Silicone hands

Hand sculpts, ready to be cast in a two part mould of crystacal plaster.

Once mould is made, hand armatures are made using miliput as the core.

Hands cast in silicone. The colouring is off because my first layer wasn't pigmented enough, but for a first try I was very happy with these!

The silicone has a creepy skin-like look to it.

Next up: torso armature to be made and then the whole thing cast in silicone - exciting! 

lovely

Today I ordered the silicone and a new batch of plaster - things are hotting up!

Experimenting with the head - far left is made entirely of epoxy putty apart from the jaw and brow which are both plasticine. This was a method I was intending to use, but there seem to be too many problems such as painting the putty the same colour as plasticine, and the paint scratching off too easily.  For now I'm going to continue with plasticine alone (centre and right)

Torso laid out ready to be cast

It's friday, friday.

Well, I'm going to try to do more on this blog. Taking recent inspiration from Aardman's "The Pirates! In an adventure with scientists", I made this sculpt. Hopefully to be cast with individual silicone pieces, but i'm not entirely sure. Stay tuned for updates.

Howdy

The other night I was laying in bed wondering why more people don't cast latex clothes like they sometimes do with skin for puppets, because I'm completely sane. So i started sculpting someplasticine cowboy boots and trousers to try it out. I molded them in plaster, and made thin latex skins. Over the armature I put sculpted some Epoxy putty to keep the seperate parts of the feet hard and the same shape, and also for "bones". Well here is how it currently looks:

(The boots are seperate from the trousers which are in two parts, front and back). Here you can see how the feet work:

Annoyingly I also sculpted a really cool shirt, but the mold didn't set properly so I had to chuck it all out - I'll try again soon!

PLEASE HELP

This here is a plea for help! I haven't got enough likes as I need to get in to the top 10 for the competition!

PLEASE, if you have a FACEBOOK or TWITTER or VIMEO account, click on this link and once it's loaded, press LIKE or COMMENT. This is for the sake of my "career" in animation!

http://canimation.redbull.co.uk/gallery#32091582

THANKYOUUUU

Red Bull canimation......

Right guys,

So i've done this animation for the Red Bull canimation competition, and i've got two weeks to make it reaaaally popular... If I do, i've got a chance of a month long internship at Aardman, which really is my dream.

I had a few technical problems with the video (i.e vimeo taking it out of widescreen and stretching it..).

Nevertheless, here is the link:

canimation.redbull.co.uk/gallery/video/32091582

I would really appreciate it if you guys could like it, comment on it, share it, send it to your friends - I reeaaally need your help here!

Thanks guys!!! :D

Working on something

Watch this space!

"Spiritless" - short horror film NEEDS YOUR HELP!

Hey guys!

Recently I've been taking a break from animation to let my creative juices flow in a different way - live action. I've begun production of a short horror film entitled "Spiritless" with a bunch of my friends, but a few problems have arisen. In short, we need money to complete this film to a good standard.

I found out about this great funding platform called "Crowdfunder", and decided to give it a try! Anyway, we would all really appreciate it if you guys could go to our page, watch our video and possibly even donate. :D

Here's the link:

http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/investment/-spiritless-short-horror-film-422

Thanks!

Medusa

I found Michael Sporn's blog the other day, which is really really great because it has loads of frame by frame shots from classic animations. I was looking to take some key drawings, and inbetween them myself, so I can hopefully learn what was going on in the mind of the animator, and improve my technique! Immediately as I saw it, I wanted to do this shot, of Medusa from "The Rescuers", animated here by the great Milt Kahl. So I printed off some of the keys, copied them, and started inbetweening. I only had Milt's keys up to about the 50 frame mark printed off, so I began adding my own.

Anyway, it would be good to get some feedback..

Someone call the doctor!

For those interested in doctor who (if you're not, shame on you.), I have designed a T shirt on Qwertee.

http://qwertee.com/product/someone-call-the-doctor/

I would really appreciate it if you could vote on it, and if it gets enough votes, Qwertee will actually make it and sell it for a while.

Thanks!

Lion

Here is a quick animation I did over a couple of days!

I've finally moved on to using 12 field paper and acme registration. I'm certainly not going to run out of paper any time soon! But this is really cool, it's just so much easier to use and the registration is far more accurate than the average "hole punch"

Here is a quick animation that I did in about an hour this morning:

Also, I've been doing loads of animation-related drawings rescently to learn about construction and poses; here are a couple:

Trying to get back into puppet animation

I spent quite a while looking at traditional animation, then a long period of being lazy and doing nothing animation-wise. Well now I've bought some more resources and am trying to get back into stop motion puppet animation. Some pictures of what I've been doing in the last week:

Armature - trying out thicker aluminium wire then previously. Seems to work a lot better, would recommend 2.5-3mm thick.


Gluing bandage underwrap foam onto the hand armatures with high-tack spray glue.


Cut the foam to shape and paint on tinted latex. I've only tried this method once or twice before, so these came out pretty nice.


Beginning to spray glue soft foam on to armature.


Beeeeautiful.


Trimming the foam down to shape with scissors.


Next, I covered the whole body with the thin bandage underwrap, to give it a smooth skin. This is pretty much where I am now with the puppet. It's looking pretty nice!

If you get a chance to watch A town called Panic, do. It is litterally the best film I have ever seen. Absolubtly genius! :D



Marnik

...

Well we were in London, and one day we had a free couple of hours, so i suggested we go to the London Film Museum. Didn't know anything about it but thought it might be cool. So we went along, and when we got there, I saw they had an exhibition on Ray Harryhausen on currently. I was amazed! Such luck - but its also a shame it wasn't advertised better, because otherwise i could have planned to stay longer.

Anyway, I ran into the exhibition, arms flailing, dribbling, eyes sparkling with exitement. It was really fantastic, I'm so glad I managed to see it.
I took these photos before being told I was not aloud to use a camera in there.


Checked no one was looking, and just had to take this one.


***

In other news, just recieved Elemental Magic. A book by Joseph Gilland on the art of special effects animation. I flicked through and read the first few pages, and so far, its amasing. Really worth having - I recomend it to any one interested in traditional animation or CGI.

Marnik

Belleville Rendez-vous

Saw Sylvain Chomet's animated film Belleville Rendez-vous last night. It was frickin' awesome! If you haven't seen it already, do so.It's an animated masterpiece!

Thief and the Cobbler documentary.

I know I've posted about The Thief and the Cobbler before (look in previous posts if you havn't seen already), but I just got emailed by Kevin Schreck telling me about a documentary he is making about the lost masterpiece.

He plans to interview various artists who worked on the film in the Summer, but needs donations to help with the funding.

This link takes you to a trailer and donations.

Please, please help by giving donations, and if not, alerting others about this. I'm really excited to see it, any other animators/filmmakers should be too!

Marnik

New pencil test

This one worked alot better then the last. There is very little movement but it seems to work in a styalized cartoony way. I started this as soon as i finished the light box (you can see I've drawn the first frame in the last picture of the light box post). The audio is from the intro to a hilarious song by the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band called "Big Shot".
The body was drawn using the col-erase I was talking about. Near the end it dissapears because it wasn't moving and I thought I'd save the pencil for something more useful!

(let it buffer, blogger video is sloooooow)

(edit) Just watched it back on here and it's really bad quality all of a sudden! Oh well, you get the idea of it anyway.

I was gunna add smoke from the pipe but I decided it wasn't worth it...my knowledge of special effects animation (water/smoke/fire) is very small, but growing! I really like the character and think I might do more animation with him.

Col-erase

It seems to break really easily...in one day it's gone from new to less then half size. ARGH what do I do? They're so great, I want to use them forever, but not at this rate I won't...

Update!

Finished the light box. AWESOME. I doubt I'll do anything but animate for the next few weeks! The disc spins 360 degrees. The only thing that i bought for this were the two rulers and the light switch - all really cheap. For roughly £5, really not very different from the proffesional £500 ones! The little pencil holders in the top right corner are just little clips meant for holding electrical wire in place - I found they work perfectly as pencil holders.


I might take some better pictures at a later date..

ALSO, I got some col-erase pencils off ebay and they arrived today (just in time for the party!). Col-erase are used extensively by animators, because they are very waxy, so do not smudge, and are very easy to erase.

Marnik

PS, I have 18 followers but hardly ever get comments..what's that about!?

Light box/disc

(click to enlarge)

Here's where I am so far. Total cost = £0.00! The circle isn't brilliant, (at one point i got abit fed up with sanding it with the big heavy rough sanding machine, and accidentally took a chunk off my thumb with it. Didn't stop me though!), but it works just fine.
I still need to get two rulers to attach, and a light switch - all of which i will have to buy some time this week. I also need to build the rest of the box, and attach lights etc.

This is so exciting!

Trying things out.

Here's the first animation (pencil test) I've done in a while. I'm learning so much from just trying various things.

It turned out not too bad - the voice doesn't fit with the character, and the mouth shapes arent quite right, but generally speaking the lip sync is correctly timed, and it is quite smooth. Where his face sort of moves down abit - was meant to be him looking downwards. Didn't work - just shows I need to plan more next time.

But the most exciting news is that I'm building a full on proper animation light-box and disc. Should be finished by the end of next week! Awesome!

Also, check out animateclay's new design. Love it!

Good day to you, sir.

The Thief and the Cobbler

The Thief and the Cobbler (Richard Williams) is now my favourite movie of all time. It's simply incredible. Go watch the "Recobbled Cut" on youtube. (It's a cut because so unfortunately it was never finished, but every scene exists, whether it be storyboard, rough animation, or finished.)

Admitidly, it's probably more of an art film then entertainment, but i could watch it for hours.

It's got me back into traditional animation. If you're in need of inspiration, watch it.

New blog for any animation fanatic!

www.disney-animation-art.blogspot.com

Check it out.

Marnik

I just became a contributing writer in Stop Motion Magazine.
My first article will be in the new issue, released on wednesday. (It's free, and online.)
I am writing about "The tale of the fox" by Ladislas Starevich, a wonderful animation that I think everyone should see.
I will post again when the issue is online - I would be grateful if you guys could take a look and give feedback.

Thanks

More on dinosaur.

He is fully muscle'd now. Just have to apply latex skin and paint. I'm pretty happy with it so far.


Here is the first batch of skin. I made this by crumpling up a load of tin foil, straightening it out again, and pouring out a thin layer of latex onto it. Once this was dry, I added another layer, and so on until it was thick enough. The tin foil gave it a textured reptilian look, that saves alot of sculpting, casting and so on.

Now onto the set. I wanted to make a very simple set that I can use tie downs with (for the dinosaur). The base is chicken wire, covered with strips of hessian, attached with a load of plaster of paris. The hessian is so textured that this becomes rock solid. I will later cover it with strips of kitchen paper and plaster, to give it a more refined texture.
The picture is not good, but keep watching as there will be more to come.

Began build up on Dr Dino

The plaster mold went horribly, horribly wrong.
Never mind, I'm trying out some new stuff now, and will hopefully still enter an animation for Ray's 90th, possibly with dinosaurs.

Could be cool.

Back!

Got back from Uganda and had an awesome time!

I just read this:

http://wobblytripod.blogspot.com/2010/02/ray-harryhausens-birthday.html

I've been looking through loads of creatures and decided I will just do what lots of others will probably do and make a cyclops puppet. Don't know if I will enter it or even animate it as I haven't done stop motion for a while, but it would be fun to attempt to make.

Head sculpt (unfinished) :
Armature:When i've finished sculpting the face, i will make a mold with plaster, and make a latex mask from that.
Should be cool.

Marnik

YAY

Going to be in africa tomorrow - how crazy is that!?

Won't be posting for a couple of weeks coz i'm gunna be in Uganda.

Seeyou.

The craziest things happen when you're in love.

Seriously...WHAT!?