Mattropolis

Cute doggy

2011-10-20T07:00:00.001-07:00

I made this dog puppet. It's cute but it has crazy eyes. I don't know what about it is crazy eyes, but that's what people say. I'm a little concerned that I can't see what everyone else sees.

Check out my reel

2011-06-26T09:14:00.000-07:00

http://vimeo.com/25363086

Check out my buddies blog

2011-06-20T15:30:00.000-07:00

http://stevieeatsworms.tumblr.com/

OH MY GOD

2011-05-07T12:00:00.000-07:00

These are soooo amazing. If you remember, I sculpted these a while back and made a mold for them. I then show my bother how to cast them up. We casted a few and he did the rest. Then he and some friends made them complete by painting them AMAZINGLY. I'm so happy right now.

Hey

2011-04-14T02:48:00.000-07:00

Dust guys

2011-04-10T13:07:00.000-07:00

These guys are dust. They're on a finger. Here they are being assembled Wire arms covered in latex. Pin tie downs

Needle felted to color
It's a giant finger!
There's one of em
There's a bunch

Some Stills from da films

2011-03-31T08:36:00.000-07:00

Set finished. Party time

2011-02-23T22:54:00.001-08:00

Bunch of pics

Night time:

Day Time:

More pics

2011-02-14T17:25:00.001-08:00

Pics

2011-02-07T19:41:00.001-08:00

Pics

Some oics of new set

2011-02-02T14:08:00.000-08:00

Cowboys and such

2011-01-15T17:01:00.001-08:00

Pictures, also a video: http://vimeo.com/18828624 password is 'Columbo'. Why make it password protected? I dunno, get off my back.

Just a note, thanks to Courtney DiPaola for making the beautiful clothes for the puppets.

Frames from the film

2010-12-05T00:32:00.000-08:00

Here are some stills, the green will be keyed out.

Mega dump

2010-11-18T07:57:00.000-08:00

Hey all, so it's been a really long time since I've put anything up. Here's just a dump of everything. If you have any questions just email me, matt.christensen.animation@gmail.com

arm sculpt to be molded
set, yet to be painted, made out of blue foam (extruded polystyrene)

set part painted with a hot mix of plaster of paris and joint compound

set painted

removable mouths test, more to come on that.

Set painted and ballast beginning to be put on

Armature new and improved

2010-10-13T20:27:00.000-07:00

Holy shit guys, it's been a long time. So I'm building armatures again, better and cooler than before. This armature has removable arms and a removable head! Also the head will have replacement mouths (clay.) How is that done you ask?

Well, first, as always, make a drawing of the character with the plans. See that thing in the chest, that's pretty important, that's where it all goes down.

So, this below is acrylic plastic. I cut that on a bandsaw and drilled holes in it. The size of those holes are very important and there are about 4 steps and things you need to know before you know what bit to use. It starts with the size of the wire. That wire is going to be doubled up, then fit into a square brass tube and epoxyed in with 5-minute epoxy. And that square brass tube will fit into another square brass tube. Let's go to the next picture.

So, the second and larger square tube fit into the holes that I drilled. (Side note: use a drill press and a good vise to drill these holes. That is hard to find, but if you want to do an armature this way, it's so fucking helpful, actually necessary.) So, the second and larger square tube will fit into the holes that I drilled, and those holes should be as small as possible with the tube able to fit into it. It should be tight in the hole. I glued in the square brass tube with 5 minute epoxy. To do this I had some extra of the first smaller size tube which I put some propoxy in the end so as to plug the smaller tube's hole. Then I dipped the smaller tube in vasoline as a releasing agent. I put the smaller tube in the larger tube (which should fit perfectly) and press them both into the hole which I had filled with 5 minute epoxy. The excess spilled out and I cleaned it.

That there is the armature for the head. Poking out from the left is a tube which the mouths will fit into. On the top and right are tubes that I will use to turn the head, maybe. The tube on the bottom (all these tubes square) will fit into a larger tube in the chest.

There it goes! And there's a hole in the bottom of the chest, that's where the wire to for the spine will go.

There IT is. Those square tubes on right and left for the arms, duh!

There they are!

There again!

That hole in the back is the fly rig. It is a threaded hole that I can screw a bolt into which I can attach to a wire and lift the character up with from the chest. Making a threaded hole is SO much easier than I ever thought it would be. All you need is a tap and a drill bit and a drill! The drill bit and the tap compliment each other, so you need to get the correct bit for the correct tap for the correct bolt.

First, drill the hole. Then use a hand tap to make it threaded. That's right, you make it threaded BY HAND. And this will work not only on acrylic but on metal, it's really simple. Here's what a hand tap looks like:

If you're tapping metal, then turn twice, unscrew, turn four times, unscrew, turn 6 and so on.

So, how do we hold in the head and arm? Real simple, I'm gonna drill a hole through the plastic, through the metal square tubes, make that hole treaded, and then put a screw in it, DUH.

Cute Doggy

2010-09-28T15:59:00.001-07:00

Once in a lifetime you create something that you're so happy about, that you can't believe came from you, that you swoon over. For many, that is their child, for me it is this drawing of a cute doggy.

Still from new set with the lighting

2010-06-06T13:32:00.001-07:00

It is what it is

Set Finished

2010-06-03T20:11:00.001-07:00

Finished Set with a dead guy in it.

Mattropolis

2010-06-03T19:56:00.000-07:00

Did this a while ago

Mattropolis from Matt Christensen on Vimeo.

http://vimeo.com/11483692

New Set

2010-05-24T22:27:00.001-07:00

notice the filing cabinets. Those took a long time. A really long time. Now imagine the room covered with papers, cobwebs, and shit on the desk.

Lord Scrummage Mold

2010-05-21T08:49:00.000-07:00

Here's the mold, it looks beautiful.

silicone mold gi 100. It's a really good mold silicone. When you mix it, you have to de air it by putting it in a vacuum chamber. Luckily my internship has one that they let me use.

There are ways to get around it that I haven't done but heard. Mainly painting on a detail layer. I've done that before with other silicone and it works well, I just haven't done it with this.

Mold and cast of my hand

2010-05-15T20:35:00.000-07:00

So, I've been working on this for a really long time. It's a silicone cast of my hand with an armature in it so I can animate it stop motion like.

Here's the mold as well.

Mold ready to pour for Scrummage Sculpture

2010-05-12T12:53:00.001-07:00

Have my sculpture ready to pour the mold. I gotta figure something out for the hands. In the neck of the body is a square brass tubing stock. In the neck of the head is also a square brass tubing that is one size smaller. It fits perfectly into the body. This way I don't need to make the whole body a two part mold. I've explained how to clay up a two part mold before in a previous post.

Also interesting is that on many of my previous posts I've gotten a lot of responses posted in chinese. I assumed that these were some weird kind of spam. Thanks to my friend Ying, I gotten some of them translated. Turns out they just inspirational quotes. Weird... Thank you people who are posting your kind words.

Everybody likes forced perspectives

2010-04-27T21:24:00.000-07:00

Howdy, howdy. Just finished animating this shot from a film I've been working on for a little over a year now. It's got a forced perspective, which is just cool.

Lord Scrummage Sculpture

2010-04-15T19:55:00.000-07:00

This is a sculpture I've been working on for a long time now. The clay is chavant P-40. I'm planning on making a mold of it and making a bunch of plastic figurines. It's for my brother's band Lord Scrummage:

The first picture is the reference picture

Title Sequence

2010-03-03T12:25:00.000-08:00

Here is the title sequence that those sculptures were for.

And here's the link if the embedded doesn't work:

http://vimeo.com/9846972

Western Title Sequence from Matt Christensen on Vimeo.

Sculpting! or Holy Shit, this blog still exists

2010-02-16T20:29:00.001-08:00

Howdy ya'll,

Remember me? Yeah, we had some times. So I've pretty much finished the animation that I started this blog for and have started back up on another animation that I started a year ago! Been working constantly.

And, for something completely different, here is some sculptures I've made for an assignment. I'm really loving sculpting, I need to get me a good set of tools and some good clay. Now my set of tools include one wooden sculpting knife of some kind, an exacto knife, pencils and pens, and my FAVORITE sculpting tool: TOOTHPICKS!

I've used toothpicks to sculpt every single mouth position in all of my animated films, they're beautiful. I'd like to thank toothpicks right now.......... Thank you. (I really do love them)

Great music in Detroit

2010-01-27T13:42:00.000-08:00

This has almost nothing to do with me. My brother and his fellow Detroit music and art collective had a right up in the Metro Times. Gotta show it everywhere I can:

http://www.metrotimes.com/music/story.asp?id=14747

Props!

2009-12-06T08:34:00.001-08:00

So, it's been a very long time since I've posted. When I created the blog I thought that maybe I'd post the whole way through, about how I animated and everything. But that seemed weird for some reason. I don't know what to say about actually animating other than techniques that one would learn in any animation class; slow in, slow out, arcs, expression, all dat.

So here are some props I've made. I'm really happy with the tombstone, it's cool. I'm very nearly done, after today I'll only have 3 shots left to animate. I need to build quite a bit for them still, but that's totally awesome!

Television set. Made from posterboard, balsa wood, paint, christmas lights, 9volt, paper clips

Gravestone made from balsa wood, gray wash paint

This is for a close up shot of my head, the brain looked cooler before it was all mushed together.
It's a fucking pillow. What do you want?!?

As, I've told some people, I'm shooting the film in my apartment. That's my bed underneath my table. I have the push it up against the wall when I want to animate. I like it because it'll be a great thing to reminisce about when I'm older.

So, I can do a post about the actual animation, it'll be a while though. Would anyone be interested in that? (Really, I'm just curious to see if anyone I don't know has actually read this, that'd be cool.)

My Vimeo Page

2009-11-18T20:35:00.000-08:00

I realized I never posted my vimeo page. Watch some if ya feel like it. My reel is a bit out of date.

http://vimeo.com/user1702698

Bakshi Interview

2009-11-18T15:43:00.000-08:00

Cartoon Brew already linked this but everything Ralph Bakshi has to say is great. I've yet to not be inspired by things he has to say.

http://fullecirclestuff.blogspot.com/2009/11/conversation-with-ralph-bakshi.html

Molding Materials pt 2

2009-11-11T11:15:00.000-08:00

The other day I helped my friend make a bunch of body parts for her film. Rob Benevides showed us all how to do this. Here's a short list of materials:

Royal Jel-E – Silicone releasing agent, used for casting silicone in a silicone mold. Brush on and then dry with a hair dryer. It's water soluble, which is good because it washes off the cast easier so you can paint it.
Body Double- Silicone molding material. Mix two parts by volume. Paint on skin layer then glob on. We used it for body parts.
Plaster Bandages- After putting on the body double, put plaster bandages on after the silicone or whatever mold making material. This makes a hard shell for the mold.
Platsil Gel – 10 – Silicone casting material- flesh like casting material. Two part mixture by volume. To pigment, put pigment in one half, then mix second half to pigmented half.
Tincure Green Soap- releasing agent for plaster bandages. This is for doing a two part plaster bandage shell.
Flocking- pulverized felt for use in pigmentation of silicone
Alja- safe- algenate used for one time molding. Put a plaster bandage shell for support. Mix powder with water.
Dental Algenate- mouth safe algenate. We used this to try to make a mold of my tounge. A few things didn't work so we sculpted and molding a sculpted tongue.

Why don't you come on back to the war? or CG vs Hand drawn, what the fuck happened to stop mo?

2009-11-10T14:34:00.000-08:00

I, like many animators, am a daily subscriber to Cartoon Brew. For the most part, I agree with them and their opinions on films and animation. Today they posted a video by animator Gene Deitch for the Xiamen International Animation Festival.

You should definitely watch it. There are a lot of things that he says that I agree with. But, as I'm finding with pretty much everything, I'm very conflicted.

Deitch practically calls a war on CG animated films. (I use the term CG out of respect for Deitch's 2D/3D complaint, which is essentially correct.) He call for a return to hand drawn animation. And he's by no means the only one.

I am constantly finding that in the animation community, in fact the art community as a whole, there is a hatred for CG and the CG look. It's not organic, not artistic, and not quality. It's not like hand drawn where we aren't bound by technology.

I completely disagree with this; but here's the annoying thing: I'm one of them. I don't like the CG look. It's not because it's not organic, or it's not artistic. I believe that CG animation is incredibly artistic. When one of my hero's, Don Hertzfeldt was asked about CG animation he gracefully said that he feels CG artists often get a bum rap because "people seem to think that computers have a 'make art' button." It's not until you attempt it that you realize the mind that makes "good" CG animation is a brilliant mind both intelligently and creatively. I use the term "good" because face it; there's shit in all forms of animation, even hand drawn.

People also hate the flash and computer inked look of animated films. Here I am in complete disagreement as well. Flash is a tool that helps animator animate easily. It's so easy to create a crappy looking film with flash, and many do. This does not mean that flash is not a viable program for beautiful animation. The flash animator simply needs to realize that animation will always take a fuck-ton of work. Tweening and key pathing can still be tools used to create beautiful animation, but one cannot forget their basic timing rules. Because these animation friendly tools that exist to make animation quicker exist, people so often choose the easy way out and use them without thinking of how long an action still takes.

I've seen this from really good hand drawn animators. I'm still a student and in a class we made a digital puppet in after effects, which we were supposed to animate using hold key frames and linear key frames. When we watched the students' work some of the best animators in my class had jumpy or "dreamy" (linear) movement in their animation. I know these people can animate stunningly well, but when given the lazy, easy way they take it. Sure, they probably just didn't want to spend the amount of time needed to animate well, but who does when you can animate it sub-par. And these are talented animators who can get shit done; you must have a good work ethic to be an animator. (Not necessarily true, yes I very much realize this.)

I think it's because of these easy ways out that these computer based art forms are looked down upon by so much of the animation community. Like every art form, they have a majority of crap and a minority of golden beautiful work. It's the crap animation that gives these computer based animation medium a bum rap. But we gotta realize that hand drawn animation is about as full of crappy animation as computer animation. Let's not forget some of the crappiest animated Hanna-Barbera and Japanese traditional animations. It's simply that today that crappy animation that would be done hand drawn is done on a computer because it's cheaper and easier. It's as if the computer animation has absorbed the hand drawn crap, therefore adding to its bum rap.

Amid Amidi recently wrote a post about Jonathan Demme planning to make an animation feature from the book Zeitoun. In it Amidi wrote a cautionary note telling Demme that traditional hand drawn animation is the only way to make this film. "I beg you not to use cheap Flash/AfterEffects-style animation. Don’t Waltz with Bashir this film, and compromise the personal impact of the story with mechanical movement." I liked the visual style of Waltz with Bashir. It looked beautiful and it was different, finally. I think it's pretty extreme for any artist to make such a bold claim that there is only one way to animate this film successfully.

Now, it's time for me to once again take a step back. Everything I have said here is what I believe. I fully believe that flash animation, even with its tweening and motion path tools (used with discretion and most importantly thought) can create beautiful animation that rivals any hand drawn animation. I also believe that CG animation can, and certainly has proven it, create beautiful animation that rivals any Disney hand drawn animation. But, I still don't like it. I don't like the look of Pixar. I prefer the look of Plympton, Hertzfeldt, and Bakshi to Pixar any day. I agree that Pixar is amazing visually (and can be really good with story, but that's something completely different from what I am writing about.) I just don't like it. It's too smooth, too pretty, and not gritty enough. And this isn't by technological set back; it's an artistic decision. The same is true of flash animation, for the same reason. Often too smooth, not gritty enough. Much like a scientist, I joyously wait to be proven wrong.

But, in the end, none of this matters. All of these visual styles are a means to an end: storytelling. In the end for me, the only thing that matters is the story. I love South Park, Hertzfeldt, Aquateen Hunger Force, Bakshi. None considered greats of animation, but they know the story and have made truly great films. The counter-example to these is Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. No one has ever called this a great movie, but the animation was beautiful. The story sucked. In the end, I don't give a shit what it looked like.

To finalize, I'd like to be a picky asshole. Deitch says in his speech that drawing is traditionally the basic origin of animation. What the fuck happened to stop motion? Need I remind the world The Adventures of Prince Achmed? I joke, but seriously, where does Stop Motion fit in this war? I actually know the stop motion position, we apparently hate CG. Working in stop motion, we're always up against CG for jobs. So, I guess I now have to hate CG. Damn, I really wanted to stick to my principles on this..... Eh. Death to all computers!

I welcome any and all comments from the family of loved ones that died while actually reading this post.

Puppet Casting

2009-11-09T20:17:00.001-08:00

Paycheck gettin fun!
Okay, this was by far the most difficult part. I actually had to cast my puppet three times. I'm not going to bother with explaining how I fucked up. Here's a shopping list:
1) L-200 Casting Latex
2) acrylic paint
3) Flex Foam Foam It 3 (flex foam)
4) Klean Clay

First thing to do is to mix up some paint with the latex. Start by mixing up your color for skin tone. Make sure to have plenty, you'll need it for many things. Mix the paint with the latex. It should be a mixture of about 60 to 70% latex and 40 to 30% paint. More latex than paint. If it is equal then there is a chance that the latex will crack as it is bent too often.

Next paint the mold. Don't let it dry completely between coats. Put on about 5 coats. You can check the thickness by carefully lifting up an edge. I didn't paint the shoes for a few reasons. One, I want them to be completely latex. This is mainly because I imagined it'd be easier to fill it than paint it. I don't really know why I thought that. It'd probably be fine to do it the same way, just paint a skin. I used latex that isn't mixed with paint for the shoes and I plan on painting them later.

So, you've finished painting. The top layer should not be hardened yet. Put the armature in and attach the feet to the bolts. We want the final puppet to have a foam center so that it isn't too stiff. If the body is completely latex, then the body will be very stiff and un-poseable. This is what we use the foam-it for.

First: Here's how I did it for my final version. If I had another chance I would tweek it a little, so later I'll explain how I would do it.
Before we mix the foam it, there are some things to do to prepare. First, put some vaseline on all exposed parts of the mold. (you don't need to put it on the outside walls) Second, get rolls of clay ready. I like to put it on the edges of the mold so nothing can seep out. Get a board ready. When you pour the foam it, it's going to want to expand the mold, seperating the two parts. You're going to stand on it for about 10 minutes. Fourth, have a friend ready to help, once you've mixed it's a quick process, you have to move fast. Fifth, have paper down on the floor to put the mold on while you're standing on it. It can and will seep out and will stick to everything.
I filled the feet with latex (after inserting the armature. This didn't work completely and it's on of the things I would change if I did it again. I'll explain later.
Now, get some measuring cups or make some. Mix according to the directions on the foam it. It's a two to one ration b to a (if memory serves.) Mix vigorously for 20 seconds then pour quickly. Pour at the lowest part of the mold and make sure to get it in the arms and legs. Put the other half on quickly and put clay quickly on the edges. Does not have to be neat at all. In fact, if I did this again, I wouldn't do the clay.
Put the mold down on the floor on the paper and put th e board on top and stand on it for at least 10 minutes. After that set it aside and wait. I demolded the next day, this isn't necessary but I did.

Okay, here's how I would do it the second time. I would have both sides painted, with the top layer still wet. I would paint the feet, and maybe pour some latex in (with the armature in place.) Still put vaseline on the edges. Now I would put the two parts together and let the latex dry, overnight probably. If I could, I would turn the mold over every 10 minutes or so while it's drying. Once it's done drying I would pour in the foam it into the pour spout at the neck (make sure it's large enough.) This would hopefully ensure a better seal. It probably has it's problems though.
They now apparently have a foam it 8 that has a skin to it, so next time I'd probably just use that actually. And I'd make a silicone mold. The things you can do...

Picture Post!

2009-11-04T20:55:00.000-08:00

Howdy Ya'll,

Here's a fun post with pictures. These are all things made in the NYU class "Special Effects Make-up" with Rob Benevides. It's a great class, really great. If you're an nyu student and this interests you at all, take it.

Creating an Armature

2009-11-04T17:24:00.001-08:00

Double gun slow motion shooting fun!

Okay, creating an armature. First, here's the shopping list:

Armature Wire (1/16'')

Annealed Steel Wire (I used a gauge of 24)

K+S Tubing (3/16'' diameter)

Nuts, bolts, wing nuts (on of each per foot, all of same size. Mine say XS6-32x2. I do not know what that means)

Plumbers epoxy or Propoxy

5 Minute Epoxy

Vaseline

A table with holes in it (holes bigger than the bolt, but smaller than the nut)

Pliers, wire cutter

Hand Drill

The first thing to do is to twist the wire. Do this by folding a strand in half and then tightening one end into the drill and have a friend hold the other end with a pair of pliers. Twist the wire together until it looks like it does in the pictures. The reason for this is so that the strength of the wire is doubled. The reason you do this over simply using 1/8'' wire is so that if one fails the other will still be there.

Now, cut your wire so that you have one that will be the spine. This should be much longer than the actual spine. It should go from just past the butt to a good inch above the head for safekeeping. Use your mold for measurements.

Next, use one piece for the legs,

by bending them with the top bend looking like this:

Make sure to leave much m

ore room in the feet than needed. Fold the extra wire on the butt end around the legs.

Now get out your propoxy or plumb

ers epoxy. These come as a two part putty, in a tube shape, with a light color for the inside and a dark color on the outside. Cut the epoxy (not the long way) and knead it together until the putty is all one color. There should be no marbling. Once the putty is kneaded you have about 5 minutes of working time. Use the putty to put the legs and spine together. Make sure to work it into the cracks and holes of the armature. Another very important thing is to make sure the armature sticks out of the sides of the putty, not out of the corner. If it sticks out of the corner, it creates a very fine point for bending that weakens the wire faster.

Now we create the wire for the arms. Remember, you should be using the mold to scale everything. Leave the wire a little bit long on the hands, you can always cut it. Where the arm wire crosses the spine wire, put a dip in the wire.

Create an opening in the spine by using two pliers, twisting the wire loose.

Put the arms wire throug

h the hole and once again apply propoxy or plumbers epoxy in the same manner as the legs. This time make sure it sticks out the top of the epoxy, not the corners or side.

Now we create the hands. The easy thing about computer 3d work is that once you create one hand, you simply mirror it to create the other. But nooooo, this is stop motion. I used the annealed steel wire for the hands, it's supposed to last longer. I twisted it as well and made sure they fit into the hand mold. Create a palm with propoxy (or, as always, plumbers). Do not attach them yet to the armature.

(not attached, I have a temporary 5 minute epoxy dab holding it)

We need to now make bones. These are created by the K+S tubing. Make sure to leave plenty of room for the joints, more is better than less. Marking where you'll put the bones on the wire with a sharpie aint a bad idea.

Mix up some 5 minute epoxy, glob it on the wire where the bones go, and put the bones on. Once again, make sure this matches up with your mold.

Now we can attach the hands. Cut the wire accordingly and attach the hands with some propoxy. Try not to make the wrists too bulky, though.

Now we need to put in the tie downs. This was a check and guess process to match up with the hole that exists in the mold. First thing, we need a table with holes in it. The hole should be larger than the bolt, but smaller than the nut's diameter. With the wing nut on the bolt, down an inch or so, (with the "wings" of the wing nut facing the head of the bolt) dip the first half inch or so of the bolt into vaseline. This is our releasing agent, it will ensure that the epoxy doesn't stick to the bolt. We don't need too much vaseline for this.

Put the bolt through the bottom of the table (so that the wing nut is below the table.) With it sticking out, attach the nut to the bolt, just so that the bolt doesn't stick out of the nut, but the nut should securely be on the bolt.

Wrap the extra wire for the foot around the bolt (leave the extra wire in case you've placed the hole wrong.)

Wrap the wire tight, then take the bolt out. Take it to your mold and check to see that the hole, where the nut will sit above, matches with the hole in the mold left for the nut. Now get it right.

Bring the armature back to the table and wrap it around the bolt again. Attach the nut. With it secure around the bolt, tighten the wing nut tight. Mix up some 5 minute epoxy and apply it to the bolt generously. Don't let too much get on the table. It's not a bad idea to put some vaseline on the table before attaching the wire and nut and bolt (once again, not too much, it just gets messy.) After hardening, cover it again with a medium/thin layer of propoxy. Once that has hardened remove the bolt. You now have a tie down. Do the same thing with the other foot.

Make sure the foot fits in the mold, if you have to shave some off, that's fine.

I'm pretty sure you now have an armature. Don't worry about the head.

IMPORTANT NOTE: On the off, off chance that someone is creating this along with reading this blog, you need to reinforce the ankles. I've already started animation and I found the ankles to be too weak. I would use some 8th inch wire in addition to the doubled 16th inch wire. Make sure it is is connected securely to the foot and the lower leg "bone" Twist it with the wire.

Also, I reinforced the spine by adding an 8th inch wire as well.

Chair and Desk!

2009-10-25T19:04:00.000-07:00

I made a tiny table and a tiny chair. Made with balsa and basswood. I did a fake stain with a brown paint wash.

A Few Pictures

2009-10-21T08:45:00.000-07:00

...fun.

Okay, here's some pictures of how clean I got my hands and feet. I did this with a toothpick and some Qtips. There's still some brown clay, and that's okay. If you start damaging the mold, that's really bad. I also put the mold in the fridge for a while to harden the clay and hopefully make it easier to remove. I don't know if this actually helped, but it helped my psyche.

The Reveal! Demolding and Clean Up!

2009-10-18T13:32:00.000-07:00

He served his purpose. Took one for the team

James Joseph Brown listening Fun!

Here we can finally see what we've done wrong. That's the scariest thing about making molds. You don't know how well you did until the point where you remove the sculpt.

This was one of the most terrifying part of my process. I walked up to my mold, excited and anxious. I tore down the foamcore walls (of oppression.) Removes the glue that was used to seal up the walls against the first half of the mold. Then I grabbed both sides and pulled... and they didn't come apart. I was terrified and ready to jump out a window. I did not put enough vaseline on, and I put a good amount on, I thought.

Luckily my friend Blake was there to calm me. He got out a hammer and flathead screwdriver. I chiseled into the area of the mold with the largest distance from the sculpt. As I did Blake noticed that the rest of it was coming apart and we carefully pulled it apart!

The two sides of the mold were completely fine, the keys had broken at a few places, but most of it was preserved, which is fine. The sculpt is in one half and the other half looks really good. I'm looking for signs of air bubbles, and there are couple but they're small and easily fixed.

Now I have to get the sculpt out, which completely destroyed the sculpt. It was an honorable and valiant sculpt, I'm proud of its accomplishments; it's served its purpose. With the sculpt out I have noticed clay left in it, especially around the hands and most of the feet have stayed. This all needs to be cleaned out. Carefully, with my trusty tool, the toothpick, I got all of the clay out. I used a toothpick because it is made of wood, which is less likely to scratch and damage the mold.

Once all the clay is removed you need to make your armature, which I will explain in the next post. It's a process.

What I've learned: USE PLENTY OF VASELINE!

1/2 Reveal and Prepping for Second Part of the Mold

2009-10-18T08:01:00.001-07:00

Naked shoot out fun!

Okay.

The mold has been poured and now we wait. I waited about 5 hours, but I'm paranoid. The box says the hydrocal will set in 1 hour, and my professor who has a great deal of experience says 20 minutes, when the hydrocal is warm, it'll be hard enough to remove and the clay will come off easier. But, I waited 5 hours.

When you're content, pull the foam core walls off, you can tear them and destroy them if a want, but they could potentially be used a bit later. The walls are gone, now flip the mold and foam core (that's on the bottom of what used to be the box.) Carefully remove the foamcore. Now you will see your sculpt (which should be exactly in the mold still; if it has come out you're screwed and will never get it perfectly registered again) and the sculpt is surrounded by the green Klean Clay.

Carefully remove the green clay. Try to get big chunks and pull from them. Make sure to not remove the sculpt with the green Klean Clay. Once you've removed the big chunks there'll be little bits still on the mold and right next to the sculpt. Some of these bits are very important to clean. Try to get as much off as you can, but if there's any touching or close to your sculpt you need to get that off otherwise your cast could have something wrong with it. Also if there is some near the key you need to remove it, but with a large key it shouldn't be a problem if there's a little left.

Also remember to take the bolts out. I had to screw them out, I couldn't just pull them out. This is fine. When you are have the bolts out cover the hole with some klean clay. Make sure there is a seal, nothing can get in. This is so that in the unlikely event that the liquid hydrocal for the second part of the mold gets down to the side of the walls, it wont fill that hole and harden.

I left the green klean clay that was by the neck on and added some more. I want there to be a pour spout on the top of the mold.

Okay, once all of the green clay is gone we need to prep for the second part of our two part mold. First you should make the walls, but do not attach them. Make them the same way, measuring the sides and cutting. Eventually we will attach them with hot glue and seal up the sides and cracks with hot glue.

Now, we need a releasing agent for the mold part that has now hardened. For this we need Vaseline, or any kind of petroleum jelly. Very generously lather on vaseline to the hardened hydrocal. Do this not only on the surface that used to be touching the green klean clay, but on the sides as well. This is so that in the unlikely event that the liquid hydrocal for the second part of the mold gets down to the side of the walls harden and attach to the first part of the mold. Make sure to vaseline the edges and around the key a lot.

Now put on the walls that have already been cut. When I did this, I put on the vaseline before i measured and cut the walls, it created a messy annoying problem.

So you have vaseline on the 1st mold (don't put it on the sculpt.) The walls are up and glued to each other and the foam core base. There are probably some gaps between the wall and the hardened hydrocal mold. Fill this crack with either clay or glue. I used hot glue because it's easy.

Okay, draw your fill line on the interior of the wall again like I did in the first pour and mix/pour again using the same techniques.

A List and Short Explanation of Molding/ Sculpting Materials I've Used

2009-10-15T21:02:00.000-07:00

I figured I needed a picture...

Today I was at my internship, where I makes things for stop motion sets. I decided to make a list of the materials I've used and a short description so I know for my own purposes.

Silicone GI 1000- Molding material. Mix with 12% catalysis by weight. Mix together with power drill mix, then de-gas in a vacuum chamber at 80 psi.

Smooth Cast 300- Hard plastic casting material. Mix two equal parts by weight. When casting in a silicone mold with this you "break the surface tension" to make sure that you don't get air bubbles. You do this by pouring some of Smooth Cast in and then either pushing your finger, wearing a glove, into the mold and rubbing all the interior sides of the mold so that the material is pushed against the side, or by using a stick, if the area is too small for a finger. It sets up by changing from a clear liquid to a white, hard plastic. Side note, when stirring don't stir to fast, the heat will cause it to set quicker.

Magic Sculpt- Like plumbers epoxy only you have about 3 hours of working time, not 5-10 min. Good for sculpting and letting sit to harden. I used it for the hair in my characters for "A Plan for the New Tomorrow."

Oomoo 25- A simple silicone mold material that doesn't need to be degassed. 1 to 1 by volume mix ratio.

Chavant P40 Sculpting Clay- Shavant is the brand, P40 is the type. This is the clay that I would have liked to use to sculpt, I'm very interested in it. You need to heat it up to sculpt with it and when it cools to room temperature it's hardish.

Cold Foam:

Flex Foam (5 and 10, also 10 is called "X")- This is a casting material that grows to either 5 time or 10 times its volume, respectively. The difference is in the density of the foam when done, 5 is denser than 10. Also, it's sticky as all hell when it's expanding. Used for many things, including a filler for a latex-skinned puppet.

Rigid Foam- Another type of cold foam. Works the same damn way except it aint flexible ya twad.

There's obviously a ton more materials that I have used, but these are the ones with the names I can't ever remember.

Allen Toussaint

2009-10-13T21:04:00.001-07:00

This is an unrelated post to everything. I just love Allen Toussaint so much.

Pouring the mold pt 1

2009-10-13T13:27:00.000-07:00

Jesus crucifying fun!

Okay, it's time to make one half of the mold. First thing we need is hydrocal, our molding material for this project. I got my hydrocal at Blick, they have it at art stores everywhere.

The hydrocal comes as a powder and you have to mix it with water. There are measurements and ratios to judge how much water to hydrocal, but no one in the world uses them. Before you mix, make sure to draw a pour line on the inside of the wall. This should be about 1/2 to a full inch above your highest point on the sculpt.

Mixing hydrocal is just like mixing plaster.

To mix the hydrocal I needed a plastic mixing bin. I needed to make a quick judgement of how much molding material you'll need. Pour half that amount IN WATER in the bucket. It's very important to pour the water first. Also, I made sure that there was more than enough room left in my mix bucket for the hydrocal.

I started by quickly sprinkling the powder into the bucket, by using a small paper cup. *Once you start putting in the hydrocal powder into the bucket, do not move, mix or shake the bucket* I kept doing this, evenly, until the powder stopped sinking to the bottom. I look for what has been described to me as the "dry cracking desert" look.

Yeah, that, only with hydrocal. Once this happens you will start to mix, which is done with your hand, so that you can feel lumps and mix them in better. Before you start mixing, make sure you have everything ready to pour, you don't want it to set up on you before you're ready to pour. So, you're ready. Roll up your sleeve and mix. This stuff doesn't have a lot of working time, so mix quickly. Once thoroughly mixed, you can begin to pour.

Pouring is a scary and dangerous. This is because of air bubbles. You need to make sure you don't get any air bubbles on the sculpt surface because it will result in a "zit" in the final cast. There are a few different pouring techniques to avoid air bubbles; I used a combination of them. One is to paint on a first layer, so you get all the intricate details. I did this on a few areas, like the arm pits, shoes and hands, that I was a afraid of getting air bubbles on. I did this very quickly. Then I started pouring at a medium and steady speed in a corner far away from the sculpt. I let the hydrocal move into the cracks and crevices. Once one part is pretty full, I moved to the other side.

Once I poured it there was nothing I could do but wait. It says that it sets fully in an hour, but I'm extra paranoid and I left it sit for about 5 hours. The hydrocal sets in about 20 minutes and gets really warm, I've been told this is the best time to demold. MOTL

Mold is poured!

Best Lifedrawing Day EVAH!

2009-10-13T13:17:00.000-07:00

Ignore the giant head and bad head proportions, body is good.

SO!!!! It seems all that sculpting, in which I used reference photos and really tried to study the shape, paid off in my drawings. I'm really not that good at drawing, but I've been trying. I'm really happy with this, I did it in lifedrawing class.

I think once I really started to shade the drawings, which has always scared me, it helped me get proportions and reference points.

Prepping for the Mold Pour!

2009-10-12T16:26:00.000-07:00

Walls made from foamcore
Clean edges against the wall

Screws in shoe so there will be a hole in the mold for the tie-down

Terms reminder:

Sculpt: The original sculpture (That I spent 14+ fucking hours working on)

Mold: framework or shape used to make an object of complementary shape from a pliable material: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mold_(manufacturing)

Molding Material: The material the mold is made out of, in this case it will be Hydrocal (more to come on that)

Cast: The final product; what I will have after the mold is created and I’ve poured the casting material into the mold as a liquid and allow to solidify (more on this later), it will have the exact shape of the sculpt.

Casting Material: What the final puppet (at least the portion that comes from the mold; you’ll notice the head is not being molded) is going to be made out of.

Releasing agent: Something put on to the sculpt (or anything) with the purpose of making the de-molding process easier, so that when the molding material has hardened it will be easier to take the sculpt out.

MOTL: More On That Later

Key: Part of the mold made to register the two sides of a two part mold.

OKAY!

Ball kickin fun! There are a lot of things that need to be decided early. The first is what is my casting material?

I have decided to cast my puppet in L-200 Casting Latex. I'm using latex because it's a good rubbery flesh like material, but most importantly because it's free to me through NYU. (The L-200 part is not essential, I've just decided to put it in so people can look it up and so I'll remember myself. You're welcome happy people!)

The latex will be mixed with acrylic paint in a 60% Latex, 40% acrylic paint ratio. (More latex than paint because I'm tinting the latex; and if you put too much acrylic in the skin starts to crack with too much stress and movement.)

Because I'm casting in Latex and need a molding material that will allow the latex to set and dry. I've made a ton of silicone molds, they're beautiful. However, latex will not set up in a silicone mold. It needs a porous material to dry, otherwise it's like it's in an air-tight container and will never dry. This is why I've decided to use Hydrocal, a plaster like material. Hydrocal is better than plaster for molds however, it's harder and heavier. There are many disadvantages for hydrocal (versus silicone) and I will probably never use it again. I used it because it's cheap and because I needed it for latex (which I used because it's free to me.)

Okay, I had to make walls for the mold. First, I cut the green klean clay with a removed OFLA blade. They need to be straight, hard edges. The walls were made with foamcore (I was also informed that lego's would work, and I really wanna try that some time.) I used the flat factory edge of the foamcore for the bottom, then I just measured the lengths of the edges and cut one side of the foamcore, so that one side is preserved and the other side is cut (obviously the preserved side is the side facing the clay.) This way I have a clean piece of foamcore paper all along the edge, making an open box. I used glue gun glue to secure the edges of the wall, both to each other and the bottom foamcore. The hot glue is really good for sealing the walls.

You'll notice that the green clay is right up to the edges, I had to add more clay at those edges to make it a clean, straight, level edge.

At this point I sprayed everything, including the green clay, again with crystal clear, so all of the clay would release easily from the mold when done.

I also put the screws so that there would be an open hole so that when I'm ready to pour the latex there's room available for the screw needed for the tie down.

The Clay Up Process!

2009-10-12T15:43:00.000-07:00

rough clay up

rough

rough clay up done

Rough line around sculpt can be seen

clean edges

clean edges!!

clean edges!

clean level edges!

clean level edges

The Clay Up Process!

First off, let’s get some key terms down:

Sculpt: The original sculpture (That I spent 14+ fucking hours working on)

Mold: framework or shape used to make an object of complementary shape from a pliable material: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mold_(manufacturing)

Molding Material: The material the mold is made out of, in this case it will be Hydrocal (more to come on that)

Casting Material: What the final puppet (at least the portion that comes from the mold; you’ll notice the head is not being molded) is going to be made out of.

MOTL: More On That Later

Key: Part of the mold made to register the two sides of a two part mold.

Okay.

Yay! This takes a long time and it’s very precise work. I am now preparing the puppet for the molding process. I need to start thinking about what type of mold I’m making.

For a puppet like this it makes the most sense to do a two part mold. This means that I’ll have a mold of one half and a mold of the other half that fit perfectly together (cut vertically along the body, back side and front side.)

In order to do that I need to “clay up” the sculpt, but there are a few things I need to do before that.

You’ll notice a shine to the sculpt. After I’m completely happy with the sculpt, I have to spray it with crystal clear. Crystal clear is like a clear spray paint, it’s original intent is for making something either glossy or matte. We use crystal clear as a releasing agent. This, again, is so that after I pour the mold (both sides) it will be easier to take the sculpt out and I wont have to spend as much time cleaning the mold, it will just come right out (more on that later, abbreviated MOTL.)

The other reason I spray the sculpt with crystal clear is so that I can draw the half way line. I draw a line along the edge, between the front and back of the body, with a sharpie. (Obviously, make sure to wait until the crystal clear has dried, like 5 minutes.)

The next thing I need is some foam core (coreboard.) On it I draw a rough line around the sculpt. I didn’t trace the sculpture, I drew the line for where the mold is going to be. You can see the line in the picture labeled “Rough line around sculpt can be seen”

Now we can start the clay up process! I started by elevate the body and holding the limbs up with a few balls of clay. After that I roughly, but very carefully put clay down up to the half line. The clay I’m using for the clay up process is the same type of clay, Klean Clay. I chose to use a very different color so that I could tell what’s sculpt and what isn’t (MOTL.) I would have liked to use a different harder type of clay for the sculpt and clay up with klean clay, but for various reasons I used klean clay for the sculpt and the clay up. I forget the name of the clay I would like to use for the sculpt, I’ll get back with that.

To begin I roughly put clay up to the edges. Things to keep in mind:

1) Make sure the whole clay up is level with the half line, don’t approach the sculpt then curve up or down to it.

2) Try not to touch the sculpt much, especially with your tools. Don’t wanna fuck it up do ya, ya twad!

3) At this point it’s important not to clay it up too precisely. Look at pictures that say rough clay up, that’s how you want it.

Once I had it to the point in the pictures before the picture labeled “rough clay up done” I made the key. The key is that squiggly line around the sculpt. I simply used a sculpting tool and made it squiggly very intentionally. Make sure to level out the top edge of all of the clay up clay, it should be smooth (the bottom edge, the edge touching the foam core, doesn’t need to be smooth at all, in fact it wont be. MOTL)

After that, make the edges very clean. By edges, I mean the edges next to the sculpt. The edges of the clay up clay a should go right up to the sculpt. This will require a tool of some kind. I used a rubber sculpting tool and a toothpick that was cut to have a hard, flat edge. I made sure not to scrape the sculpt. I did the fine tuning last because any sort of smoothing that’s being done on a another part of the sculpture can pull and affect the clean edges.

Sculpture!

2009-10-12T14:24:00.001-07:00

Sculpture Photos! I spent hours sculpting this and it’s now in the hydrocal mold and I’ll die if the mold fails.

I had a friend take multiple photos of me from different points of view, front and side. On the front views I held my arms out planning to sculpt it with my arms out. (A few of the pictures were dirtier with me just wearing underwear for sculpting reference. *wink*) I scaled them all in photoshop so that when I printed out the separate views that they would be the same scale.

I used these for proportions references and sculpted it in klean clay. I put armature wire in the body so the limbs would have structure. I left the shoes on because my plan is to make a mold and cast the final puppet in latex. I’m making clothes for him, but I’m not making cloth shoes, so I want those to be made in latex.

The wire is there because in the end my puppet will have a body in latex and a head made out of clay. I will need the wire to stick out of the mold and I will also use it as a pour spout for pouring in latex in the mold.

What I’ve learned: A lot about anatomy and that sculpting takes a long ass time, about 14 hours.

Where I’ve fucked up: Not sure yet.