minor project art of (smaller file)

8/13/2019 Minor Project Art of (Smaller File)

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Mothers Days

(Minor Project Stage) by Nat Urwin


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Contents

Project Origin .................................................... Page 03

Script ................................................................. Page 07

Influences .......................................................... Page 11

Puppet Research ................................................ Page 15

Reference Images .............................................. Page 27

Storyboard ......................................................... Page 29

Character Design ............................................... Page 31Concept Art ....................................................... Page 46

Learning Dragonframe Software....................... Page 58

Chromakey Testing ...............................

CG Buildings ........................................

Sons Clay-work ...................................

Mould Making ......................................

Silicone Tests ........................................

Hair Tests ..............................................

Custom Tools for the Job ......................Eyelids ..................................................

Project Expenses Sheet .........................


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Project Origin


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I went for a walk on the beach one day in the rain and

saw an elderly couple wrapped up in warm clothes and

blankets, sitting on camping chairs in the sand, with

wind-breaks and umbrellas up pouring a cup of tea from

a flask with great smiles on their faces enjoyingthemselves.

THIS is BRITISH I thought to myself. So from there I

wanted to make a comedic short, nice and British for my

final project.

Under these uare the couple, un

this is the onlyI managed to ge


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The basic idea of this project is to make a short animated film using real hand crafted stop-motion puppets, a few sewith the majority of sets and scenery being CG. Using green screen techniques.

Example:


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The story is about a man taking his mum out for her day out and each

visit the seaside, in whatever the weather, to the same place, they sit on

bench, her favourite place.

Not really his ideal place to visit unless its sunny which comes across s

animation. We see them over autumn in the rain, winter in the snow an

spring in the wind, each time with something a little humorous between

the finale is in the summer. We see him sit alone, same place, same ben

time people (sound effects) everywhere and he is so alone. When he getsbench the audience is left with an In Memory plaque on the be


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Mothers Days (NO LIP-SYNC REQUIRED) Draft 10.

Autumn - Cloudy : Colour palette reds, browns

Long shot of a car driving along the seaside - model car along the coast (CG).

Car : Son driving, Mother in passenger seat. We see them from the front (as if the camera is attached to the bonnet) We see the mothethe dashboard as she is short, she lights up a cigarette which starts to fill the car with smoke so he opens the window and his hair startaround the car. The mother sticks her arm up and grabs the hair to keep it from blowing around, she continues to smoke whilst her armthe hair and he continues to drive as if nothing is odd about this scenario. He pulls over (parks) and they sit there for a moment.

Camera cuts to the sea / beach while sound effects give the impression they are struggling to get out of the car - son unfolding wheelch

They sit (his hair immaculately bad again) under one of the beachs sheltered benches (typical seaside bench - light blue, rusty metal),

the son blank. After a moment has passed the son then gets up and walks off camera, he comes back with 2 ice-creams. As he stands(before she takes it), she fumbles around with her sleeve and pulls out an old tissue, spits on it and wipes his cheek (think grandma whshe takes the ice-cream. His ice-cream is held out slightly to the side of him, out of his peripheral vision, a seagull which is sitting on tpoos on the ice-cream without him seeing. We continue to see him sit down next to his mother (in her wheelchair) he stares into the semoment, then without looking at the ice-cream goes to lick it. CUT.


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Winter - Icy / Snowy : Colour palette blues, whites

Shot of a shop sign with snow and icicles, its clearly winter and cold, baron. Sound effects of a car stopping and them struggling to get

The mother wrapped up in her winter clothes with a blanket on her legs, Tinsel around her head and flashing christmas lights on her soand a cup of tea from a flask (steam). The son wrapped up and looking emotionless out at the sea. They are sat on the same light blue

The mother suddenly gives signals to the son indicating she needs the bathroom.Next shot - Outside the public toilet cubicle with sound effects (he has to help her go to the bathroom) and the metal seat is cold. (Teetsounds)

CUT back to her back at the bench and the son walks back into frame with some nice hot fish and chips. They sit there quietly enjoyingrepresenting quiet peaceful moments of time together.

Spring - Still a bit chilly, windy : Colour palette Greens - spring colours

Daffodils in some borders, with the car sound effects (Cut a bit shorter)

They are both sitting on the bench, with her empty wheelchair to the side. They sit there looking at the scenery in front of them for a littlone piece a little with the breeze. Theres a carrier bag on the bench next to him, he pulls out a stick of rock, unwraps it and gives it to shot of him sitting there, then his mother passes the stick of rock back to him, he goes to put it in his mouth then just before he does loonce he sees his mothers dentures clamped around it. CUT


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Summer - Sunny : Colour palette oranges, yellows

Usual sound of the car pulling up, camera focused on a beach windmill stuck in the sand.

CUT to the son sat on the bench, usual established shot. He sits on the bench thinking for a while, we see all the very subtle gestures lots of sound effects of people around him enjoying the beach and the weather while he sits there basking in the sun with his eyes closside and smiles. He gets up from the bench, the camera cuts to further away, revealing his mum isn't there with him. Then cut to the viePlaque on the bench that was not there in the previous seasons. As he walks away from the bench, (to continue the slight humor and OR to signify the jokes between him and his mum still continuing even after she has passed) , there could be a string of gum stuck to hwhich stretches longer as he walks, then snaps.

END


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Influences


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ParanormanOh Willy

Pirates : In an Adventure withScientists StoryCorps

Mary

&Max


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Reasons for choosing which aspects to make CG or hand-made and w

particular methods.

The following picture is a great indication of why Ive decided to make

of sets CG....

As much as Id love to get stuck into building stuff like this, I dont thintime, the money and definitely not the space.


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Puppet Research


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Wire Armatures

Pros

CheapLightGood for hosepipe styleanimation

Easy to make

Fast to make

C

Breaks Easily -characters that do

much


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Ball & Socket Armatures

Pros

StrongLong LastingGood quality joint moves duringanimation

Cons

More PriceyHeavierSlightly harder to mscratch

More time consumfrom scratch


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Direct Painted Latex Puppets

Pros

CheapCan be cut open and mendedback up if there is a problem with

the armature

C

Can look saggyLooks cheaper


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Foam Latex Puppets

Pros

LightFlexible

Cons

More equipment neElectric food mixer, O

use your cooking ove

not be usable for food

Takes a lot of practifoam mix technique r


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Claymation Puppets

Pros

Looks greatCheap

C

Hugely time coHarder to anim


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Silicon Puppets

Pros

Looks great - can achieve ahigh amount of detail

Flexible - Deadener can beadded to make it more flesh-

likeLooks like skin and flesh

Cons

Takes patience tthere are no faults

when casting the s

(Not really a con

the case for the othtoo)


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Aardman & Laika facial armature,

both use rapid prototyping with a 3D printer

for these films to replace all or some of the face


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Facial armatures of

the Zombies in Paranorman

Tiny ball & Socket paddles

for eyebrows and lip movement


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This is a page from The Making of : The Pirates! In an Adventure with

Its a great example of some of the stages to create this monkey charac

sketchy expression drawings , then a tidy digital colour painting, a m

followed by the armature process.


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Whats What

2 Characters :- Ball & Socket Armatures

- Silicone Bodies

- ClothingWheelchairSeagull2 Ice-creams2 Fish & Chip portionsBench & PlaqueStick of RockDentures

Flask & TeaCarrier bagCar Seats for the car scene?TinselSmall Christmas lightsPlaqueChewing Gum

Long shot of the coastSmall CG car for the long shotView of the sea and beach

Icy Shop with swinging shop signDaffodils sceneCar Front & Simulated SmokeToilet BlockWindmill in sand

CGHand-crafted


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Reference Images


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Character Design


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I decided the son character should be a

podgy. Skinnier characters are much eas

make and animate as they are lighter

however, I felt this character would hav

bit of weight behind him to suit the

personality.


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Concept Art


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I found this scene didnt have enough going on, plus I needed to have something in the backgroun

elements with, which this scene does not provide.


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This scene looks better, the buildings would be in CG, but it doesnt quite say seaside


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This is better, the dullness of Bingo and Family Fun is just what Im trying to create. T


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The next series of images show different visuals I tested out until I came to one I lik


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This is the best suited for my animation. The run-down seaside look, yet the mother loves i


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LearningDragonFrame


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Id never used the chromakey technique before s

first tried the method on a still image. This turned o

was clear and I colour corrected it accordingly. The

try the method with a moving set of fr


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Before


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Test 02 with the chromakey method showed up some problems. Mainly lighting issues where the

lights in the correct places to remove shadows. The video clips of these tests are on my


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Chromakey : Test 03

Process Breakdown


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This is the setup I used for this test. A piece of left over MDF board from

blackout boards as the ground surface, and some lights I was able to use.

if the florescent tubes would cause any flicker issues but I just had to try

01.

Cool light source :LED Multicolour

Light

S

F


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The selected section of footage to work the after effects onto. This is h

straight from the camera.

02.

Crease under one

of the boardssupporting the

green screen, is a

possible problem.


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After Effects : Keylight : Screen Matte mode

03.

Very grainy, a

possible issue toremove in the

chromakey

process.

Clip black mode

is the part of the


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After Effects : Keylight : Screen Matte : Clip Black

04.

process where the

blacks are

adjusted to be

more black. This

section shows

most of the

graininess from

the previous

image has been

removed,

however, the

crease is still an

issue


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Here is the image

i l k li h


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After Effects : Keylight

06.

in normal keylight

mode, it shows

that if the

background was

black, the crease

would not be an

issue. However, in

the next image it

becomes clear

what I mean by

the crease being

an issue.


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Added a background in the green screen section.

07.

This black line is

the crease. It will

show up

throughout the

whole animation

so further steps

need to be taken

for it to be

removed.


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Colour Correction

08.

First I added some

colour correction

so the character

and flooring

looked a little

more settled into

the scene. There

were many stages

of adjusting the

RGB, Red, Blue

& Green Curves

until I found a

balance I was

happy with.

These purple

rectangles are the

masks Ive added to


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Masking out the Faults : Transparent

09.

masks I ve added to

the scene. I

duplicated the

background image,

placed the duplicate

on top of the green

screen and masked

off the areas where

I want the duplicate

to show which

covers the crease

fault. I left them

transparent for the

purposes of this

image to show what

they were

surrounding.


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Masking out the Faults

10.

I turned the

transparency to100% to

demonstrate that

the creases are

now seamlessly

hidden.

These

masks then

d


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Animating the Masks

need

animating

to move

along with

thecharacter.

The next

image is an

example of

what it

looks like if

they are

animated

incorrectly.


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Faulty mask animation consequences

12.

Here there is also

a 3rd mask. This

is to cover up any

graininess thatcouldnt be

removed during

the Clip Black &

White process.


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Final Comp : Without Mask 03.

13.

Here shows some

blue-ish

graininess which

shows up asmovement during

the playback.

The way to avoid

this issue is to

have better and

even lighting of

the green screen.


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Final Comp : With Mask 03

14.


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Chromakey : Test 04

Process Breakdown


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After Test 03, I decided to alter the green screen Set-up. I un-pegged the

unfolded the cloth from the crease and ironed it out.

Students : This is

An Iron

01.

O

fro

it


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After the flicker issue from test 03, I decided to change out the florescen

and replace them with the only other kind of lights I had handy - Low en

lamps. The green screen is now perfectly smooth and better/ more ev

02.

Cool light source :

LED MulticolourLight L

White board for

reflecting light

Perfectly smooth

Green-screen


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Image from the camera of the green screen.

03.

Nice smooth,even green screen.


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After Effects : Keylight : Screen Matte mode

04.

Slightest few

grains, an almostperfect green

screen capture.


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After Effects : Keylight : Screen Matte : Clip Black

05.

A little bit of

Clipping the black

to remove those

few speckles ofgrain. There is no

White clip needed

on this scene as it

is so evenly lit.


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07.


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Colour Correction

This ColourCorrection is

quite a lot

moodier than

test 03 but I

think it still

works.

08.


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Chromakey : Test 05Process Breakdown


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After Test 04s issue of bad flicker even with the removal of the florescen

some research and saw the suggestion of lowering the ISO. The previou

high ISO so I changed it right down and noticed the flickering stopped on

screen in Dragonframe.

01.


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Image from the camera of the green screen.

02.


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After Effects : Keylight

05


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06


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Colour Correction

This Colour

Correction is

still quite

moody but I

think it works.

07


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There are many different types of building next to the seaside. Ive decided to go for the style of ha

with high detail realistic textures. This way I think it compliments the animation by having slight

styles that are wearing real clothes and look like skin etc, so they have realistic texture


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Here shows some Modelling stages of the

images Ive drawn to make sure my

proportionally accurate. Then Each part is

along to save from having any built up


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Clay Modelling


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First of all I wrapped my puppet's armature in plumber's tape. I'd decided to sculpt over the armatu

sure the armature would definitely fit inside the the model, I wanted to protect the metal from gettin

clay, and so I came up with the idea of wrapping it in plumbers tape as it's nice and flexible and w

surface.


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After wrapping the armature up, I padded it with an initial layer of Chavant Clay. This clay was

sulphur-free and won't cause a chemical issue with the silicone that I plan to make the pup


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I built up the clay into the basic form of the character. Then I tried adding the hands, I don't normal

on a character, but I tried it on this one. I still didn't like the three fingers on him so I changed it ag

thumb. At this stage I was still waiting for the eyeballs to arrive so I put some temporary sockets in

look.


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I sculpted in some heavy, male anatomy on the character, this shows the initial stag


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When the eyeballs arrived I tried out a few different sizes to see which ones worked best with my c

a selection of 8mm, 10mm, 12mm and 14mm eyeballs made of high density Delrin Plastic, I foun

worked best with my character. I scooped out some clay in the face, popped in the eyeballs and scu

face creating the eyebrow bone, a nose, and the start of a mouth.


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Here I just made some quick temporary eye lids and pupils to see the kind of size I'd need to make

The eyes will be drilled into with a very small drill so a pin can be used to move them during anim

some black pupils over the pin hole. The final versions will be a lot smoother and thinner so they lo

to the eyes better, rather than just stuck on.

You can also see the kind of size of the puppet against the size of my hand.


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As this is the first time I've made a puppet there are bound to be mistakes. One being detachable a

reason being, these components will contain wire parts to the armature, the hands and the facial

(mouth). I'm separating the whole arm as there will be a summer scene in the animation where the

wearing a t-shirt so the arms need to be visible without gaps where hands attach. The mistake I m

sculpted the whole character, then had to dissect him to find joints and then repair the separa


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I've used a straw so there is enough of a gap, when it comes to joining the silicone parts together, fo

of the armature to get to the sockets inside.


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I drew some sketches to figure out where to dislocate the shoulder as there were a couple of comp

area, some of the armature parts were glued together so they couldn't be the parts that se


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Here is an image of a temporary stand-in shoulder and arm joint (taken from my second puppet's ar

keep track of where the joints and block-out areas would be.


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This shows how I had to take a lice from the character's shoulder to locate the joints to unscrew the


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Then re-sculpted the separate pieces to resemble their former shape ready for the next


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Below shows all of the pieces ready for the next step. The body, head and arms will now be finalis

smoothed ready for casting. The stand-in eyelids and pupils will be removed and final versions will

with different amounts of closure for blinks.


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As Im new to making puppets, I wanted to make a little stunt man to try out all of the chemicals f

sculpted a little test man from Chavant Sulphur-free Clay, it has to be sulphur-free as I will be usinguy and sulphur causes problems with the chemical balance of silicone when it comes to curing. C

and, it is pliable at room temperature. I put my guy in the freezer once I was finished sculpting him

be harder with less chance at causing any nicks or scratches while I do the next ste

01.

02.


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I took him out of the freezer and straight away got to work with building up clay around him. He is

take much time before he warms up again, which increases the likelihood of accidental nicks. Here

Non-Firing Clay (Water-based air-dry clay) because after a LOT of research and trying to find this I thought Id just try with what I have to hand and see how it turns out. So I placed him on a bed of

up around him to a half way mark where the seem would be for my two-part mould, making sure th

and not blended into the model. As he is made with oil based clay, using a water based clay is good

its easier to separate him later on.

03.

04.

05.


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With the 4 sides of foam core I used a hot glue gun and started to build the frame. I built 3 sides the

back to the frame and cover the sculpt with petroleum jelly as a mould release agent. I researched

agents, one that was particularly well mentioned was spray wax release but when I was trying to

that it was quite a hard product to get hold of. I was originally going to use petroleum jelly but I

answers to the question is it ok to use with silicone?, in the end I thought Id just give it a go an

quite a lot of funds compared to other releasing agents.

11.10.

12.


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After brushing a layer of vaseline onto the clays I finished gluing the 4th side of the frame and putt

foam-core on the bottom as a base to keep things nice and fixed together. Next I added a couple o

plasticise (I should have done this before fixing the frame for ease of access but thats a learning attempt). The round pieces are great for a guide when making the silicone case these act as good p

the two halves of the mould fit together perfectly without slipping around. Then some angular piec

points of access, to separate the two halves. Then I added little pieces of plasticine around the edg

them in to prevent any leaking of resin.

13. 14. 15. 16.


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With all of the clay and plasticine in place, I covered the inside of the frame in a coat of petroleum

water tight. The jelly texture can actually be picked up in the detail if too much is applied around th

to brush it off enough so its just a thin layer on the bit you actually want to cast the silicone in. N

jewellery scales so I could measure the chemicals accurately. I cut some plastic cups down so therarea to get covered in the mix. Then I zeroed the scales with the empty cups and weighed out the

Fast Cast Polyurethane Liquid Plastic Casting Resin, 15g of part A and 15g of part B separately. I o

amount as the purpose of this is to try out the technique and materials. Then I just mixed the two p

poured it into the frame trying to get as few air bubbles as possible. Then left it to cure fo

17. 18.


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After an hour the resin was set and I could remove the frame and move to the next step. I broke ofreveal the results of the first mould half. Then I separated the clay from the plastic and was happy

worked!

19.


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Image 21. shows how easy it was to separate oil from water after the first half of the mould. He wa

this though so I held him in a tissue to reduce head from my fingers melting him and cleaned him band a soft paintbrush. Once he was clean I placed him into the new first half of the mould and ad

wedges (I learnt from the first half and made sure to do this before adding the frame). Figure 24. sh

him to get any nappy rash so I covered him in petroleum jelly again...

21. 22. 23.


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Here I repeated the process of using the hot glue gun to make a new frame around this half. Then with the small pieces of plasticine and covered everything in a coating of petroleum jelly to ensure w

to make sure the two pieces of polyurethane resin dont just stick together trapping my little

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Again I measured out each part of the resin by weight and mixed them together. I didnt have any bubbles in the first half of the mould luckily, but I thought Id try brushing the first layer of resin on

it reduced that do occur, then I poured the rest in before it began to cure, and left it to

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After the second half resin had set it was time to dismantle and see how it had turned out. I had

seperating this one, it was because the round areas I had made were a little bit too pronounced, I fix

that is why its so useful to have those pry open points. I separated the two halves, then had to scrapscrub the two part mould with some warm soapy water and a brush. I used a toothbrush and a nailb

nice hard plastic it can be scrubbed clean without worrying about parts getting worn like it would w

dried it with a cloth and a cotton bud in the hard to get areas.

31.

32.

33.


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When I separated the two halves an air bubble was revealed in the first half. I fixed this by mixingPart A and Part B, filling in the air bubble and leaving it to cure. After my first mould is now mad

workspace to make the guys little wire armature.

39.

Air bubble


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I constructed a little wire armature to be placed inside the little guy. Next step - Silic

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Silicone -Test Man 01


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This test was to discover how to use silicone, and to see what issues might occur so I can fix it foplacing the armature in, I poured on a little more silicon so it was nicely full, then placed the two

quickly so the silicone didnt drip.


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After roughly 4 days, instead of the 24 hours it is supposed to take, I opened up the mould to see ho

turned out.


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I clipped off any excess silicone with cuticle clippers, and analysed the outcome. As you can see, th

air bubbled on him and his armature actually pierces out of the hands. The bubbles are because I l

which meant whichever side was on the top, thats where the air bubbles escaped to. The armature p

the weight of it sinking in the silicone. I will try a different method in my next test to try and reso


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Silicone -Test Man 02


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I made a fresh batch of silicone, this time with less paint. Then I repeated the process of painting

half, only this time, I let these halves dry for 24 hours.


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Once the halves were dry, I made a new armature, this time a differently designed armature as the lat bending, this one was made with two mirror sides joined together by the head piece. Then I ma

batch of silicone and squashed the two halves together tightly again.


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As you can see I changed the amount of paint in each of the batches so there is a colour difference

be noted for when I make the casts of the puppets so I dont get streaking when it counts. On the p

type of armature poses perfectly.


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These are the two test guys side by side. In the left image you can see where the armature sank to

silicone in test 01, but there are no issues in test 02. In the right image you can see the air bubble is01, but in test 02 I had no such issues. Test 02 is the way forward. The next issue to resolve is matc

paint in with my mixture to seem the two casts perfectly.


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Hair Test 01 -Real Hair


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I wanted to make a chunk of silicone, in the shape of the top of a head, so I could make some hair

this is nothing I need exact replicas of, I could just scoop half a round shape into a fresh block of cdo for my mould.

01.


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Id still want this to be nice and smooth like I would make my characters head, so the smoothin

through a few different stages. In image 03, Im using a multi-use soldering iron, this one has a h

clay Im using can be melted to pour into moulds so I used this advantage to melt round parts of c

easier to smooth off. A few minutes are needed to let the clay cool before smoothing it off with myits just sticky and makes a mess rather than smoothing. So once it cooled enough, I smoothed it as

heated it again for extra smoothness. After the second heating there are some air bubbles visible s

smoothing off with my fingers. The silicone picks up every detail, even finger prints, so it all dep

trying to achieve.

03.04. 05.


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After the mould is ready, its time to mix up the silicone. In my last test with the silicone I think I

much oil paint for the pigmenting, this resulted in a longer cure time (4-5 days). This mix had abou

paint. Then weigh the silicone (I subtracted the 1.6g from the calculation accounting for the cup) ato the weight of 5% of the silicone. Once the mix is thoroughly folded into each other, pour the silic

from a good height, this lets more air bubbles escape on the way down.

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Image 09 is the silicone freshly poured, there are a few air bubbles rising to the surface which is ex

best way to get rid of these was to just blow on them and they would pop. After 24 hours (with thsilicone had set. Image 10 shows the silicone when it has set, you can see theres no difference in th

a case of, gently poke it to see if it has cured yet.

11.

09.


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I de-moulded the skull and had some hair lined up ready to cut and insert. Id make a piercing into

cocktail stick roughly 3mm deep, then using a dental tool with a rough flat end to it (in image 15), Ihair against the silicone and punch it into the hole. The rubberiness of the silicone held it in place. W

would stick out as an implant.

11.

12. 13.


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This process was repeated several times, similar to pores in the skin where the hair grows. As this w

to see how the hair would stay, and to test if it would animate if made from real hair, I didnt worry the bunches.

16. 17.15.


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These images show the progression of implanting hair. In image 20 I pierced the silicone at a slante

would stick out at the same angle. In image 21 I bent the hair over to see if I could achieve a comboimplants I had done so far.

20.19.


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Once I had inserted enough hair to make the skull bushy, I decided to give it a haircut. To make su

comb-over section I wrapped an elastic band around it keeping the longer hair out of the way. I cofind any accidental loops or to remove any straggling hairs too. Then got to cutting this fabul

22. 23. 24. 25.


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The hair reminded me of a brush because it was sticking out at suck a tight angle

29.28.27.26.


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The next stage was to apply some hair gel/clay to see if it would give me enough control to be abl

image 31 it shows the hair as it kept popping back to this position, meaning I wasnt able to animthis method. To form the held down comb over I had to use something to keep it there, so I cut a sm

and made it into a kind of staple which pushed into the silicone and kept the hair in place. In concl

of hair will not work for what I need. I do like the look of it though, it reminds me of people with c

a load of wax and gel to try and keep it stuck down to their heads.

31.30.

32.


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33. 34.

35. 36.


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My next test will be to use wire and coat it in some light brown silicone, very thinly, to give it a rub

wax covered hair. This wire will be able to animate. Im going to try either 0.1mm or 0.08mm wirelook like hair and not too thick.

35.37. 38.


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Chromakey HairTests


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Hair Test 02 -Wire


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I ordered some wire that I can animate with yet it will be fine enough to resemble hair. The wire how

doesnt look much like hair. Ive tried a variety of ways to coat this with mediums I have to hand. T

right is the silicone ready to be mixed with the oil paint.


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I coated several different twists of 0.08mm wire in silicone to see if it would stick. Result... It didtacky in little beads all the way along the wire. Onto the next test....

Piano Wire


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Permanent MarkerThicker Acrylic Paint

Ive tried many different wires and ways to coat wire, so far none of them work.


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The next test will be to coat the wire in some Wool Roving so it looks like small bunches of hair, bwire inside Ill be able to animate it how I want to.


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Custom Tools


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To make the thin wire respond better to animation, I wanted to try twisting it to strengthen it. Howe

so tiny, it wont fit in a drill like the method for wire twisting on larger thicknesses of wire. This

some kind of twisting device to fit into my Dremel. At first I tried a pin wrapped to a drill piece wThe first version made the wire slide off, then the second hooked version began to bend. I had t

And yes, all health and safety precautions were taken.


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I made a rounded hook to fit in my Dremel as a drill piece out of some garden wire. It works perfecsharp edges.


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This method creates a really nice tight twist, perfect for strengthening the wire to anim


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Silicone Eyelids :Test 01


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I wasnt sure how to best make eyelids for my characters. I know I will have to make a bunch at d

blinks, so I started here. I made a small block of clay, pushed the same sized eyeballs in and rollemake the hole bigger, then filled the holes with silicone and gently placed the balls in. As soon as

however I noticed them sinking so had a feeling the test wouldnt turn out very we


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Once the silicone had set, I took the castings from the clay to see how they had turned out. As I sushow they were supposed to be. The bottoms were too thin where the eyeballs had sunk


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I could only salvage enough to make one eyelid from that test and it didnt sit too well, so I will trnext time.


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Project Expenses


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For anybody interested in the cost of this project, I have kept an expenses sheet of things Ive purchanimation. I find its good to keep a record anyway.

Check out more about


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Mothers Daysat:

www.skygecko-nat.blogspot.com
http://www.skygecko-nat.blogspot.com/http://www.skygecko-nat.blogspot.com/http://www.skygecko-nat.blogspot.com/

minor project art of (smaller file)

Documents