Now will be a good time tell you all what I have been up to

Hello everyone it’s been a long delay sins my last post and I think now will be a good time tell you all what I have been up to at university sins getting back from Christmas.

I am now in my second semester and in this semester we get to start on puppet design, making and sculpting. We were given two topics for puppet design and one idea made up of random words to design for sculpting.

The first of the two topics we were given for the puppets was Steam Punk this one will be made out of wire, fabric and super sculpey. The second puppet was a mythical creature which will be made out of foam- Rubber with a full working armature inside it.

Mythical creature puppet:

As I liked the sound of the mythical creature’s puppet and that this will be my first time using foam- Rubber, I started on that one first. To start off with we were given a booklet from my tutor full of mythical creature designs , we had to choose one we liked that we would redesigning in our own style.

I picked this one called The Ghoul.

 
Using the design in the booklet I redrew it in my own style while changing different aspects of the design so it will work when it’s turned in to a 3D clay sculpture.

To see if the design would work well and would look clear in clay I did a small sculpt of the head on its own to show my tutor so I knew I was doing it right.

Using the last design and test head model I then did the final design drawing that had to show all of the design off. Showing it from the front side and back clearly and to size as this is the design I will be using to sculpting from.

 

Once I got the thumbs up on the final design I started working on the full head to foot final sculpt. This will be the one that I will use to cast the mould from, that I will be used to place the armature in then to inject the foam then cook till it’s completed. It took me around three weeks to complete this sculpt from starting off with the wire supports to the final models that has now been casts in plasterer to make the mould.

 This is where I am up to now with this project, the next step is to take the clay sculpture out of the mould and start on the armature. I will keep you all up to date with how this goes over the upcoming blog post so keep an eye out 4 them!

Steam Punk Puppet:

With the Steam Punk puppet been the simpler one to make out of the two puppets i was asked to do I’ve only got e as far as doing this final design of it and.

Now that I’m not focusing all that much on the foam puppet I can really start working on this Steam Punk puppet now and I will be showing off more of the making of the puppet in my upcoming posts.

Sculpting:

For the first sculpting tack at the start of the New Year we were given a character description made up of random words that we had to go off research, design and sculpt. I was given the character of a transsexual high court judge to design, after lots of thinking and some different designs I ended up going up with this as the final design.

 

Once I got the go ahead on the design from my tutor I started sculpting it. Using a wire frame glued into a wooden bass to keep the clay sculpture upright and steady so it won’t fall over and be ruined.

And this is the final 3D sculpture of my transsexual high court judge design.

Replacement Animation:

Three weeks ago we got given the task of doing some rely basic replacement animations. Using two different sets of walk cycles images done by the motion photographer Eadward Muybridge. one of the cycles been of a human and one been of an animal. We were asked to put the two cycle together stick them on to card and do some quick replacement animation with them round the house or outside. To animate them I just used a tripod and digital camera, here is the one I did last Sunday using the body of a man doing a flip with head of a duck.

 Right that’s me all up to date with what I’ve been up to at university, I hope you have enjoyed looking over the images and reading what I’ve been doing. I will be putting more news on how the production of Viv & Mandy part 2 i going in my next post so keep an eye out for that one very soon.

Hello every one, i'm back with a full update

Hello every one! I know it has been a long time sins my last post but I have been really busy with uni work, but I have got lots of news to tell you all.

I will start off with saying a big thank you to everyone who has watched Viv & Mandy in the big clean up Part 1 and for all the very positive Feedback and comments on it. The film has only been online for just over 2 mouths and it has all reedy had over 13,300 views on the Wallace & Gromit website, over 620 views on YouTube and over 45 likes on the Viv & Mandy Facebook fan page. 

I am now working on Viv & Mandy in the big clean up part 2 at the same time i am working on all my work for uni. This has been a lot harder then i first fort at the start of the term to get the free time to book out an animation rig. At this moment in time i have got over 25 seconds of V&M Part 2 completed. To keep myself busy over the weekends when i am not doing uni work, i have been storyboarding and building and new top secret set. This will show what it behind the sliding doors at the end of part 1 cliff-hanger and introduce a new character to the film.

On the 23th of October we had visit and master class form Aardman Co founder Dave Sproxton. This lasted most of the morning and he told use a lot of behind the scenes secrets and news. In the afternoon he did a Q&A, in this he told use the best way of getting into the industry and how to produce a good eye caching show reel. 

After the Q&A people could go up to him ask him questions and get your Aardman goods signed buy him, so i of course went up to him and asked him to sine my Aardman Cracking Animations Book, gave him my business card and asked if he had spotted the Viv & Mandy hallway set when he had a tour of are uni studios and what he fort of it. Unknown to me one of the tutor had picked up my set with the Mandy and the Old woman puppet still fixed to it and placed it in the centre of the animation rig and put a big shining spot light over it so he did get to see my set and he said he liked the look of the set and puppets.

In the middle of November we had a surprise visit from award winning animator Barry JC Purves who was passing by stoke on the train and fort he would pop in to see the tutors ad he is a guest tutor about three times a year at my uni.

He asked if any of the students would like to show him there work and get some feedback on it. i asked Barry if he would watch Viv & Mandy Part 1 as i no its not uni work but would be nice to get some feedback on it, “he said yes of course that’s why I’m here”. So after a very nervous 5 minutes of playing the film he turned round and just said “what’s in the room?” “Are you doing a second one?” He then went on to give me very helpful feedback in saying some of the camera work can confuses the audience at times and the scene shot over two years ago with Viv & Mandy in the shop were a little ruff in the animating and movement of them, and i need to do more over the op movement so it comes across better. But as i said the stuff was animated over 2 years ago and the animation in the house with the old woman is where i am now and he had nothing to say about that stuff, so i said “thanks very much for watching and feedback” then got back to my work happy with what he told me and know what i need to do and change for part 2.

As part of my uni work we were asked to do a short animation where someone answers a phone call. As I was working on Viv & Mandy in the big clean up Part 2 at the time he asked I did this animation task with Viv. I should mention that as part of the task we were not allowed touse talking or lip sync as the tutor did not want it to be over complicated. I hope this will give you guys the Viv & Mandy fix till a clip or a trailer is out for Part 2 next year.

P.S sorry for the long delay in news posts agen I’m hoping I will get better at doing uni work, animating and keeping the blog up to date in the New Year.