FUBAR

>>trials of plaster, resin, polyurethane

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 04:25:01 GMT

I started this project with a test mold of a frog figure.

I tried a couple of different frogs, using polyurethane. I dyed one to see the effect it would have on the polyurethane, if any. I find no noticeable difference - others claim the textures is slightly different.

I then proceeded forward with my project. I first made the master copy of the fetus from sculpty.

I made a polyurethane casting of this, to create the mold I would be using.

I tried a couple of different materials. Resin, my first try, changed colors after curing. I'd dyed it skintone. It also wouldn't even hold a primer paint.
I then tried polyurethane. The problem with this was the gas released during curing. I eventually had to create a new hole to pour in from the top, instead of the side, to avoid large air bubbles.

The ones that turned out, were then encased in clear resin. I used a poster tube coated with an alcohol release to created the shape.

After using a belt sander and 6 grades of sandpaper, the pieces were finally clear.

Unfortunately, both time and money ran out. I plan to finish working on these pieces. A friend and I are going to use one of the polyurethane fetuses in a different way. We plan to create a mask, and suspend it in actual liquid.

This is the plasticine fetus I created. I made an armature using sculpty that proved to be quite successful and easy to work with. Plasticine however, is not an easy medium to work with for stop motion.

>> More sketches

Wed, 14 Dec 2005 01:35:24 GMT

More stuff related to this project.

>>Sketches

Wed, 14 Dec 2005 00:59:06 GMT

Sketches of Geist. By the end of this school year I hope to have a latex model with a metal armature made of this character. There's a character rotation of him in the first entry of this journal.

>>Animation Prototypes

Wed, 14 Dec 2005 00:45:24 GMT

Sorry to those who are finding their friends view filled with posts from this journal. I'm keeping this journal not only as a record for myself, but also my instructor Martin. You can filter this journal out of your friends list view if it's a problem.

Anyway...

These are two prototypes and one test. The first time around I tried to use the dinosaur puppet I made from wire and sculpty. Unfortunately, after reinforcing the wires the way I did, the puppet was extremely hard to bend. Even if they were easier, I probably would have wound up running into the same problem I had with the turtle – that the puppet would lose its shape.

In this case, it I used one of the wooden drawing maquettes I have to interact with the raptor. After shooting these, I realized that mobility of the maquette made animating a hell of a lot easier. So...to hell with wire. I’m sick of poking my hands anyway.

http://www.eciad.ca/~jpopein/movies/raptortest.mov
http://www.eciad.ca/~jpopein/movies/raptor.mov

Martin OK’d the use of toys, maquettes, and other pre-manufactured items for animating. I must have misunderstood, and thought we had to make whatever we used on our own. Since I found the joints on the maquette to be much easier to work with, I decided to grab some articulated toys to try again. An excuse to go to Toys R Us is not to be passed up.

In the end, I wound up using a Bionicle and a saber toothed cat, both made by Lego.

These were easier to work with, but presented their own problems. Because they are so light weight, they slide around easily. Tape is unsightly, and double sided tape doesn’t last long.

http://www.eciad.ca/~jpopein/movies/robots03.mov

These won’t work in the long run either. Rodrigo suggested I look into a product called Stikfas.
They look perfect, though perhaps too light weight. I imagine it would be easy to build on them though. I’ll be making an order after Christmas.
http://www.stikfas.com/

So, back to the drawing board with making a prototype...again.

>>Worst turtle since...ever.

Wed, 14 Dec 2005 00:43:03 GMT

Simple wire frames…another dismal failure. First I tried a simple human frame, but decided I’d rather try doing the turtle that shows up in my Leica. Unfortunately, since I had no idea what I was doing, it wasn’t animateable at all. Unless you consider a twitching ball of barely turtle shaped wire a success.

>>Falling on my face again...

Wed, 14 Dec 2005 00:42:20 GMT

And another failure. Due to my apparent inability to read, I was unaware that the super sculpty couldn’t be more than 12mm thick if you want to bake it. My model is rather large, and over an inch thick in many spots.
I thought I would attempt to hollow out the pieces I’d made, and bulk it up with aluminum foil. This isn’t working all that well, and I’m going to have to start from scratch, and hopefully have another model made by the end of the winter break. Instead of a simple wire frame, I’ll have to make a simple, but bulky, base made with wire and aluminum foil and add a small layer of sculpty to that.

>>Leica

Wed, 14 Dec 2005 00:40:29 GMT

Ultimately, this is what I would like to animate.
This is my storyboard, or I suppose more accurately, a leica reel of sorts.

Before I can work on this, I need to work on both my latex puppets, and some to practice animating with. Hopefully I can start work on this particular piece next semester.

Warning - this file is about 14MB.

http://www.eciad.ca/~jpopein/movies/finalsmall.mov

>> Model

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 07:36:36 GMT

I've got the proportions down for the most part. But I need to fix some things before I can bake and paint this one.

>> and here we go

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 08:30:53 GMT

A crappy rotation!

Enjoy, all.