I need to animate book pages to look like they are turning by themselves so I have sandwiched aluminium gauze between two pages a number of times so that I can animate part of the page and it will keep it's shape and position. I used spray mount to attach the gauze so the paper wouldn't wrinkle of deform like it might with glue.

There is a scene in the film where a tree grows out of a book. To make the animation process easier I am going to shoot it backwards so I don't have to build a tree as I animate. This means I start with a full tree which then curls in upon itself and is cut away so I am left with nothing.

I started by twisted fine wire around thicker wire to create a knobbly surface. I made three of these and then papier mache'd book pages onto them. Once dry I twisted the wire together to create a tree trunk with individual strands at one end for roots and at the other for branches.

I then added addition wire onto the roots and branches and papier mache'd it all. Lastly I added normal shaped leaves and 'Z' shaped leaves which were aluminium gauze sandwich between two pieces of book page.

I've finished the bookcase! All books are in, painted and I added the final touch - a dusting of talcum powder to make them look old, worn and dusty.

I painted on top of the mod roc in a single shade of brown acrylic but because of the texture it produced nice varying shades and tones:

I tested painting a strip of cardboard with goauche paints and this worked really well in terms of what I wanted the books to look like as it dries semi-shiney and has a bit of a washed out quality.
For some of the books a glued string to the cardboard and painted over this also to give a ridged cover effect.
For the rest of them, I cut out individual books, covered the edges with masking tape to disguise the ridges in the cardboard and then painted these with goauche paints. Once dried I glued lots of cut up book pages inside to give the impression of mini little books!

Getting there!

Books!

This is the type of look that I want to achieve with the tree that grows out of the book.