Tuesday 13 May 2014

LET'S MAKE A TORTOISE PART 4 - THE HEAD!


 Today I'm blogging about how I created my Tortoise's head! Here's a picture of him with a bike helmet on.


Firstly, to get an idea of what I wanted to do, I created a test sculpt whilst I was in the pre production stages of my idea. Here is a very basic sculpt in Sculpey. Once I did this, I went about sculpting the final.
I created a balsa wood core (to help with the weight) and then firstly started with the eyes.


To create the eyes, I sculpted the two shapes I wanted in Sculpey, baked it in the oven, sanded it and the suspended it on the top of a plastic syringe. I then encased that in silicone and I then had a mould! WOO

I poured plastic resin in said mould, and it came out like these above!


I then sprayed a lacquer on top of the eyes to make them shiny! The eyes were put under a heat lamp to set.


SO HOT.


This is how they came out!


I also did the same with the teeth. I sculpted, baked, sanded, suspended, made a silicone mould and then poured in plastic resin. 
Here's the final outcome in the Tortoises' head. 


I also created a little mouth to stick on the side of the face, this was made by creating a plaster mould of some rounded K&S .  Here it is below...


 Looks a bit worn out! But basically, I placed an armature inside, with some silicone and they came out like you see below!


I then sculpted the final head with a mixture of different colours of Sculpey, Premo and Fimo.
Everything but the brow has been baked in the oven. 
So the brow is unbaked sculpey feathered onto the top of the baked sculpt. (This is done so I can animate expressions!)

Here's the final look! This is taken from one of the close ups in my student film.


HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS POST!
Here's today's picture of Buster…

I call it: 'Did you sey bisckits?'

Monday 5 May 2014

LET'S MAKE A TORTOISE PART 3 - THE SHELL!


HELLO!
Today I will be talking about making the shell of my tortoise!
So to start off, I created a very basic balsa wood structure for the front and back. 
I wanted the front to be detachable from the back, so the above design was actually held together by magnets.


I then sanded down the shape into something more shell-like, however I had to replace the magnets with K&S as there was no space for magnets once the shell was sanded down. :(


I then applied some milliput on the wood, allowed it to set and then did some further sanding with my dremel!




You may notice that there is a little lego gear inside this part of the shell, This actually moves up and down on a corresponding ladder piece that is attached to the hip inside. This was done so I am able to animate the shell bouncing up and down when he's walking (or doing anything for that matter!)

Here's the corresponding ladder 


I then sculpted with super sculpey firm on top of the miliput and balsa core. and came out with this!



Here is the FINAL front of the shell.
 To get this colour, I first sprayed it with a grey primer and then a browny-cream spray paint. NICE!



I also did the same process with the back of the shell. LOOKS LIKE CHOCOLATE!
mmmm.

Now you may think, 'SEAN, there's no rigging points to hold the character up when he's floating in the air!?!' Well, guess what!
There's a secret compartment!

I also created a little replaceable shell section that is magnetically attached so I can replace it with another exact replica, but with a hole in it!



TADAH! 
A rig will then go into this hole (with K&S inside) and the character will be able to float and jump to his heart's content!


 To finish, here are some images of how the two pieces go together!
The hip block is also attached to the shell with a piece of M3 rod with a nut on the end.


So that is how I went about making a detachable, replaceable and animatable tortoise shell!
SEE YA!

Here's this post's pic of Buster! Thowback monday!
I call it: 'nom, tasty door frame.'