done anything in a long while. This is about to change. Here are his canvasses - currently 30 plus some stretcher frames, will see if I need more once the set is up. Some will be painted right from the get go and others done during the animation - but I'm waiting to see how they look in the set before painting them. There are 2 stains of wood, and differently primed canvasses;
Adding the mini staples (some back, some side) took about 1/2 hr per canvas - each is made out of jewellery wire and had to be bent to shape and holes punched in the canvas frame.
And this is the floorplan for Henry's studio, very excited! The set room was re-cleaned tonight and set building starts tomorrow. Since storyboards are finished I mapped out each shot - each layer of gray is what that shot sees, so the darker the area, the more popular it will be. The set is 5' across and will break away in a few places for access, with all removable walls.
Now heading out to Dugald means seeing... the Praries. This one was taken just beyond the perimeter. It's crazy how fast you can be surrounded by one massive field...
Normally I'm not much inspired by the praries, and always find it exciting to go some place with hills, let alone mountains! But this trip came at just the right time - figuring out what Henry's paintings will look like. I shot about 300 pics through 3 trips out there, and will be using them as the basis for compositions of Henry's painting - happy to be inspired!
Henry is a painter, an artist... though he hasn't really done anything in a long while. This is about to change. Here are his canvasses - currently 30 plus some stretcher frames, will see if I need more once the set is up. Some will be painted right from the get go and others done during the animation - but I'm waiting to see how they look in the set before painting them. There are 2 stains of wood, and differently primed canvasses;
Adding the mini staples (some back, some side) took about 1/2 hr per canvas - each is made out of jewellery wire and had to be bent to shape and holes punched in the canvas frame.
And this is the floorplan for Henry's studio, very excited! The set room was re-cleaned tonight and set building starts tomorrow. Since storyboards are finished I mapped out each shot - each layer of gray is what that shot sees, so the darker the area, the more popular it will be. The set is 5' across and will break away in a few places for access, with all removable walls.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Storyboards....
are complete! After much time and effort, I have finished storyboards to work from. Much thanks to Strider/Mike for all his help and encouragement!
It's very tricky to post any without giving away more of the story than I'm ready to, but I'll have a look through in the morning and see if I can pick a few. In the mean time, 2:40 am and the alarm goes off at 7 for work!
All in all the animation is timed out to be 8:55 long (I was aiming for 6-ish minutes) and I'll figure out scene count tomorrow. Progress!!
It's very tricky to post any without giving away more of the story than I'm ready to, but I'll have a look through in the morning and see if I can pick a few. In the mean time, 2:40 am and the alarm goes off at 7 for work!
All in all the animation is timed out to be 8:55 long (I was aiming for 6-ish minutes) and I'll figure out scene count tomorrow. Progress!!
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Armaturing
Progress! This weekend was beautiful out and was time for some armaturing.
Necessary supplies: dremel tool, assorted bits for it (sanding drum, cut off disc and drill bits being the most handy), goggles, jewellers saw, 4-40 thread tap, jewellers pin vice (amazingly handy thing!) and some oak.
And, of course, an entertained shop dog. He won't go in if I'm out - I think he's convinced I run around with a frisbee and tennis balls the second he looks away.
The armature design is inspired by various types posted on the forums, and by Andrew Brown's work. The oak is a pain to cut, but makes up for it with sanding beautifully! Rods will go into the bottom of these pieces with balls on the end (wooden) to make ball & socket ankles/feet.
This is a shoulder piece - b&s joint on the shoulder, and hinge joint with elbow. (Will be a hinge and swivel combo on the lower half of the arm). After basic shaping is done, a burred ball bit for the dremel is used to curve out the inside of the joint.
Once the inside of the joint is shaped, it's placed over the ball and pounded down until the ball pops in place. Then a hole is drilled through to add a tension screw. Initially I tried threading the hole in the oak, but the threads gave before the oak tightened, so a nut is still necessary. The nut will be slightly indented into the wood then glued in place. Once I know what hardware is needed the screws will be replaced with appropriately long hex screws.
One of the completed segments - ball and socket hip joint, hinge knee. Metal rods will be picked up tomorrow for more assembly!
End of day, and a dog tired from the day in the sun.
Necessary supplies: dremel tool, assorted bits for it (sanding drum, cut off disc and drill bits being the most handy), goggles, jewellers saw, 4-40 thread tap, jewellers pin vice (amazingly handy thing!) and some oak.
And, of course, an entertained shop dog. He won't go in if I'm out - I think he's convinced I run around with a frisbee and tennis balls the second he looks away.
The armature design is inspired by various types posted on the forums, and by Andrew Brown's work. The oak is a pain to cut, but makes up for it with sanding beautifully! Rods will go into the bottom of these pieces with balls on the end (wooden) to make ball & socket ankles/feet.
This is a shoulder piece - b&s joint on the shoulder, and hinge joint with elbow. (Will be a hinge and swivel combo on the lower half of the arm). After basic shaping is done, a burred ball bit for the dremel is used to curve out the inside of the joint.
Once the inside of the joint is shaped, it's placed over the ball and pounded down until the ball pops in place. Then a hole is drilled through to add a tension screw. Initially I tried threading the hole in the oak, but the threads gave before the oak tightened, so a nut is still necessary. The nut will be slightly indented into the wood then glued in place. Once I know what hardware is needed the screws will be replaced with appropriately long hex screws.
One of the completed segments - ball and socket hip joint, hinge knee. Metal rods will be picked up tomorrow for more assembly!
End of day, and a dog tired from the day in the sun.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Keeping me amused...
While script writing/storyboarding, getting so close to the end but that means so much more fine tuning! More sculpting and some armature pics coming soon.
In the meantime, these keep me happy;
An Easter chocolate worth having - the Defiant! They were selling them this year and I couldn't resist.
And a movie worth seeing: Repo! The Genetic Opera. Alot of fun to watch and some great lighting as well.
Updates within the week with more sculpting, and the armature begins this weekend! After pricing out metal options (don't have the tools, or the room for them) I'm definitely decided on a wooden armature. Should be fun!
In the meantime, these keep me happy;
An Easter chocolate worth having - the Defiant! They were selling them this year and I couldn't resist.
And a movie worth seeing: Repo! The Genetic Opera. Alot of fun to watch and some great lighting as well.
Updates within the week with more sculpting, and the armature begins this weekend! After pricing out metal options (don't have the tools, or the room for them) I'm definitely decided on a wooden armature. Should be fun!
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