Finished!!

22/3/2013

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I dusted his clothes with talcum powder to give them an aged and worn look:

Before-

After-
I gave him some eyebrows made of wadding and attached his monocle:

Double Trouble!

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Making the final head

15/3/2013

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I made sure with this sculpt to have the grain of the wood running from the top of the head to the bottom of the chin so that it was easier to carve the detailing into the face. It worked! I was able to control the tools alot better and create something which looked a lot more like my designs!
Once I was happy with the sculpt, I stained it roughly with coffe and then added pencil to the deeper crevices in the wood.
Perfect size!:
I then added pins for his eyes and glued on the book pages which I then filed away roughly again. Et voila!
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Eyebrows

15/3/2013

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I did an animation test for the moving eyebrows that I was planning on using on the puppets head. If anything I thought it made him look quite comedic which is not what I want in the slightest so I am going to scrap this idea. I will probably still give him eyebrows on the final head, just not ones that move!
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Finishing touches to the balsa wood head

7/3/2013

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I decided to add bits of torn up book pages to the wood here and there and then sanded them back a bit to make it look like it is growing naturally ontop of the wood. I didn't want to hid the wood and it's texture completely so this technique works well.
I had also bought two jump rings in different sizes with extension chains to try and create a monocle. This works quite well but I will decide on the size when I have made the final head.
I decided to stick with the pins for eyes but thought they needed something to make them look more like they belonged to the puppet so I covered them in book pages as well.
I wanted to see whether eyebrows would work on this head like I tried on the foam latex one, so twisted two very fine bits of wire and glued these into the head. I then wrapped wadding around them to give the eyebrow effect, I was considering more book pages but thought this might be a bit of overkill on the book page front!
Finally I had a go at darkening the crevices of the face with a pencil and thought this worked quite well. I had experienced with the coffee that the wood was just going to soak up anything liquid that I applied to it but the pencil obviously stayed put and I was able to blend and smudge it aswell.
I am pleased with the general look of this head using the balsa wood and how I have treated it. I am going to make a new head making sure the grain of the wood is facing the right way this time so that I can carve better detail into the facial features.
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Heads tested under camera

5/3/2013

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I tested the two head that worked well under camera and lighting to see how they looked on screen.

Balsa Wood:
Sculpey, foam and latex:
I thought they both worked well on screen. I do slightly prefer the balsa wood for a few reasons, the main one being that it is a really light material and doesn't affect the movement of the body armature. It is also really nice to work with and the definition of the face showed up a lot better than I thought it would. The sculpey, foam and latex head does look really visually nice, however it is really quite heavy and had an impact on the body armature. It was also shiney in places because of the latex and I want to try and avoid this.

What I want to try next is adding book pages to the balsa wood, like I did to the foam and see if this adds the nice textural quality that the foam head has.
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Papier Mache head

5/3/2013

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Before I started making test heads out of different materials I thought I would probably end up making the final thing out of papier mache. I absolutely HATED working with it in trying to make a puppet head and I definitely won't be using this method.
I started by applying milliput to the lightweigt sculpey core to give the head it's basic shape. I then applied papier mache ontop of this. Because of the scale of the head it was really fiddly to work with and I didn't manage to get any definition on his face. (I did give up really quickly without having got very far, but there is no point persevering if it's not going to work anyway!)
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Sculpey, foam and latex head

5/3/2013

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After my tutorial, it was suggested that I try adding very fine sporting injury foam dipped in latex and applied with spray mount ontop of a sculpey head. Once layered it can look like paper.

Firstly I wound some wadding around the eyebrow armature. I then sprayed a light layer of spray mount over the head and applied the foam with almost dried latex onto this. I used a coctail stick to tease it into the ridges on the face.
Once I covered the whole head I added bith of ripped up book page onto the surface.
I was surprised at the end result that it did have a papery quality to it. However it was also quite shiney due to the application of the latex so I would like to test this head under camera to see if it does look too shiney.
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Experimenting with materials - Mod Roc

2/2/2013

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It was suggested to me in a feedback session on my work in progress that I look at making the puppets head out of something like balsa wood or paper mache which will give it a more tactile and angular feel (and will also be extremely lightwight!). I am going to try those particular methods but this got me thinking about other lightweight materials that may work well.
 I have never used mod roc before but have seen it used in a previous production that I worked on so thought I'd give it a go. Seeming as I had made a sculpt I thought I would apply the mod roc straight onto this (cling film wrapped around the sculpt to protect it), let it set and then cut it open to take the sculpt out then reseal.
Although not great at intricate detail this was an extremely quick process (if you already have a sculpt made) and is extremely lightweight. I am going to build on top of this to make it look like a character so this might solve the problem of lack of detail to begin with so there will be a post again soon of how that goes...
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Tutorial with stop motion tutor

30/11/2012

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  • Neoprin or felt - might be good for collar (stiff material but can be manipulated).
  • Arms - the elbow should be around the waist, make them shorter. They can still be a longer lengththan what's normal but these are too long.
  • Body language: Frail - hands up to chest. Anger - hands expressive, down from chest.
  • Collar - make smaller to read sideways profile on screen.
  • Make him a if he were young, add hunch in later. Scale drawing should be straightened out version of his skeleton.
  • Two heads? One for how he sees himself and one for how he really is - this is dependant on the story.
  • HE NEEDS SHOULDERS! Make a traditional armature. It can be edited in AfterFX to get rid of the shoulders with just the neck visible (a case of frame by frame blacking out his neckline).

Decisions - Do I keep puppet very stylised which is working well currently OR do I compromise and add realistic features as well to tie in with a certain storyline?


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