Step 3:

Making the mould

Step 2:

The sculpty head

Step 1:

The maquette

We're about halfway into our second project now and the stop motion models are coming along nicely. I pretty much finished my maquette, just using wire to build the armature then covering it in plasticine. I had some problems using the thinner wire to make the fingers and other details, it tends to fold rather than bend smoothly so I'll have to track down some better stuff for the hands on my actual puppet.

Instead of using wire for the thicker parts of my puppet I think I might use Loc-Line (http://www.modularhose.com/) it was originally developed to pump water down to industrial drill heads to cool them, but Dave recommended to use in my armature as it reduces the risk of breaks in the wire when the puppet is moved around alot.

In the last week I also modeled the prototype head for my character using super sculpty and painted it up. I think I will probably end up using interchangeable heads for the different expressions, as you can't really see much of his mouth anyway, but I do want to explore different options for the eyes as I want to be able to move them around ideally. I was thinking I could just use painted plasticine so I can peel them off or shift them round to show eye movement. I also need to make a set of templates for my heads so they all look the same when they're finished off.

I decided for the torso on my puppet I would cast it in papier mache so its nice and light, then mould the spine of my armature into place with more papier mache. Although this means it wont be very flexible, the amount of movement that will be needed in the spine is pretty negligible, and so long as he is moveable at the neck, shoulders and legs this shouldn't be noticeable on film.

So here's my plan for the next week of work:

• Cast the mould for the torso and build the torso into it
• Attach the armature into it
• Model a series of heads for various expressions
• Build up the arms and legs of the puppet with electrical tape and dip in latex
• Put it all together and paint it up
• Start line testing

Apologies for the huge post, pictures of my maquette and moulding process should follow shortly.

This short animation was for the final project of my first year on the course, I think it was definitely my most successful module and its certainly the work I'm most proud of. It took days and days of practically solid work to pull it together but this is the kind of high standard I really want to apply to all my work from now on.

The character was inspired by a British engineer called Richard Trevithick from the golden age of steam engine technology who became famous for his public exhibits of new designs and machines, especially his road locomotive "Puffing Devil", which he drove around London on Christmas Eve, astonishing onlookers. But in 1810 Trevithick caught typhoid and seemingly disappeared. This is where I came in with my side of the story, I decided that Trevithick, driven into desperation by the threat of his own death, perfected his steam engine technology and built his masterpiece "Puffing Devil MKII". This wildly ingenious mechanism would become his life raft as he transfered his brain and various other organs over and continued to live on, escaping his mortal coil...

Hope you like the video!

I started with an idea a few months ago for a live brief for E4, but me being me I never got round to finishing it, or even designing all the characters. It's still missing a scary (but a little bit cute) dinosaur to jump out and scare my gang of intrepid neanderthal explorers. But since we've recently been given a live brief to do as part of our course this year I think I might resurrect them and finally finish it off.

So I started on a new mini project the other day, not strictly speaking for college work but relevant non the less. I was playing about with a character I named 'Mr Moustash'; primarily because he's a mouse.. with a moustache, and, in a flash of genius, decided to create a jazz band made up purely of rather hairy rodents. I have christened them 'Moustashio!', and with any luck they will be playing your local jazz club in the near future, just keep an eye out for the little fellas!