Latex, part two

Just a quick update on the latex animal mask. Here the molds are getting covered in latex before putting them together. Then latex will be applied in the part where the line between the molds are to make a complete mask. So in a day or so this should be done and hopefully there will be a mask.

Later this week we will start doing fur on the masks, using various techniques. But that will all come in a separate update. 

Movie time

One other project we just did was a quick n dirty short film. It is not what it might sound like, quick n dirty simply means it is done fast and does not have to have a high quality. We had only two and a half day or so to get this project done.

The setting was the classic story Little red riding hood, but we could make changes to it and not even do it all. Another thing we where told to do was to use puppets of some kind. We spent half a day listening to different methods and techniques we could use. Then we worked in small groups, and my group ended up being only two people while most where three, due to the fact that there are only four set designer in the class and eight prop makers.

Here is one of the two finished movies, we each did one cut and this is not the one we ended up using in the end.

Then we have some obligatory behind the scenes pictures.

Our camera, my Samsum S4 phone on its custom made stand and the actual set,

Here are all the props we made and used for this set, besides that one of the pyramids that went missing.

Latex mask, part 1

The next project in school is latex masks. Requirements where animal head, either as a wearable mask or mounted on a wall like a trophy. I choose the mask options and opted for a cat. First of we sculpted a base onto a bust, do not have one of my head so I had to use an existing one I found. This is simply done by adding to the mask until you get the shape you want and then put plaster on it, to simplify the process. One thing you have to account for is the fact that the fur we will add later on is going to build quite a lot of volume.

Blurry picture of my finished sculpt.

You add plaster to one part first, in this case the cast will be made in two parts but depending on the complexity of the sculpt you might need more parts, and then the other parts.

The bust with sculpt is covered in plaster and left to cure. You can see marks
of play around the line in the middle, that soft clay will removed when you
split the cast and is used to drive wedges into so it is easier to separate the
parts without them breaking apart.

One thing to note here is that you should not be sentimental about your sculpt as it is not likely to survive the process of splitting the cast, though mine mostly did. Still removed all the clay from the bust in the end though.

Front part removed after the plaster had cured.

And that is it, so far. Cast is going to dry completely and then it is on to latex and fur, more on that in a later post.

Old school helmets..

Another thing we did during the fall was making a helmet, based on a historical type. So something preserved or from an archaeological dig. The main purpose here was to try out a material called
Air-X, that is basically a plastic material you can shape and reshape by heating it up. The helmet I choose as a base idea was from Slovenia, from around the 15th century. It had been found in recent years and was very worn and rusty, so I thought Id get a chance to play with some textures as well.

My Air-X helmet. 

Language change and more

Big news, well first of all I am changing the blog to English as Swedish is a bit limiting, second of all I am more or less caught up with things and so I plan om making weekly updates now, I do realize it has been, lets call it sporadic.

So moving on, and showing of some of the things that have gotten done in school during the later half of the fall up to Christmas.

There have been a bit of technical drawing, not much fun if you ask me. Fun to post anyway, it is kind of fun to do. Maybe if I find one that looks cool I will post that to.

The big thing before Christmas was a thing called "the Christmas card", basically we made a short film with Santa coming into his house/workshop and then rushes of in a sleigh. We would build everything from scratch, the whole set and all the toys etc. We also built a sleigh. I was responsible for making one of the toys, a doll made from wood.

Doll made from wood and painted with acrylic paints.

The sleigh, how ever, was made as a collaboration. Everyone in the group, there where six of us, made a drawing of a sleigh. Then we shifted them around and you got to make a technical drawing of a sleigh you had not designed. After that we changed projects again for the building of a scale model from a technical drawing made by someone else. My design was not the one chosen in the end though but I still learned a lot and had fun doing it.

My sleigh design.

The finished sleigh.

A bunch of this and that happened of cause but I wanted to focus on things that got built. Since that is why I am here in the north of Sweden at the university.

And finaly here is a link to one of 4 versions of our Chistmas card shot film:
https://vimeo.com/195463686