ALIENASSEMBLY INSTRUCTIONS

INTRODUCTIONFor many years scientists all over the world have been looking for signs of life outside our earth. SETI (search for extra-terrestrial intelligence) is the name given to this search. Computers have been programmed to search through signals received by radio telescopes looking for some kind of ‘message’. Amazingly, at the same time, many people claim to have seen UFOs (unidentified flying objects) and even to have come into contact with alien life!

The ‘aliens’ familiar to most of us, like ET, don’t really exist. They have sprung from the imagination of science fiction writers, illustrators and fi lm producers - although their work has often been inspired by real ‘aliens’ on earth. These include the strange creatures that live deep in the oceans. This kit provides you with all the materials needed to make your own imagined aliens - plus some hints and tips. These are the same things that real fi lm and TV special effects people use. Can you do better? Can you produce the next ET?

PLEASE NOTE: These guidelines contain TIPS from professional TV model makers. If you follow their advice, you will be able to produce some stunning aliens very quickly.

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CONTENTS

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Modelling clay

Electric motor

Wobblewheel

Battery box

Voice circuit

Colour sheet:eyes etc.

Big ball eyes

Glow-in-darksheet

Spittingtube

Bottle of glueSculptingtool

Straws

Matchsticks

GETTING STARTEDModelling with clay

Your kit contains 0.5 grams of modelling clay. Like Plasticine, this never hardens and so you can carry on re-shaping it. But also remember: take care not to knock the fi nal alien out of shape!

First of all, pull off a small lump of the modelling clay and try making a shape – e.g., a ‘body’ and a ‘head’. If you give the head one or two human details like a nose and ears, it will start to come alive. Try adding a couple of the small eyes. As soon as you put these in place, it will look more real.

The wooden sculpting stick will help you create fine details. Now try making some big eyes using the white balls and paper pupils. Cut out two of the pupils with scissors and make small cuts around the edge. Glue the back of the pupils and then stick them onto the white balls.

Film Tip

‘Apart from the body, eyes are the most important feature of a model whether it’s a dinosaur or an alien. They give models life and character: friendly or scary. Model makers often spend more money on high quality artificial eyes than on any other parts.’

Model a small head shape and stick the big eyes onto it. The eyes will instantly bring it to life. If you want, you can paint pupils from scratch using felt tips etc. If you cut the bristles from an old brush, you can even make eyelashes. This makes the eyes more real and spooky.

Film TIP:

‘If you want to make something look alien, then you exaggerate some of the details you normally see on a normal human. Oversize eyes can look scary. This is why so many aliens in films are given big eyes.’

BODY SHAPESThere is enough modelling clay for several body shapes. You can take inspiration from pictures of unusual creatures such as deep-sea fish. But remember that where these things live will have an influence on their shape. You might imagine a planet where the force of gravity is much greater than on earth, and so your alien might be a bit flatter as a result. Big eyes might also be needed because of low light levels.

The force of gravity on earth may give you a few ideas. If you think of the modelling material as alien tissue, you’ll discover that there are only certain shapes you can make before you need a skeleton for support. If you make something heavy with two thin legs, these will buckle under the weight.

Something evolving on earth with tissue as dense as the modelling clay will need a skeleton. This can be made suing thin sticks, straws or wire. (In models a supporting skeleton is called an armature).

How you think your alien will move also has an effect on what the body looks like. Will it walk swim or fly?

If you are unsure to start with, you can mould shapes at random. Who is to say that the shape of your alien is wrong?!!

Film TIP:

‘You don’t have to start from scratch imagining an alien. Encyclopae-dias are full of pictures of strange animals, fish and insects – and even stranger ones that are now extinct. Look and learn! To make things really scary, try mixing up the main feature of different life-forms – e.g., put a fish head onto something with four legs. This always produces a shock because we come to expect only normal combinations.’

BODY DETAILINGOnce you have decided on a basic body shape – with or with armature inside – there are many ways to give it an interesting finish. If you want scales or texture on the model’s ‘skin’, the easiest way is to go over the surface with a stamp. This might be simply the end of a pen – or anything else that produces an impression. You can also press fabrics or mesh onto the modelling clay to leave an impression. Other materials such as sand can be stuck to the surface of the modelling clay BUT if you do this you will not be able to re-use it.

If you want other body parts such as claws, nails or teeth, you might even be able to find things such as artificial nails. If not, then paper ones will do providing you get the shape correct. The printed paper provides some examples that can be cut out and stuck on to the modelling clay. Other materials can also be used. Old matchsticks, for example, will look like vicious teeth if they are lined up inthe right way.

Film TIP:

‘Tiny details can be more important than big ones. Adding realistic teeth, hair and fingernails to a non-human form can be really scary. Model makers often use artificial nails and teeth!’

SPECIAL EFFECTSThere are many ways to bring your alien to life. Try out the special effects below and think about recording them using a camera or a mobile phone. You can surprise your friends by sending still or moving images.

1. Nasty habitsYou might want to give your alien model some nasty habits such as spitting. This is quite easy to set up with a length of tubing that just comes out at the mouth. Connect the other end of the tube to a (hidden) washing up liquid bottle and press! If you want the alien to dribble, then leave a little detergent in the bottle and shake it to make foam.

Film TIP:

‘Movement, sound and other effects are key to bringing a model to life. Sometimes the movements are computer-generated but often, for closeups, you have to make the model itself behave like the ‘real’ thing.’

2. EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINATE ….Your kit contains a ‘voice box’. This is a 20 second recorder that can record sounds and then play them back as many times as you want. Put 4 AA size batteries into the battery box. Press and hold the button marked ‘REC’ to record a sound. When you then press the ‘PLAY’ button for a moment (don’t hold it down), the sound plays back. Try recording a sound or message in your best alien voice. You can get echo effects, for example, by putting the recorder into an old card box. You might even think about recording whistling noises by tuning between stations on an AM radio. You can either build the whole voice box into your alien model - or just the loudspeaker. (You might think about cutting this off and connecting longer wires if you have them). It is important to remember not to damage the speaker. To hold it firm, just press the back gently into the modelling clay. The two buttons and microphone can also be moulded in, but take care not to cover them in clay.

to battery box

microphone

speaker

playbutton

recordbutton

3. SHAKING AND MOVINGIt can be quite difficult to make a model move. Film professionals use many very expensive and complicated methods, but one simple trick used to make something shake or tremble is the ‘wobble wheel’. This is a small unbalanced wheel turned by an electric motor. When the wheel turns, it sets up a vibration which passes to anything touching the motor. To make the wobble wheel system, push the wheel onto the motor spindle as shown above and connect the battery box wires to the motor tags at the rear as shown below. Slip a single AA size battery into the box, hold the motor tightly, and then turn on. As the wheel spins, it will make your hand shake.

If you now want to make the alien model tremble or shake, mould the motor and battery box somewhere into the modelling clay so that the wheel can turn freely – and then switch on. If your alien uses the small eyes, these will move as the model shakes around.

4. GLOWING IN THE DARKCertain materials absorb light and then glow in the dark – including some sheet material in your kit. This can be cut into shapes with a pair of scissors. You could try cutting out and mounting small pieces as pupils on the large eyes. (It has a self-adhesive back). If you don’t use it on the alien, then just place the sheet close to the model and see what happens in a perfectly dark room. The glow from the sheet will light up the alien and make it look all the more spooky.

WHAT NEXT?By now, you will probably have made several alien models and tried out many of the special effect. There are many more things to do – limited only by your imagination. Have you considered, for example:- using other found objects to improve the look of your model or make it more scary ?

Craft shops now sell many unusual things such as feathers. Some experts now believe that some dinosaurs had feathers, so what about covering your alien in them?

• - exploring other sound effects such as ones you can capture on the internet?• - animating a model using a sequence of still pictures.

This is how models were brought to life before computer-generated became possible. It is a technique still in use. (Which infamous film characters are made from Plasticine?) To animate your alien, take a number of pictures using a camera or mobile phone, but move the model very slightly each time. When the still pictures are viewed quickly in sequence, the model appears to move. The pictures can be mounted on the edges of the pages of an old book to make a flick book – but they will need to be quite small. As an alternative, you might be able to find a way of making the pictures move via your mobile or by downloading them into a computer and using software to show them in sequence.

Mindsets (UK) Ltd.Unit 10, The IO Centre, Lea Road, Waltham Cross, Herts, EN9 1AS

Tel. 01992 716052www.mindsetsonline.co.uk