Autumn already?

Good day to you!

How has it gotten to Autumn already?!?!?!? This year is going so ridiculously fast. Slow down will ya!!


A few bits and pieces to show in this update.

I did a fairly quick sculpt of a chap that I've been wanting to design for a while. I was going to draw him up but instead I decided to sculpt him. I think it probably took a tiny bit longer than drawing it  but not by that much and I think I will start doing more of these concept sculpts instead of drawing them.Although knowing me I'll probably end up doing both :)
I'm quite happy with how he turned out but I think next time I'd definitely push his expression a lot more.

 I'm just calling him "Cigar Guy" for the moment

Digital paint job

Turn around video

VIMEO link

SHAPE BEASTIES
I've been going over notes from the character design course I did last year. I'm revisiting some of the exercises and the first is shape and shape language. I did these wee beasties

Starting point

Finished beasties

I did these other monsters but forgot to take a screenshot of the shapes.

It's a very fun and rewarding exercise and highly advise people to have a go. Just draw some shapes and have some fun!!

PRINTS!!!!

I got quite a lovely response to these from everyone and I had a few requests for prints.
So I looked into it and set up a store over on Society 6 where you can now buy a few of these and many more.

Today (22nd September, midnight pacific time) is the last day that you can get free shipping
Using this link http://society6.com/stopmotionben/prints?promo=ca2e16

I think they do this promotion every now and then so I'll be sure to post on here it happens again :)

 

So that's it for the moment. I have to get back to work!! I hope everyone is well and being awesome!!!

Oh and here's a bonus doodle, a little test I did with some of the default brushes available in Photoshop cs6. They have some very nice textures to them.

Time Flys

I really cant believe it has been over a month since my last post! Time really does fly way too quick.

So in my last post I mentioned that I would be starting a new armature and also playing with plasticine. On with the show!

Now Plasticine is lovely stuff! I'm still getting used to it as I normally sculpt with harder materials so having something that squishes easily can be a bit frustrating at first but when you get used to how much pressure you need to apply it  soon becomes a nice and quick way of doing sculptures/ puppet heads.

I had seen that Aardman use an under skull to bulk out the plasticine and too also make it easier when digging the current mouth out to add a new one. I made a few out of some K&S and polymorph. One thing I did find it that you must have some room for the eyes so when the plasticine is layer on the skull you can make large enough holes for the eyes to sit firmly and not be sticking out the head too much.
I had to go through a few to find this out

And here is my first quick sculpt with plasticine 

Then my second with a version on the end of how I would like it to finally look 

I did do a quick sculpt that I could try out some replacement mouths with. He ended up looking a bit too much like Wallace and i probably wont use him for anything . I have still yet to find the time to test it out but hopefully will be able to by the end of next week.

Then this is pretty much the last sculpt I did. I'm finding it quite hard to smooth the plasticine out in small corners e.g the corners of the nose and under the eyebrows. I still need to play with a bit more to figure that one out.

I have also finished building a new armature. After my last big bugger of a puppet I decided to keep the size of it to about 8-9" and it really is considerably smaller then the last puppet. I have gone to great lengths to make sure it is sturdy as I can get it. I think I am going to do some animation tests before I pad it out and finish it off. Just to make sure everything is fine. One big mistake I did make was completely forgetting about a rig point. I'm not too worried about that at the moment but if i do need to rig it I will just have to do the old wrap wire around the puppet and hope for the best!. Also this time I have tapped some threaded holes in to the feet for tie downs and also used the same steel as before so that if I want to try out magnets again I can. The only thing I need to do is add some K & S to the neck so I can slot in a head

As this puppet is going to have plasticine hands I don't need to have wire fingers as I have heard it is easier to re sculpt the hands then have wire popping though all the time. A washer is used as the base for the hand. I still need to wrap it up in some cloth tape so the plasticine wont come of the armature.

And here is the finished armature!

The next step is to do some quick tests with it before I move on. I should hopefully do this over the next few days.