Joshua Flynn

'Opening Night' Showreel

2011-12-09T13:05:00.001-08:00

Don't you just hate it when a blog doesn't update for months.
Apologies. But I'll make it up to you with a video.

For some reason I thought I had already posted this video, but apparently I haven't. So, better late than never, here is a showreel for our film 'Opening Night'.

This video is basically a summary of the work we had completed near the end of our third year at Uni. It features our sculptures, concept art and puppet building, along with some animated shots from the film. Obviously none of the shots are finished, a lot are simply tests, but it should give a good idea of how things are shaping up.

So turn up your volume and snap your fingers along to 'The Chordettes'.
Without further ado, here's the video, hope you enjoy-

OPENING NIGHT Showreel from Joshua Flynn on Vimeo.

I've also got a few test images of the puppets on set, to try and get a better idea of how things will look on screen.

Twitter

You can now follow the progress of both Nathan and myself on Twitter!
Yes that's right, We have boldly stepped into the future to join the boundless realms of the Twitterverse.

We'll be posting on the progress of our film as well as the various sculpting projects we undertake as part of our Sculpt-Double website.
So if like us, you too are floating, weightlessly through the never ending wonders of the twitterverse,
why not follow us @SculptDouble - https://twitter.com/SculptDouble

I'm going to be working on a few sculptures over the next few weeks, But progress on the film will continue in the new year.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Sets- Theatre Front

2011-08-23T15:43:00.000-07:00

In this post I will be talking about some of the sets my brother and I have created and how we went about shooting certain shots for our film.

My brother Nathan has already started posting about the construction of the alley way set which features at the beginning of our film. You can find that HERE.

I thought It would be best to start at the begging and to show the first shot we set up for the film. To ease ourselves back into the swing of things we decided to tackle one of the more simple shots.

Pictured above is an image of the shot in question as it appears in our storyboards. The shot features the Mail man character looking up towards the camera with a look of shock/worry on his face. He then quickly raises his arm to look at his watch. In the film the character is actually standing outside, in front of the theatre, looking up at a billboard featuring Elle (our Actress character). However no theatre set was need for this shot since that would all be behind the camera, and we didn't need to make much because the character is being shot from above and taking up most of the screen. All we needed was a small section of pavement, some tarmac road and a street light.

Pictured above is the set as required for the shot. Not the most spectacular example for a post about sets but they will get better I promise. This set was very simple to put together. The puppet is standing on an MDF stage which is resting on sturdy tabletop a little higher than waist height. The MDF stage allows me to drill holes along the surface of the set in order to tie down the puppet. Openings along the side of the stage are used to reach underneath the set to use the tie downs. (More on tie downs later)

The set is lit using two halogen lights attached to a simple scaffolding lighting rig. The character is being lit heavily from the front to simulate the bright theatre front lighting around the bill board he is staring at. The camera is a Canon 500D attached to a secure tripod angled down towards the character so that the character is looking up towards the camera lens.

For this film we are shooing with Stop Motion Pro V7. The computer is on a separate station slightly away from the set with the monitor angled away to stop any unwanted light from affecting the shot. In the picture below you can see an image of how the framed shot looks on the monitor using the full resolution viewer of Stop motion pro. To save time and materials, we try to only build things the camera sees. This means a lot of cheating. For example, the street light cuts off half way with no actual light attachment. You never actually see the top on the light so instead we suggested a street light using some plastic piping and a bottle top painted matt green. The sidewalk and road were made with MDF and card simply sprayed with a grey primer followed by some stone effect 'speckle' spray paint for a concrete texture.

Later in the shot, our character checks the time on his watch. We didn't actually make a small scale watch for our character, the shot cuts away to a close up before his watch would be revealed from under his sleeve. The character simply raises his wrist.

We then cut to a close up of the characters watch on his wrist. For this we made a large scale arm and watch which was close to being life size. The arm was made from a length of card tubing, covered in a thin sheet of flesh coloured plasticine. we used some spare material from the puppets cloths for the sleeve, which could be pulled back to reveal the watch. The whole arm was supported by a few twists of thick aluminium wire so we could give some movement to the arm. The watch was made from a jam lid, for the main body, and some spare leather material for the strap. We could have used an actual watch for this shot, but we felt that it would have stood out from the style of the film and looked too realistic. So instead we used my deluxe jam time piece.

We filmed this shot on the same set up so that the lighting would match with the previous shot. For this shot the sidewalk floor is out of focus with no visible shadow cast from the arm so it looks like it is further away from the ground than we actually shot it. The second hand of the clock could also be animated for that all important ticking

The next shot we decided to film allowed me to try out more of the puppets movements. This set was also very easy to make which might be a surprise considering what the storyboard panel looks like.

We knew we couldn't build the whole theatre and that we were going to use green screen to extend the building. For a while we tried to decide how much of the building we were going to make, maybe cutting off just above the characters head, or if we could build a miniature theatre. In the end we decided it would be too difficult and take up too much time to build the theatre (especially with the amount of lights we wanted on the building) so we filmed this shot on a green screen with the idea of adding the theatre later on.

So the character was animated staring up at a big green nothing. The camera was positioned below the edge of the stage, angled upwards. The character was mostly lit from his front so that he appeared almost in silhouette. To make sure the character is looking in the right direction I painted a rough digital mock up of the theatre as we wanted it to appear in shot. This could then be superimposed on the green screen to appear on the live view of the stop motion pro programme. This is just to give you an idea of positioning while filming and won't appear when exporting your finished shots.

This shot began with the character running in from the left of the screen and stopping in the centre. It was the first time I had animated the character running or doing any big movements. To support the character I used a rig made from brass K&S tubing with an adjustable screw tread system made from a large bolt. This allowed the character to be raised up and down in tiny increments. The rig rested on the table, was held down by weights, and could be slid across the surface. Any parts of the rig that appeared on camera were covered with green card. You can see the rig supporting the character in the picture below.

The rig was used when the characters feet left the floor, but when back on the ground, his feet were secured with tiedowns. The tie down hole on the bottom of his foot can be seen in the picture above. For this character we used an M3 bolt, wing nut and a nut (inside each foot).

Pictured above is an example of the tie downs we are using. One wing nut has been soldered to the bolt (you can also use a length of threaded bar for longer tie downs) and another remains separate and is used to tighten the character to the stage once the bolt is attached to the nut in the puppets foot. The wing nuts make it easier to twist the tie down when reaching under the stage. I much prefer the tie down method of securing a puppet to a surface as opposed to magnets, which aren't as strong and can sometimes still allow the puppet to twist or slide.

Once this shot was completed, I started working on an image of the theatre to use on the green screen. Using the rough mock up image as a guide I started blocking out the building with colours and added in a few more details. The size of this image was made taller than the usual wide screen aspect ratio to allow us to include a camera move in this shot, moving up to reveal more of the building. The lower part of the building was made using photographs of the theatre ushers set that was built. There are still changes to be made and a lot more details to add to this shot such as lights and textures. The billboard posters are also temporary. However, This does help us get an idea of how the shot will look once completed and is hopefully a bit better than the plain green screen we filmed against.

That's all for now. More to come soon.

Thanks for looking.

Theatre Usher Puppet

2011-08-08T17:41:00.000-07:00

Great Scott! has it really been that long!
Apologies for not posting anything in such a long time. A lot of things have happened over the last few months. My brother and I have both graduated from university, gone on vacation with the family and interned on a big stop motion film currently in production in London. It was an amazing experience and now that I'm back I feel inspired to continue working on our own film and put into practice all the things I have learnt. So, It's time to zap some life back into this blog, commence re-animation and bring it back from the dead!
With the help of Nathan (my hunch backed assistant) we will assemble the parts we have already collected and continue work on the project.
...It's Aliiiiive!

Theatre Usher Head Sculpt
As promised (a long time ago), In this post I'm going to be talking about the development of the theatre Usher, taking over from where Nathan left off. The body and cloths are mostly completed, I'm going to be working on the head sculpt and a few finishing details. You can see Nathan's work of the Usher puppet HERE.

For the theatre Usher puppet, my brother and I decided not to use the same solid replacement face method we used on the Actress and Mail man characters.This is because it would take too long to cast out all the different face pieces for a secondary character with such a small part in the film. To save time we decided to create the Usher's face using Plasticine. Plasticine is great for puppets because it's cheap, easy to use and comes in a wide variety of colours that can even be mixed together. The plan is to re-sculpt the Usher's face for each frame to change his expression. This should work well since the character's face needs to be squashed flat for a gag in the film where he is hit in the face by a door.

To keep the weight of the head down I decided to sculpt the back half of the skull using Sculpey Ultra light clay. This was then covered with a thin layer of grey Super Sculpey to finish off the form and add small details.

Eye sockets were also added using spare fast cast eyeballs covered in Vaseline. The sculpt was baked with the eyeballs in place to accurately capture the shape of the eyeball for the socket. The eyes were then easily removed (thanks to the Vaseline) from the sculpt. Baking fast cast causes it to go from white to a amber/yellow colour, so it's a good idea to use spare eyeballs, not the nice pair you've spend hours painting pupils on.

The next step was to paint the head. I used acrylics for this, mixing the flesh colour to match the plasticine I will be using the sculpt the face the best I could. The black band of the ushers hat strap should disguise the seam between the plasticine face and the solid Sculpey back. The eyes sockets were masked to stop any paint interfering with the way the eyes roll in the socket.

Above is a picture of some of the finishing details added to the Usher including buttons shoulder pads to create a more blocky,square body shape, a bow tie and small Usher hat. All of these details were attached using contact adhesive.

To reduce 'boiling' on the Usher's coat, I attached a sheet of thin foam to the inside of the jacket to stiffen it up yet remain flexible.

In the picture below you can see how the head attaches to the body using K&S square brass tubing. The collar and buttons have also been added.

In the following picture you can see the beginnings of the plasticine face. The Sculpey eye sockets and rectangular pegs help the plasticine attach to the solid back section of the head. The face is sculpted around the eyes and the face is broken down into sections depending on what parts need to be removable. Although the face can be sculpted into any expression, sometimes it is easier and quicker to sculpt a selection of mouth shapes that can be swapped out and smoothed onto the face.

Below is the finished head sculpt with the mouth piece missing.

For the first shot featuring the Usher puppet, I sculpted three different mouth shapes to be swapped out at different stages of the shot. Each mouth was re sculpted each frame to help them transition into each other.The picture below shows how the mouths slot on.

The seam line is smoothed each time the mouth is replaced. One draw back when using plasticine is keeping it clean. When not in use, wrapping any plasticine parts in cling film (Saran wrap) will keep away any dirt. Dust and fluff will travel from miles around to visit your nice clean sculpt, they absolutly love sticking to plasticine. It is also important to keep the plasticine clean while working on the puppet. Wet wipes or baby wipes are a good way of keeping your hands clean while working.

Finished Puppet
I didn't have time to take any picture of the Usher after he was finished so here are a few pictures of the puppet on set.

The green screen in the background will be used to extend the set digitally.

a small prop cigar was also sculpted from Sculpey with a pin to keep it in his mouth.

Here the expression has been changed. The Usher's nose is different on this puppet from the referance above. during the film the Usher is hit in the face with a door. This flatterns his nose, a look he is stuck with for the rest of the film. So for this first scene the ushers nose start's out normal... but by the end...

...It is squashed flat. Along with his cigar. The character was designed with his flat nose becase that is how he appears for the majority of the film.

Thats all for now. I'll have more updates soon including more info about the sets and filming.
Thanks for looking.

Mail Man 'Roy' Puppet Finished

2011-06-11T05:34:00.000-07:00

Hello,
Things have been busy, but all is going well.
Today I though I'd post a few pictures of my finished Mail Man puppet, something I should have done a while ago but for some reason...didn't.

The puppets of the two main characters of our film are now finished and my brother and I are very happy with the way they have turned out. If you'd like to see Nathan's finished puppet for our actress 'Elle' character you can click Here.

Final Main Man Puppet
This character has been a lot of fun to build and has allowed me to try out new techniques I hadn't previously attempted. It has also been interesting building two of the same puppet simultaniously and trying to get each puppet as identical as possible.

Below are some turn around images of one of the final puppets.

For these photos I decided to position the puppet in the same pose as the Maquette I sculpted of the character a while ago.

For the following photographs I decided to try out the puppet's replacement faces to give him some different expressions,and also position the body into a veriety of poses. Once photographed I had a go at digitally removing some of the seams from the face sections using photoshop. This is what my brother and I intend to do for any shots in the final film where the seams are noticable.

And finally, Here is an 'Ultimate Image' of the puppet I made using the photos I have taken. This was made as part of the business section of the University course. It is intended to help promote the University aswell as myself and my work.

That's all for now, It's been mostly pictures today.
Next time I'll be talking about finishing off the Theatre Usher character which Nathan has been working on.
Thanks for looking.

Props- Mailman's Bag & Hat

2011-05-21T18:27:00.000-07:00

It's been far too long since I last posted anything. Things have been getting busy now that my brother and I are filming. I'm going to try to catch up and post more often so that I can show you how the shots are turning out soon, But first I'm going to continue talking about the model making process and today It's all about two of the mail man's props- his leather satchel and his hat.

Mailman's Bag
The Mail Man's leather satchel is quite an important prop for the character and plays an interesting part in our film. It also needed to be animatable and easy to control because I wanted the bag to swing and flow behind the Mailman when he is running, adding some nice secondary motion to the character's movements. In order to achieve this, the bag needed to be very light weight.

To start, I carved the main body of the bag out of balsa wood. This was ideal since balsa wood is light weight, strong and easy to work with. I chose to use this material as opposed to blue foam core because the bag would later need to be glued and contact adhesive and two part epoxys tend to cause the foam core to melt.

The balso was then carved and sanded into shape, using my sculpted maquette as referance. I also added some small K&S brass tubing to the back, glued in place with two part epoxy. This is where I'll later rig the bag to be animatable. I made both bags (one for each of the two Mailman puppets) at the same time to keep them identical.

Next, I used a rotart tool to carve down into the top surface of the balsa, creating a lip around the edge, giving the bag some depth. This was then painted black using acrylics. It wasn't nesisary to make the bag completly hollow, this was just in case the camera ever peeks under the edges of the bag flap, and to create the illusion of depth.

The next stage was to cover the basla with a fake leather-like material. Originally I planned to sculpt the main body of the bag from Sculpey, but later decided against it to keep the weight down and achieve a more realistic texture with a leathery material. The shapes for the bags panels were first roughed out in paper to create templates and then cut out from the leather material. These were then glued in place using contact adhesive.

The two side panels were glued on first, followed by one large panel (pictured above) which was streched virtically around the balsa creating the front, bottom and back of the bag. Any rough edges where folded back on themselves before glueing.

The bag's opening flap was created seperatly and attatched afterwards. It included thin wire sandwiched between the leather and some brown card, allowing it to be controlled and repositiond when animating.

The bag strap was created in a similar way in order to allow it to be animated. One strand of thin copper wire was added to a small leather-like strap and covered with a thin strip of brown card. This stiffened the strap and allowed it to be controlled and repositionable. This copper wire is easy to bend, holds it's shape and should last longer than aluminium wire which tends to break after too much use.

To finish things off I added some straps to the opening flap and punched some buckle holes into them.

Here is one of the finished bags.

The shape of the bag was created to look distorted as if it was full, heavy and sagging in the middle as it appeares on my maquette. I'm pleased with the way the leather-like material turned out and I think it looks far more convincing than if I had simply sculpted it.

This is how it looks on the puppet. The bag is also curved to fit around his leg.

For some reason I didn't include buckles on the bag of my sculped maquette and I was toying with the idea of adding them to these bags, but they just didn't look right and made things look cluttered and busy. So I decide to keep them simple and as they are. If anyone asks...I'll say that the bag is left open for easy access and that the buckle straps are tucked inside. What...you don't believe me?

Here is a shot of the two bags on the puppets.
To give more control to the movment of the bag when animating, I decided to add a rig going from the Mailman's waist to the back of the bag. This was made using two strands of the copper wire twisted together and attatched with two part epoxy to K&S brass tubing.

A flap was cut into the leather to give access to the K&S rig point in the bag, and a small slit was cut in the Mailman's trousers to reach the K&S in the puppets hip. This rig, along with the wire in the strap, should help lift the bag away from the Mailman when running. This can be seen in the picture below. The wire support will later be painted out of any frames in which it is visable.

Mailman's Hat

The Mailman's hat is not featured in the film as much as the bag because he loses it fairly early on in the animation....what can I say, he's no Indiana Jones. because of this I decided to only make the one hat for the puppet we use near the start of the film.

I started off by sculpting a rough shape into the puppet's head using Super Sculpey Ultra light. This is baked just like regular Super Sculpey, except it's very light weight. you can't get as much detail from it as regular Sculpey, and it's strangely sticky and silky at the same time. But it is good for bulking out large areas and keeping weight down. Once baked I carved and sanded the ultra light into the shape I wanted (above to the right).

Next, I covered the shape using the same blue material I used to make the Mailman's trausers. I glued the fabric in place using PVA glue at the top, used sparingly so that it doesn't soak through the fabric, and super glue around the rim. The fabric was glued carfully to create the folds and a strip of black card was added over the top to create the rim.

The cap section was also made with the black card which was then covered in a flexable, shiney, black plastic which I cut from an old office folder. The red strip was made from ribon I had left over from the Mailman's uniform.

The small badge on the hat was made in a similar way to the buttons on the Mailman's uniform. It was sculpted from Super Sculpey and painted with a brass enamel paint. I then coated it with a clear two part epoxy to give it a glossy shine. The simbol on the badge is of an envelope.

Here is the finished hat. It may not be in the film much but it was a fun prop to make.
And finally here is a shot of the puppet adorning his newly aquired effects.

That's all for this time folks!
Next I'll be posting more pictures of the finished puppet's along with the theatre usher, set pictures and eventually, the filming process.
Thanks for looking.

Puppet Head Sculpt- Mail Man Part IV

2011-05-06T17:36:00.000-07:00

Hello,
It's been a while since my last post, so I think I'll bet back into the swing of things by continuing with the process of creating the Mail Man character's head. You can find my previous posts about the puppet head sculpting process through the following links- Part 1, Part 2 , Part 3.

So far the two puppet heads have been cast, along with all the magnetic, replaceable face pieces, which have also been given different expressions using Super Scupley, sculpted onto each piece. The next stage is to test the sculpting on each replaceable face piece to see if they work on camera.

Pictured above is a small set up I created on my desk to photograph each of the face pieces. The main puppet head part was secured in place and in turn every replaceable face piece was attached and photographed. Using a laptop I could then flick through each image, checking how well each expression transitioned from the next. I was also looking out for any sculpting errors or unwanted bulges that needed changing, which I could then quickly correct at my desk and re-photograph.

Once I was happy with with each piece, they were baked in an oven to harden the Super Sulpey clay. After cooling, I could then start sanding each of the parts to make them extra smooth and remove any small bumps around the seam of the sculpted mouths.

I started with a more coarse sandpaper and slowly worked my way up to a higher grit sandpaper, finishing with a very fine wetordry paper. The pieces were then ready for the painting process.

Paint

Before any paint was applied, The back of each piece was masked to stop any unwanted paint from disturbing the way each of the faces connect to the head. The parts were then mounted onto small cones of spare plasticine and arranged on the spraying surface. The cones hold the pieces above the surface, stopping any paint from pooling around the bottom of any parts.

Next, The first coat of primer was applied. I decided to use a matt, white primer because I didn't want the parts to become too shiny, and white is a good good base colour for the flesh tone. A darker primer might have caused the final flesh tone to be less vibrant.

The first coat was only lightly misted on, to help bring out the surface detail. Any small imperfections all of a sudden become visible and can now be corrected. That means more sanding!

On a few of the faces, small seam lines appeared where the Sculpey mouth joined to the resin face. Most of the time these disappeared with a bit more sanding.

In some cases they needed filling. For this I used Super glue, lightly flooding the seam and letting it dry. The glue dried quickly and could then be sanded flush to the surface, making the seam...ta daaaaaa....disappear!

The faces could then be re-primed, misting on each coat until evenly covered. Once dry, I gave the faces a skin tone using a matt flesh coloured spray.

Pictured above are the mouth pieces once prayed, dried with all masking removed. The next step is to add all the details to the mouth and teeth.

Colours were added using acrylic paints. I used a small brush to paint the inside of each mouth black first, followed by an off white of the teeth. The detail of the hair was brought out by dry brushing a lighter brown over a darker base colour creating highlights and depth.

To bring some variation to the skin I decided to use chalk pastels. This was used to add subtle gradients of colour and give the skin a healthy glow.

I used a pink coloured pastel to add a rosiness to the cheeks and around the eyes. The chalks are scratched onto paper to create a small pile up of dust. Using a small stiff brush, I dusted the chalk dust onto the surface where I wanted the colour and slowly, in a circular motion worked in the dust. This was then sealed using a dull coat spray (I use Testor's Dull Coat). The colour can be built up in layers and different chalk dusts can be mixed to create more colours.

Above is a picture of the puppets face with chalk pastels added. The effect is subtle, but makes a big difference. Both sets of eyes have also been created by drilling holes for the iris and pupil using a rotary tool. They were then painted with acrylics and covered in gloss to create a shine. The eyes will later be controlled and positioned using a pin to turn the eye in the socket.

The Mail Man's eye browns were sculpted using Super Sculpey Bake & Bend clay. This clay bakes in the oven like regular sculpey, however, It remains flexible like rubber. This should prevent the eyes brows from snapping since they are so small and delicate. They were also sculpted in the correct colour clay so they wont need painting, and the colour won't scratch off. The eye brows will be moved onto each replaceable brow piece in use during filming, and will be held in place using tacky wax. this will also allow the eye brows to be moved and animated on the brow.

The Finished Puppet Head

Here is a picture of all the parts of the puppets head, painted and finished.

There are twenty mouth pieces for the two puppets, along with five different brows for each head.

Here are a few images of the Mail Man with different expressions.

I am pleased with the way this character's head has turned out. This is the first time I have ever built a puppets face using this technique.The replaceable faces are very easy to use and should make animating the face much quicker and easier. As a sculptor, I'm also pleased with the level of facial detail this method allows, and how close this puppet is to it's original designs.

In post production the seam across the eyes will be removed.

All is going well so far, Nathan's puppet of our actress character 'Elle' is looking very nice. This head sculpt has also been a lot of fun to make, but the fun is not over yet.

Thanks for looking!

Puppet Clothing- Mail Man Continued

2011-04-24T20:33:00.000-07:00

Today, I'm going to carry on from where I left off last time by describing the process of making the Mail Man's Uniform. This will include the construction of his shirt and tie, all the way up to the finishing details such as pockets and buttons.
You can find part one HERE.

Now where were we?

White Shirt
I decided not to make a whole shirt for the Mail Man since only parts of it are visable from under his jacket. Instead, I made the shirt in sections at the cuffs and collar area, creating the illusion of a full white shirt. This made the construction much easier and also stopped the puppet from becoming overly padded around the arms and torso, from too many layers of fabric.

Using a paper template as a guide, I cut four pieces of white cotton fabric to make up the collar area. Two on the back and two on the front to curve around the neck and shoulders. Any visible edges were glued back on themselves with contact adhesive to stop the fabric from fraying. I also added a tube of card into space where the silicone neck slots into the body, to give the collar area some support.

The shirt fabric was glued straight onto the puppet padding using contact adhesive. The next step was to make the shirt collar. For this I needed the puppets silicone neck in place to make sure the collor fits tightly, yet still allows the ability to remove the neck if nessisary.

The shape of the collar was first roughed out in paper and then transferred to fabric. To the top left of the image above is a picture of my first attempt using just fabric. I found that the contact adhesive used to glue the edges left a yellowish stain through the fabric and the collar didn't hold it's shape very well. For collar mark II (to the upper right) the edges of the fabric were glued to a piece of white card which was folded inside the collar, stopping any yellow stains from showing through and giving the collar strength.

Red Tie
To make the tie I used a wide piece of red silk ribbon folded and glued around a paper template.

In a similar way to the card in the shirt collar, The paper helped to stiffen the ribbon and stop the glue from staining. The top of the ribbon was folded into an 'M' shape and pinched together to create the small fold under the knot. A small strip of ribbon was then folded over a triangle of white sponge to create the knot.

The sponge helped to give the knot some shape and stopped the ribbon from looking too flat and fake. The tie was then glued onto the white shirt using contact adhesive. The two scruffy edges either side of the knot were glued down and covered by the shirt collar.

To finish the shirt, the edges of the white fabric were trimmed around the shoulder to make it easier for the arms to slot into place. The image below shows the K&S brass tubing which allows the arms to be removed from the puppet along with the jacket.

Once on the puppet, the fabric panel on the back of the Mail Man's jacket felt a bit loose and moved every time I touched the shoulders. To stop this I glued a sheet of paper inside the back panel of the jacket which helped to stiffen the fabric.

Now that the shirt and tie were finished, the remaining edges of the jacket were trimmed and glued into place on top of the trousers.

The jacket collar was then created using a similar method as the shirt collar except there was no need for any card since the jacket fabric is much thicker. The Mail Man's uniform is now mostly complete, but to finish things off a few more details are needs.

Finishing Touches
My Mail Man's uniform design includes a number of small buttoned pockets along the front of the jacket. I made all the pockets for both Mail Man puppets at the same time to try and keep the dimensions of each pocket as close as possible.

Each pocket was made up of a blue fabric square with a triangular fabric shape folded over the top edge of each square. All edges were glued with contact adhesive and attatched to the uniform.

Buttons
Each Mail Man puppet needed two largeer buttons for the front of the jacket, four small buttons for each pocket and two more medium buttons for each cuff.

Each button was sculpted by hand using Super Sculpey Firm. Pictured above are some of the tools I found useful while making the buttons, including a sanded down cocktail stick (or toothpick) for pushing the indents into each button. And two pins (one missing it's point) for making the small holes.

Each button was then painted with a metalic painted for a brass effect. I used a strip of tape to keep each buton in place while painting. once dry, I coated the buttons with Araldite (clear two part epoxy) giving them a glossy shine. This also created a strong potctive glaze to stop the paint from scratching off. The buttons were attatched to sticks for this to stop the epoxy from pooling around each button.

The buttons were then attatched to the uniform with contact adhesive.

Finnished Uniform
Here are a few pictures of the two Mail Man puppets with finished clothing. Note-the hands are only temporary.

So far I'm pleaesed with the way our film's puppets are turning out. It's nice to finally see some of our cast members. You can see how Nathan is doing with our Actress character 'Elle', along with a look at some of our filming setup, HERE.

This post has been a bit longer than usual. I think here is a good place to stop.

Thanks for looking.

Puppet Clothing- Mail Man

2011-04-19T19:54:00.000-07:00

In this post I'm going to be talking about making the uniform for my Mail Man character. The two Mail Man puppets my brother and I will be using to film have already been bulked out and padded with foam (Which you can see HERE) so now it's time to start making some clothes.

Although this character is slender, the clothes I make will still need to be quite tight fitting. This is because I've padded the puppet in such a way that any baggy areas of clothing are actually filled with sponge. This tight fit over sponge should maintain the baggy look from my design, but also reduce the amount of 'boiling' or unwanted movement from the clothes when animating.

Templates
To get a tight fit on my character's clothing I decided to make paper templates of each section of the Mail Man's uniform. To help work out how different items of clothing are pieced together I would recommend searching online, many different templates for a wide range of clothing can be found for free around the Internet. Using templates for this character's clothing is especially important since I will be making this uniform twice and I want each puppet's clothes to look identical.
Using some paper and a pen, I made templates straight from my padded out puppet, curving the paper around the forms of the puppet and drawing markers for the measurements. I then cut out each shape to test if they still fitted, remembering to label everything.

To the left, on the picture above, are the original paper templates for the Mail Man's jacket. Note that the same template was used for each sleeve. To the right are a copy of the templates with approximately 10mm extra space added around the circumference for the seams. It was this set of templates that were pinned to the fabric to draw the out the shapes using chalk.

Fabric

Here is a picture of the fabrics I collected to make the Mail Man's uniform. I tried hard to find materials that replicated the look of the fabrics in my final design, and yet were still suitable for my puppet.
I had to keep in mind that although the colour and appearance of some fabrics may look right, at the 1/6th scale of the puppet, the size of the weave could look huge, destroying the illusion of this miniature world. In some cases this 'chunkification' might work, But I wanted the fabric to not cause any distraction from the look or scale of my film.
I also didn't wanted fabric that is too thick since it is harder to sew at such a small scale and can restrict the puppets movement.
I am very pleased with the fabric I've found. There are two types of blue, one for the trousers and a slightly darker one for the jacket (This helps to add variation, texture and interest to the uniform) some white cotton for the shirt and red ribbon for some trimming and his tie.

To help my puppet stand while his clothes were fitted, the armatures for his feet were returned along with some new silicone shoes. Pictured above are the shoes fresh from the mould ready to be trimmed. You can find out more about the moulding process for these shoes HERE.

Here is a shot of a test fitting for both pairs of trousers. Like any type of clothing, the patterns were sewn together using a sewing machine and then turned inside out for a clean seam. The trousers were left longer at the waist and foot to allow for adjustments. The length of the trousers were shortened once on the puppet.

To make things easier, I decided to glue the hem of the trousers using contact adhesive as opposed to stitching at such a small scale. The long fabric was trimmed and folded back inside the leg.

To the left, on the picture above, are the Mail Man's Jacket and trousers straight from the sewing machine. On the image to the right, The jacket arms have been shortened to the correct position of the characters wrist and cuffs have been added. In a similar way to the hem of the trousers, the cuffs required no extra sewing to create.

To make the cuffs I started by trimming the overly long jacket arms to about 5mm too short of where they should be at the wrists. Their edges were then glued back on themselves to stop the fabric from fraying. The idea is to add the cuff section using new strips of fabric to make up the arm length. The new cuff section should hide the original shortened arm fabric and appear to be part of the same sleeve folded back on it's self creating a cuff.

For my cuffs I used strips of the same blue fabric used for the jacket , cut to match the measurement of the wrist. all the edges were folded back on themselves and glued with contact adhesive to stop the fabric from fraying. I also added some red trim to my cuffs by gluing thin ribbon folded along one edge (pictured above). The sewn edges of the ribbon even look as though it has been stitched to the fabric.

The final stage in creating the cuffs was to add a small loop of white cotton fabric, glued inside the jacket cuff to suggest a white shirt underneath.

In the next part I'll talk about the fabrication of the rest of the white shirt, as well as the collars, red tie and finishing touches such as the jacket pockets.

Thanks for looking.

Puppet Head Sculpt- Mail Man Part III

2011-04-14T17:08:00.000-07:00

It's time to continue talking about the head sculpting process. To catch up you can find part one HERE and part two HERE.
You can also see how the 'Actress' character's head sculpt is coming along on my brothers blog HERE.

So far I have sculpted and moulded the Mail Man character's head pieces and cast out a number of copies. Here is a picture of all the pieces so far including the two main head components (one for each Mail Man puppet) and a selection of replacement 'mask' parts for the brow and mouth.

At the moment all of the replaceable brow and mouth pieces are identical and need to be individually changed to give each mask a different expression. However, before I do that, the face pieces need to be able to be easily attached and removed from the main head component. It's important that the mask pieces lock-on to the head so that they stay fixed in place and don't move or fall off the puppet while filming.

An Attractive Face
My brother and I have decided to use magnets to attach the face pieces to the head. Another option would have been to keep the faces in place using tacky wax, but we felt that magnets are cleaner and would hold the faces more securely. Not to mention...magnets are cool.

For my puppet's head I used very small Neodymium magnets. This is a very power full type of magnet that comes in a wide range of shapes and sizes. Not every piece will need a magnet, they will only be used in the puppets main head component. Each replaceable mask piece will then be given a small amount of steel to attract to the magnets. For this I decided to use small steel tacks.

Using a rotary tool I drilled two holes into the puppet's head for the magnets to be set into. One for the brow and another for the mouth pieces. The hole for the mouth pieces happened to go straight through to the hollow area where the neck piece slots into the head, However the magnet is thin enough to not effect the neck when the parts are slotted together. The magnets where then secured in place using a two part epoxy glue.

With the magnets in place the next stage was to add the steel tacks to the replaceable face pieces. I had to be sure the positioning of the tacks in the faces would line up to the magnets in the head. To do this I put a small amount of Blu Tack (you could use plasticine or anything similar) onto the magnets and drew a small dot in the center using a black pen. I then pushed each replacement part onto the head and the Blu Tack, leaving a print of the black ink dot on each piece. I could then drill a hole using the black dot as a guide, knowing the parts would line up correctly.

The steel tacks were shortened using a pair of pliers, leaving the head of the tack to attract the magnet. Pictured below are the drilled face parts ready for the head of the steel tack to be set inside using two part epoxy glue. Only a small amount of the steel tack was needed to hold the face pieces to the magnet meaning the holes didn't need to be too deep, avoiding the risk of drilling straight through the mask piece.

Below is a picture of the two Mail Man heads with magnets installed and an example of the now magnetic faces. The positioning of the magnets on each head are identical meaning the face pieces will attract to each head just as well as the other. The face pieces now attach securely to the heads with a satisfying 'click'.

Adding Expression
Now that the face pieces are attaching to the head nicely, It's time to give my character a wider range of expressions. The strange grin he has at the moment is starting to creep me out.

Above is a picture of some of the materials and tools I use to sculpt with. Over the years I've collected a large number of tools to use but I seem to use these the most. The needle to the right is my favorite. It's much larger and chunky than a regular needle and has a nice rounded tip. My brother uses a playing dart without it's flight as a similar tool. I also use a flat plastic tool for roughing out shapes and a pin with a white Milliput handle for fine details.
The clay I will be using to sculpt the characters expressions is Super Sculpey Firm. It's easy to work with and can be baked in a conventional home oven. I also use Liquid Sculpey, this will help the Super Sculpey firm stick to the fast cast face pieces.

Above is a small selection of the replaceable mouths sculpted for the Mail Man. These mouths were created simply by sculpting lips over the existing mouth pieces using my character expression sheet for reference. The upper row of teeth were included as part of the cast piece because they stay locked in place as we speak. The lower row of teeth are sculpted and the jaw line added to in order to simulate a hinged jaw.

These faces are only rough out at the moment and need more work before they are cleaned up. The brows also need to be sculpted to give the character a neutral and angry expression.

At the moment he looks like he has a Homer Simpson-esque 9 o'clock shadow. This will obviously disappear once the character is painted. The next step is to make sure the faces work on camera and then make any corrections that are needed. Next time I'll be able to show the finished sculpted faces and talk about the painting/ finishing process. Until next time...

Bulking Out a Puppet- Mail Man

2011-04-07T18:57:00.000-07:00

I think I'll take a little break from talking about my puppet head construction and save part III for another time. Today I'll be showing the progress of adding padding to bulk out my puppet.

Unlike 'Elle' (Our actress character) who's body is mostly sculpted and cast in silicone, the Mail Man's will be padded out using sponges and foams since most of his body is covered by his uniform. Once the armature is padded out his clothing will be made to fit and sewn together using real fabrics.

There will be two Mail Man puppets used for filming so I will be working on both armatures simultaneously to make sure the two puppets are padded identically. You can find out more about the construction of these armature on my brothers blog HERE.

Now for the hard part....or parts.
Harder sections are needed on a puppet in order to properly grip the puppet. These section don't need to be squashed in any way when the puppet is moved and are usually found around the chest and hip area.
To begin I created triangular shape out of balsa wood to bulk out my characters hips. I then cut the triangle in half and traced the metal armatures shape onto the inner sides. These shapes where then carved out using a rotary tool in order for the armature to slot inside.

Square holes where cut to allow access to the rigging points. The balsa wood was then glued onto the armature using a two part epoxy glue and sanded smooth. Balsa wood is ideal for these parts because it is strong, light wieght and easy to work with. In the past I have also used blue foam core to make these parts which is easier to cut than balsa, but can also crush slightly of squeezed too hard.

The chest secton was made using the same techniques as described above. It is important to remember that your puppet still needs to be able to come apart so don't glue the balsa to any removable arm, leg or neck parts and don't cover up any rigging points. Also, a large area needs to be left above and underneeth the arms to allow for shoulder movement.

Now for the soft parts.

Areas that need to squash or stretch with the movment of the puppet need to be made of softer materials. Below are a selection of materials I've used to pad out my puppet including a selection of sponge/ foam, sharp scissors and contact adhesive.

Below I've added thicker upholstery foam to the waist and shoulder areas. I tend to cut the foam roughly to the shape I need and then glue it to the armature using the contact adhesive. Once dry, I then trim the foam further, cuting until I'm happy with the shape.

Contact adhesive is ideal because it's fast drying and can flex with the foam once dry. Remember to let the contact ashesive dry fully on both pieces before pushing them together, and make sure everything is alligned because it sticks instantly.

To finish off the torso I added a thin foam jacket to help smooth out the upper body shape. This jacket was made from a single piece of foam cut from a template,which stretches around the body with the seam running along the back. The same template could be used for both puppets.

I decided not to use the thinner white foam for the arms and legs in order to keep them thinnner and give their shapes more definittion. e.g the sharp trouser seams.

The arms where made using the thicker foam. It is possible to bulk out arms by wrapping the thin white foam around the armatures again and again until you reach your desired thickness. However, for this character I wanted the arm to be cut into more of a cone shape. The set of hands pictured are from an older puppet and were useful for gauging the length of the sleeve.

I decided to make the legs out of one large piece of foam. This was to try and get the right look to the characters baggy trousers. The shape was roughed out and split along the back to allow the armature inside. It was then glued and trimmed.

Insteady of cutting out a shape to look like the characters legs, I trimmed the foam into the shape of his trousers with angular seams lines similar to my concept design. The idea is to make the fabric trousers so that they are a tight fit to the foam leg and mantain the sharp seam lines. The tight trousers should also minimise the amount of boiling on the legs. This is where things such as fabric move each time you touch a puppet inbetween frames, causing it to jiggle and 'boil' once the footage is played.

Here is a shot of one of the puppets fully padded. Both puppets are now ready to have the clothing tailored to fit. The Mail Mans neck will be moulded and cast in silicone next.

Puppet Head Sculpt- Mail Man Part II

2011-03-30T15:22:00.000-07:00

Today I'm going to continue going through the Puppet head sculpting process which I started HERE.

The Mail Mans head has been roughed out using Super Sculpey firm and all the removable face sections are working correctly. The next step was to clean up the sculpt to make it more presentable and aestheticly pleasing. I sculpted the head working from a large collection of referance images and maquettes I had close at hand displayed around my desk in order to capture the right details for the character.
Below is a picture of the sculpt with more detail added to the hair.

I roughly sculpted the character's mouth in a smile in order the get the correct positioning for the teeth. The upper set of teeth need to stay in a fixed postion while animating the characters lip sync. Only the bottom row of teeth would move when talking because of the way the jaw is hinged. Once I was happy with the positioning of the upper teeth, I removed the lips and carved out an area around the mouth. I then added datail to the upper row of teeth and eye areas. The sculpt ws then ready to bake to harden it.

Above is a picture of the final head sculpt. Areas of the face have been sanded to give the seams of the replacement parts a flush finish and to smooth the sculpt. I know the character has a goofy grin now, but later on I will be able to add lips and the lower set of teeth to resin cast copies of the mouth pieces in order to give the character different expressions and mouth shapes. The same process will be used to change the characters brow.

The sculpt is now ready to be moulded in silicone.
The first step was to plan how each peace of the sculpt will be moulded. Small cones of Sculpey were glue gunned onto each part to create pour spouts. These spouts are where the resin will later be poured when casting.

Next, The mould boxes were made using panels of foam board, glue gunned together.

For the moulds I used RTV silicone. Before pouring, I painted a layer of the silicone onto each part of the sculpt with a brush to make sure all the datails are captured and to reduce the amount of air bubbles.

I then filled the moulds with silicone using the 'bombs away' method where you pour the silicone from a height creating a thin stream. The fact that the stream is so thin causes any bubbles in the silicone to pop, reducing the amount of air bubbles in your mould. Air bubbles can be created when mixing the catalyst into the silicone rubber and can cause details to be lost. The best way to avaoid air bubbles is to put the silicone into a vacume chamber to de-gas. When pouring the silicone it is also important to pour the silicone into the corner of the mould box, not over the sculpt, and to let the silicone slowly flow up and around the sculpt.

Above is a picture of the three silicone moulds cured and out of the mould boxes. The sculpt has been cut out of the silicone using a scalple blade. I have cut around half of the mould in a zig zag pattern so that they snap shut and lock back together in the correct position. I chose this meathod of moulding opposed to a two part mould because it's quicker and creates less of a seam line.

The next stage is to start casting out copies of the head in resin.
I used Fast Cast resin because it cures quickly and is not too expensive. The resin is mixed in two equal parts. Below is a picture of my first casting. The pieces came out quite niclely. It actually looks like white chocolate!

As you have probably noticed, it looks like my character has been in a fight with those missing teeth. An air bubble must have been caught in the mould when casting. This problem was easily fixed by angling the mould differently while I poured the resin. The next set came out fine. And the next set, and the next set...

This is how many sets of faces I've cast so far. There will be two Mail Man puppets made for the film so only two Hair/ear parts where needed. The pour spouts were cut off using a rotary tool and the seam line were cleaned up. The moulds were cut in a way so that the seam lines are on the back of the masks and won't be seen.

The next stage will be to sculpt the different brow and mouth expressions for the replacement parts and to paint each head. But I think this post has gone on long enough so that'll have to wait until part III.
Until next time...

Puppet Head sculpt- Mail Man

2011-03-25T08:32:00.000-07:00

Recently, I have been working on the Mail Man's head. My brother Nathan and I have decided to make two full puppets for the Mail Man character so that we can both work on animating the character at the same time on two different sets. Both the puppets need to be exactly the same so I will me molding the character's head sculpt so that I can cast two sets of heads along with all the replaceable face pieces. Overall the head will consist of four parts, the hair/ears, the eyeball socket, the replaceable mouth and a replaceable forehead.

The head needs to be made from the inside out so to begin I had to make the eyeball socket. I wanted the socket to be made of silicone so that it grips the eyeballs firmly but also allows them to turn.

The aim was to create a silicone version of the grey plastiline shape shown above. The square brass tubing (K&S) will be where the socket locks in place, and the eyes are rough fast cast copies of the beads used in my Mail Man maquette.

This was then molded using plaster using a plastic cup. once the plaster had hardened the grey plastiline was removed along with the square brass tubing. The fast cast eyes stay in the plaster to create the eye socket shape.

After casting out an eye socket in silicone I realised that it's shape was too flat and wide to fit inside the characters head. I repeated the same process with a new plastiline socket shape that saved space and curved to the contours of the face. Below is a picture of this new socket along with a silicone cast version with the eyes in place.

The square brass tubing used to lock the socket in place is also used to slot the head onto the puppets neck armature. The character's neck will be cast in silicone and needed to slot into a hollow area in the head. To achieve this I roughed out the characters neck shape creating a solid tube shape where the neck will slot into the head. I then pushed Milliput (two part epoxy hardening clay) over this tube shape and the square brass tubing and left it to harden. I then removed the plastiline neck leaving a solid, hollow Milliput shape that the neck can slot into using the square brass tubing.

Above is a shot of of the silicone eye socket and Milliput head core next to my Plasticine maquette. It is important the the proportions of the inner head core match those of the original maquette, especially around the eyes and neck areas.

The next step was to start bulking out the head shape that supports the silicone eye socket. It's a socket for a socket!

This was sculpted using Super Sculpey firm. At this stage I baked the sculpt to harden it. I then applied a small amount of vasiline over the front surface of the face and pushed a thin layer a Milliput onto the face and around the eyes. The vasiline stops the Milliput from sticking to the sculpt so that it can be removed once hardend creating a mask. This mask was divided across the eyes creating a forehead and mouth section.

Now the four head sections have been created, but as you can see from the picture above, they need alot of work. The rest of the facial features now need to be added using super sculpey to rough out the basic shapes.

Above is a picture of the mail mans head with most of the features roughed out. The sculpt still needs a lot of work and details need to be added but all four major head components have been made. I think thats about enough for this post, but I'll continue the head sculpting process in part two.

Tune in next time for another exciting edition!

Sculpting Puppet Feet

2011-03-22T18:11:00.000-07:00

Now that pre-production is complete it time to move on to production and start building the characters.
We've decided to make the puppets first since they require the most work and detail. Sets and props will be tackled later.
First up on my long list of model making is to sculpt the Mail Man's feet. I'll be sculpting the feet over the puppets metal foot armature so that once the final foot is cast in rubber I'll know that the armature will fit inside. You can see how these feet armatures were made on Nathan's blog by clicking Here.

To sculpt the shoe I'll be using plastiline so that once finished, hard resin molds can be taken from the sculpt. Once molded, the plastiline is then removed from the metal feet armatures so they can be used again when casting the puppets final silicone feet. In the picture below the basic forms of the feet are being roughed out in grey plastiline.

The grey plastiline is good for sculpting with because it can become soft when warmed by kneading with the fingers but also holds details well once it cools and hardens. Below are a few images of the final feet sculpts.

Although the Mail Mans baggy trousers cover a lot of his shoes I decided to sculpt socks just in case his heels are exposed during one of his running scenes. Holes were also included so that real shoe laces can be punched into the silicone later on. The feet are now ready to be molded.

Mail Man Expression Sheet

2011-02-14T15:15:00.000-08:00

Here is a Final Expression sheet for the Mail man character 'Roy'. The expressions were chosen to represent the Mail man's emotions throughout different parts of the film.

When constructing the final puppet the plan is to use replaceable sections of the face to change the characters expression. The face will be divided across the eyes into two sections, the upper brow and the lower mouth, nose and chin. The interchangeable brow and mouth parts will be sculpted in different expressions. For example, for the brow I will need angry, shocked and neutral sculpted brow replacements. And for the mouths I will need open, shocked , whistling, smiling, worried etc to make up a whole range of expressions for the character.

Dressing Room Design

2011-02-14T14:55:00.000-08:00

Here is an update on the Actress's dressing room design from Nathan. This design is to help us get an idea of the colour scheme for the room, sticking with the idea that the room should feel bright and heavenly. It also helps to rough out the positions of important items in the room such as the mirror, radio, pile of gifts and red stage calling light. Now that the storyboards are finished it has become apparent that some items need moving around, but overall we're happy with this design.

Background Designs- Stage Door/ Alleyway

2011-02-08T15:20:00.000-08:00

After we were happy with the Alleyway and dressing room colour tests we decided to continue working on the background designs, adding more details to better illustrate how the sets will look on camera. Together we decided that I will design the Stage door/ Alleyway and Nathan will work on the Actress's dressing room.
I started off with a rough pencil drawing, blocking out building shapes and laying out where I wanted certain objects to be, the main focus being the stage door and mail shoot. I then started digitally painting the sky using my Hollywood reference pictures as a guide. It's just before 7pm in the film so the sun is setting in the distance.

Next, I started blocking in colours for the buildings, trying to avoid too many boring grey or brown colours. I wanted the alleyway to be dark, with the stage door light illuminated, but not so dark that it's hard to make out what your looking at.

Once I was happy with the colours of the image I began adding more textures and building details such as brickwork. I did this by creating a small section of a brick pattern which I then warped to match the perspective of the walls. This pattern was then repeated until a whole section of wall was covered.

To finish the design I added more detail to the mail truck, garbage bags and stage door. I also tried to suggest how lighting might be used in the set to create atmosphere.

Here are some images of the alleyway design with my final Mail man design in situ.

When we eventually build this set we plan to only build the front portion of the alleyway to include the stage door, mail shoot and garbage bags. The rest will be added digitally using green screen techniques to extend the set, creating the long alleyway and sunset sky.

Background designs- colour tests

2011-02-07T15:11:00.000-08:00

Now that the designs for the characters are more or less finished, I've decided to start working on the locations and background art. Since this is a stop motion film, all the backgrounds will at some point have to be built as 3D sets, so it's important that I take into consideration how the final set will be constructed from the 2D designs. The staging is very important and I must be careful not to design anything that will be too difficult to build, or go too crazy with the number of locations. However, I don't won't to restrict the design too much or the film will suffer. There are shots and locations in the film that would be extremely difficult to build as a full set (unless I was working with a large budget...which I'm not.) So instead I'll be using green screen techniques to extend certain sets, making the world in my animation seem that little bit bigger.

Here some story board panels featuring two set locations we've been working on.

The first panel features the Alleyway around the back of the theatre. This is the first location in the film and where we first meet the mail man delivering the package through the mail shoot next to the stage door.

This panel features the actress 'Elle's' dressing room, where the package finally ends up and where the films dramatic conclusion takes place.
I decided to make some rough tests of the two locations to get an idea of the lighting/colour schemes to suggest how the sets might appear on screen.

For the actress's dressing room on the left, I wanted to use bright, calming colours, matching the actress's design to suggest a heavenly feel. The idea is that once the mail man finally reaches the dressing room to retrieve the package, there is a great sense of relief and peace,he is given a glimpse of heaven before he is thrown out.

The stage door/alley way was designed to contrast the glamorous theatre front and interior. The film takes place just before 7pm so the sun would be setting. The alleyway is dark and filled with trash cans and garbage bags partially lit by the single light over the stage door.

Here are the rough background colour designs with the final character designs. The backgrounds are too abstract to represent a proper in situ shot, instead these images are just to get an idea of how the colours work with the characters.

Character line up

2011-02-06T14:47:00.000-08:00

Nathan has been working on the Little Old lady character and produced a design which we're both very happy with. The Old lady won't feature in the film very much but we thought we'd create a maquette of the character anyway since her design is so different from the other characters and we though she'd be fun to make. After coming up with a number of different designs, Nathan finally produced something we were both happy with, perfectly capturing how we imagined the character to be. Below are a few turn around images of Nathan's sculpt.

The Little old lady is a lot smaller than the other characters and has been sculpted as though she is looking up at the mail man, squinting through her large framed glasses with a sweet smile on her face. when her puppet is made, It won't have to be as advanced as that of the other characters since she is only really required to stand there, staring at the mail man. The gag is that she beats him to the upper floor using the elevator, as far as animation she'll only need to do a little wave and maybe have a sleight shake as she stands.
Here are her final designs, digitally coloured by Nathan.

We've given the old lady some bright, pastel coloured 1950's style clothing. Her clothes really make her stand out, The idea was than she doesn't really understand the current (1950's) fashion trends, but she's out enjoying a night at the theatre and she's dressed to impress. Here are the the final digitally coloured designs for the theatre usher.

I've decided to add a rolled up tissue to his broken nose. The idea is that while breathing angrily, every time he exhales his nose now makes a whistling noise. This noise can now be used as a sign that the character is approaching, almost in the same way the Jaws theme means a shark is coming. This should be effective near the end of the film when the Usher creeps up behind the Mail man. Finally, here is a character line up image featuring all the sculpted designs side by side and in scale.

Design Development- Theatre Usher

2011-02-05T14:41:00.000-08:00

Along with our main characters, 'Roy' the Mail Man and 'Elle' the actress, our film will also include a number of secondary characters. One of these characters is a large, tough looking Theatre Usher taking tickets at the door. He will become one of the obstacles stopping the Mail Man from reaching Elle's dressing room to retrieve the package. Below are a few inital designs for the character along with an early sculpt of the characters head.

The idea is to make this character much bigger than the mail man with a strong blocky figure.Since he's the main obsticle, his rectangular body would litterally take up a doorway. One of the gags in the film is thatthe mail man, in his rush for the package, hits the usher in the face with a door. The usher's cigar a crushed into his face and his nose is flatterned. Most of these designs feature the usher with his flattered nose since thats the way it stays throughout most of the film.

The sculpt of the usher in the image above is only aproximatly 2 inches high. His full body maquette wasn't built to scale with the other characters because he would have been too large and taken up too much time. Instead I chose to only sculpt the characters head to the correct scale and then digitally add it to the smaller 2 inch sculpt in order to develope a digital final design. Below is a turn around image for the usher, featureing the full scale head andded to the 2 inch sculpt.

From these images I will digitally paint the sculpt in a similar way to the other maquettes, only this time I will re-scale the sculpt to it's intended size for the character line up.

Other characters in the film include a little old lady, a small boy with a paddle ball toy and a bar tender with a cocktail shaker.

Final Designs- Mail Man & Actress Maquettes

2011-02-04T15:40:00.000-08:00

Here are the final designs for the Mail Man and Actress characters. The images below have been created by digitally painting the sculpts. First up. the final design produced from my Mail man maquette.

And here's a mid shot to show the face a bit clearer.

After making a few colour tests we decided to give him a Navy blue uniform with a few hints of red and brass/gold details, sticking close to what our 1950's Mail man reference provided.
Here is the Final design I coloured produced from Nathan's Actress sculpt.

These images have allow us to add more details to the sculpts such as the mail mans uniform buttons and the actress's diamond earrings. Using different texture tools we can also suggest the types of material that would work best for the puppets. Finally, here is a shot of the two characters together.

Actress Designs- The progression of 'Elle'

2011-02-03T15:36:00.000-08:00

Here are a few initial design sketches I produced for the Actress character 'Elle'

We decided upon the name 'Elle' because it's short, simple and easy to remember. This a handy since the audience needs to quickly read the name from the tag on the package and then recognise it on the large theatre billboard later on. It's also a somewhat unique name and I like the idea of this character being so famous that she doesn't even need a second name, she is simply know to the world as Elle. oh... and it's also French for 'she'!

Here are some colour tests I produced for the character. The idea is to keep the colour scheme for her and her dressing room very light with bright colours giving her an almost angelic and heavenly feel. Nathan has been in charge of producing the designs and sculpt for this character. Here are a few pics of his finished sculpt.

From the photographs of this sculpt I'm going to produce a digitally coloured test for the actress to go with the tests for my Mail man sculpt.

Initial Story Boards

2011-02-03T15:10:00.000-08:00

Together my brother and I have been putting together a rough story board for our film currently titled 'Opening Night'.
Here are some sample panels from our initial story boards.

Together we pitched our idea to our tutors and other people on our course in a 'sweatbox' session.
Thankfully the overall response was positive, However it has become clear the ending needs more work in order to give the audience a more satisfying conclusion between the Mail man and Actress characters. A title scene and a few opening shots also need to be added. From here we will produce a rough animatic by loading the panels into premiere to edit a rough version of our film with timings and temp sound effects.

Finished Maquette - Mail Man

2011-02-02T15:46:00.000-08:00

Here are a some turn around images of the finished Mail Man maquette.

There are a few details missing from the sculpt but over all I'm pleased with the with the way it has turned out. Using these images I can now start working on colouring the character digitally to see what works best.
Nathan has also been finished working on a maquette of the Actress character. Here is a shot of the two sculpts side by side for a scale comparison.

Character Design- Mail Man

2011-02-01T15:41:00.000-08:00

Between my brother and I, we have decided that I will concentrate on designing the Mail man, and Nathan will design the actress. We plan to produce sketched designs, colour tests and fully sculpted Maquettes.
Throughout the stages of designing the characters we'll consult with each other to make sure we're both happy with the designs and that they're the best we can make them. They also need to work well with each other with a consistent style so that they look like they belong in the same universe.

Here are a few rough design sketches for the Mail Man. Many of these sketches are trying to capture the look of horror on his face after he realises be may have just delivered a bomb.

The designs on this next page are closer to the characters final design. He will will be dressed in a blue mail uniform and have a leather satchel and hat. I thought a slender figure would work well with this character since he will be frantically moving about in the film trying to recover the bomb. The long limbs will help to exaggerate his movements.

The sculpted portrait above was sculpted to see how the designs works in 3D. The sculpt is larger than what the final puppet's head will turn out to be. I have also started working on a full body maquette of the character which will be sculpted to the correct scale of the final puppet. I find maquettes very useful when designing characters, especially for stop motion, since the characters have to work in the 3rd dimension. They're also very useful to help judge the scale and volume of the final puppets and sets.
Here are the beginnings of the sculpt. aprox 11 inches tall, plasticine.

and finally, a shot of the Mail Man sculpt next to Nathan's Actress sculpt. Work in progress.

2011-01-31T14:37:00.000-08:00

Here are some reference sheets for some of the settings found in the film.
The first features a collection of images for Hollywood theatres and streets, some actually from the 1950's.

This will be useful when designing exterior theatre shots. I really like the idea of having spotlights in the streets since the theatre in my film will be hosting an opening night performance of a new show. I want to try capture the glitz and the glamour of such an event. I also like the sun set sky in the first picture, this will be useful since my film takes place just before 700pm.

This next sheet is for alleyway/stage door reference.

The film will start with the mail man posting the package at the theatre stage door. The alley way will seem grotty in comparison to the theatre front and main street. Next to the stage door there will need to be a parcel shoot, I also like the idea of having a single light above the door itself. Using this reference I should be able to start working on designs for these locations.