In my last post I had got as far as this next image - making the mould for this characters head.

 

I'm making this mould in two halves, with the joint on the heads centre line

 

I then filled up the second half of the mould with plaster and left it overnight to set.

 

I hadn't applied any release agent to the container (the bottom section of a plastic bottle), so I had to cut it off - luckily it wasn't too expensive.

 

I then put a couple of marks on the side to align the halves when I'm making the cast.

 

This is the mould after taking off the top half.

 

The surface inside isn't great as there are lots of pin-holes in the plaster.

 

I didn't bother closing off the back of the head as it will be covered with hair.

 

I removed the plasticine from the armature as it will be replaced with the silicone.

 

Although the jaw wire armature was set into the wood block, and so operated as a hinge, I thought it was too loose, so I glued the ends to stop it moving (at the wrong time).

 

It's a bit of a tight fit in the mould

 

I packed the inside of the mouth and the jaw sides with tissue so they wouldn't be blocked with silicone.

 

After mixing the silicone with 'flesh' coloured acrylic paint, I filled each side of the mould (about 3-3mm thick), and placed the armature in between them. The mould was then strapped tight with a bungee chord and left overnight. I have mentioned before that the silicone sets faster when acrylic paint is added but I leave my casts overnight just to be on the safe side.

 

With the top half of the mould removed the head looks o.k.

 

There is a good bit of overspill to be trimmed off but I'm hoping that won't be a problem.

 

There are a few flaws on the right hand side of the face. There is a hole at the bottom right side of the lips - caused by the jaw armature touching the mould. There are also a few dark patches where the silicone is very thin - again due to almost touching the mould.

 

I made the mistake of not applying release agent to the eyes and teeth. My plan was that I would cut a hole along the line of the lips and make the mouth open and close by manipulating the jaw armature. So this would have been easier if I had greased the teeth, to stop the silicone from sticking to them. Also when I cut away the thin film of silicone that covered the eyes, the reflective coating on the beads (fake pearls) crumbled off. That's not a big problem though as they can be removed easily enough.

 

After I cut along the lips join and made an opening I discovered that it was difficult to open and close the mouth. While the jaw armature worked it took a lot of pressure to manipulate it. The head has to be held very firmly and it would be too difficult to keep in place during shooting.

 

I've decided to attempt the first face again, but this time I will make the eyes more secure before I add the silicone. I had an idea to drill a small hole in the mould and tie a bead in the eye position.

 

With the bead secure I should be able to fill around it without it moving.

 

 

Before I filled this mould I extended the jaw as I will create a cavity where the mouth is. This is so I can experiment with replacement mouths instead of a regular mouth with jaw armature. luckily the silicone is very flexible so it should accommodate different mouth openings.

 

 

I'm also working on a horse as there will be a column of knights/soldiers entering the castle in one shot. I am making a set of hooves first - one at a time. I think that if I try to make four at the same time they will all be different.

 

 

I made two mould out of plasticine from the hoof shape that I had made from polystyrene foam These were filled with clear silicone after I'd fitted a bead inside - to allow manipulation/ rotation. And I added an M6 nut (as a tie-down) to the bottom.

 

 

 

Even though the silicone wasn't that deep and the casts were left overnight, they hadn't set inside and fell apart when I removed them.

 

 So it was back to the drawing board. This time I am making the mould with plaster and I will build up the silicone in layers. I will also add paint so that ti should set faster.

 

 

The head that was fitted to the wood armature peeled off easily enough and so I was able to repair the hole by the lips.

 

This is a head I had made earlier fro polystyrene foam. I decided to try and cover it with liquid latex - which I'm hoping will stretch at the jaw for speech. It didn't have a nose so I made one with plasticine as it will be hidden by the final coloured layer.

 

A few of the heads that I've made so far. It's a pity I'm not doing a horror film.

 

The small head has had about five layers so far and it looks like it'll need at least five more. I think I will be able to build up the features with latex as I progress.

 

 

I made a quick armature for the horse to do a walk cycle test. It's very complicated to work out a quadrupeds walk cycle so I reckon this will take several attempts. As the horse will be walking slowly I might have to double the number of poses, so I have to make a fairly good model that will keep it's position properly. This armature was made from aluminium wire and plastic rawl plugs, cut to the bone lengths, and wooden beads to help rotation at the joints. The leg joints should really be hinge joints - so the limb rotates in a straight line - but making one that small is proving to be difficult. As my horses will be walking face-on I might get to cheat a bit (I need to film lots of soldiers and horses but I'm hoping to get away with making one and duplicating it). Well that's all for now - I'm off to design my FYP exhibition space.

 

I started working on my characters heads, at least the main ones. I am going for a Claymation style, but having had so many problems the last time I intend to use a more stable material. I will model the exposed skin areas in plasticine and then make plaster moulds so that I can then cast the models. My first attempt is with industrial clear silicon.

 



 

The first two images are showing the build up process.

 

 

The characters didn't exactly turn out like the drawings, that was proving hard to do but as I'm still experimenting I'll carry on with these.



 

 

The first step was to remove the lips, as I will add them after with latex, or maybe I'll use replacement mouths for the dialogue. I then mixed some plaster and after coating the face with a release agent (vasaline) I placed it into the plaster.

 

I'm only making the face part of the heads for now.

 

Next I covered the mould with release agent. You might notice that the tip of the nose seems very pointed - I'm not sure how that happened but I'm sure it can be trimmed off later.

 

The next step was to mix some acrylic 'flesh tint' paint with the silicone. I also added some white as I don't want it to be too pink.

 

 

The mixture turned out to be very sticky, it kept coming out of the mould as I was trying to put it in. I also had to guess the eye positions as I hadn't made any reference marks. As you can see I also added a piece of plasticime where the mouth is as I want a cavity there.

 

The silicone is supposed to set faster when mixed with paint but I had no idea how long that would be. Thick layers of silicone can take ages as it is air cured, so I dried it for a while with a hair dryer.

 

I was surprised at how easily the cast came out of the mould. I was only estimating that it had set and I was sure the nose would break off.

 

Now I know this looks fairly rough but it was a first attempt and it proved that this method con work - and it was cheap enough to do.

 

 

The shadow below the eye is actually a cavity just below the surface. When I guessed the eye ball position I had the mould upside down in my hand so they ended up about 7mm down from the correct place.

 

There are also a few unfilled spots, probably from the sticky mixture moving around so much.

 

This image gives an indication of the scale I'm working to.

 

All in all for a first attempt I'm happy enough with the result. before I try again I will make armature's with movable jaws and make moulds of the full head - with the centre line separating the two halves (of the mould). That way the armature should force the silicone into any gaps and give a smoother finish. I still haven't figured out how I'll move the mouths for the dialogue, or make eyelids that will work. Anyway once I get one made properly the technique will work on the rest.