BuB- Puppets

 A touch of aesthetic; as of right now I consider these puppets too be complete. Since shooting is still weeks off there may be extra things added before animation starts. Apart from that, I'm still quite pleased with how the group turned out.

Mac the head Bigfoot hunter.

Ern, Mac's sidekick.

ANDDDD.... BIGFOOT!!!

Ensemble cast with some early facial tests.

Film Updates: Bringing Up Bigfoot

Getting full into pre-production with my film now and that means puppets; and puppet updates for my blog and adventure. All of my puppets are still in their armature stages and my sets and props are soon to come underway. There are three main characters in my film; Mac the Bigfoot hunter, Ern, Mac's sidekick and Bigfoot the Bigfoot.

Each of my armatures were constructed using the same technique. Their core blocks are made from hard woods with a nut and bolt system drilled in to hold their various wire limbs in place. Their heads are left as sculpey as their faces are going to be composited on post animation. And for any of our portlier characters they have been shored up with upholstery foam.

First up is Ern.

Mac

Bigfoot

The gang's all here for a scaled lineup.

This is an early test of the facial composite; I'm very excited about the look that I'm getting with my characters and I think I'll stick with the design I've created. (Ern's mustache won't be a composite, btw, but he looked weird without it so I've put it in as a place holder.)

That's it for now, more updates to come with the next major production mark I reach.

Cheers

Prepping for 4th Year

Oh, my poor neglected blog; I suppose updates would be in order. I spent my summer interning at Cuppa Coffee Studios, a large stop motion house located in Toronto, Canada. It was a great experience that left me largely drained at the end of the day, but it was the good kind of tired. Now, I'll be heading into my fourth year in Sheridan College's animation program where I am obligated to make my thesis film. Additionally I had to petition this idea to the school in order to win one of the stop motion studio spaces, my choice medium; but if my own petition fails I will concede to Flash if it comes to that, and I won't argue to the fact.

My film idea is to make a Bigfoot mockumentary with an emphasis on being fairly ridiculous and hopefully a load of fun, not just for myself but for those who could potentially be watching. The film will primarily focus around the interview setup in which my main character Mac will lead us through the trials and challenges faced in their hunt for the legendary Bigfoot.

My two Bigfoot hunters Mac (Right) and Ern (Left)

Just some of the story beats and ideas from my film; as it is fairly early I could still change my mind, but  at the moment I am fairly satisfied with the product I am currently making. Although, once fourth year starts up I'll receive a teacher as a mentor and opinions from my peers so you never know what can happen.

Time for some Walkin'

Swambert decides to go for a little walk.

Swambert Strikes Back!!!

...for another animation test.

Cowboy Life

I've never really considered myself much of a life drawer; but I'm really enjoying the costumed models and that fact that we are now encouraged to use things other than conte sticks. I hope that drawing the cowboy wasn't a fluke and I can continue my drawings in this fashion. I've got a series of long poses and than a pair of gestures at the end.

Third Times the Charm...

Still don't quite know all the ins and outs of blogger and uploading videos but I've found my mistake and the third video upload will probably upload as I want it too.

What did I write again... anyway; you learn a lot about puppet making from these animation tests: what works and what doesn't... so let's just say that she has a few balance issues.

Swambert moves!!!

What's this, a talking picture? I had a fun little idea for Swambert's first puppet test but when I was watching it in silence, noise was needed and noise was added, then music, enjoy.

New Puppet Approaches...

RAWRR!!! It's Swambert the Swamp monster

I've been experimenting with a few new things this time; in the skeleton I've used a set of beads for the eyes, they're quite nice the little holes are great for moving the eyes around and they don't get dirty like my little sculpey eyes. His head is sculpted sculpey; his waist and feet are epoxy and the limbs and spine are aluminum wire.

I've used a new type of wire for fingers this time; its high grade soldering wire and its turned out to be very flexible and durable when it was demonstrated for me. The fingers are secured with the epoxy and his body is shored up with cotton batting. 

Tried two new things here; the first is obvious, hair, it's just grey fun fur I bought and spray painted green for my old Action Analysis set, when it was the closest one I could find to green. The second is that I've made him a set of paper mouths so I'll be experimenting with those.

"IMMA SMASH YOU!!!"

James T. Pork

Well this is really nerdy; but oh well.... it's James Tiberius Pork.

Tinny moves!

Just starting my animation tests with my new puppet; its hard to get the time or the space but I've worked it out with my teacher that there'll be an extra stop motion session for anyone interested and he's been nice enough to allow us use of all the equipment. So, Ive started simple just to shake off a few cobwebs from the break.

Island Life Drawing

These are just some of the life sketches I did while I was down in the caribbean for vacation during my Christmas break. So, I've picked out my favorite drawings from the pack and compiled them into neat little pages.

Tinny Painting

This was just to design a space to fit with a character, once again Tinny, but it was an exercise in deciding what kind of a room she should live in. It was also a chance for some more photoshop painting.

Tinny Puppet

When I was deciding what kind of puppet to make next I figured why not make the character I've been helping to design over the past term... Tinny

Tinny's blueprint: figuring out her dimensions and shape.

Tinny's skeleton: Baked Sculpy head, with an epoxy and wire body.

Tinny's "Musculature": Un-baked sculpy hair to keep it springy, cotton batting to bulk her up and she's wrapped up in medical tape to keep her all together; also I used it on her hands to help adhere her latex skin.

Tinny: Yeah!!! Tinny is all finished up and ready for some animation tests. Applied her latex skin over her bandaged hands, painted up her epoxy feet, and made her some fancy duds: experimenting with a paper mouth right now, but she's all finished up.