Final photos of Prometheus model.

 A giant maquette used for stop motion, this was inspired by the large models Laika studios use in their films. They're known for large scale and incredible technology in the stop motion industry. I wanted it to look other worldy, immortal, godlike or spiritual so I chose to use mixed media; deciding on textures, patterns and shapes that could represent this.
My project became an exploration of unconventional materials, as well as experimentation of how to fully realise a character through different mediums.
Whilst creating this model, I let the fabrics fall naturally, and simply anchored them in place to achieve a better natural flow. Overall I wanted a swirled, shadowy kind of vibe; something you wanted to reach out and touch, or appeared like it was moving. To help this, I tried to suit the materials to where they sat on the model, as well as making an attempt to hide most of the seams to make it a little neater.
A visiting animator informed me of the professional use of chicken wire, which is what gave me the confidence to use chicken wire for the base of this model.
Overall I'm happy with how this has turned out; there were definitely moments it looked too messy or not professional enough, but as a finished model, I'm actually quite pleased with how it's come together at the end. In the photo above, you can also see the little maquette I made beforehand as a practise!

Final base coat

Image shows the final white spray paint base coat for the mask. Using this kind of high quality paint also left it with a smooth and shiny surface, which I was really happy with! I then left this to dry outside.

Ears update: sanding and painting

Once I had cut the ears to the correct size and sealed the three layers together, I used the heat gun to warp and shape the ears into the curved shape I wanted.
I then sanded the corners down so they were smoother, as the heat and forming the curves of the ears created slight rolls in the worbla. Once I was happy with the overall shape, I painted the ears to match the colour scheme of the mask.

Ears: Worbla thermoplastic experiments

1) Taking the original foam template and decreasing it in size slightly.
2) The new foam cut out sizing in comparison to the original.
3) The foam piece is sandwiched between two sheets of Worbla thermoplastic.
4) I glued the foam down to stop it from sliding about, then used a heat gun to soften the thermoplastic. I then pressed the edges together forming a seam that fused together.

Here shows the ears against the mask so far; the mask was being sanded down at the time.

Foam ear experiment

Whilst sculpting the clay ears I was realising more and more how heavy they were getting. The thickness around the bottoms of the ears was also building up, so it would be impossible to stick the ears to the mask while still being about to see through it. Even though I've spent a lot of time sculpting and figuring out techniques and materials, I feel like I may have to give up on that process. Instead I've started looking at a lighter, quicker and more flexible method. Above shows the experimentation using scrap foam sheets; here I was figuring out the pattern and shape that I wanted the ear to be. 

Mask priming: sanding and filling

1) Spraying the first layer of primer onto the mask. This highlights the bumps and where needs to be sanded down, or built up a little bit more.
2) Close up of the detailing. The bumps are where I've applied the milliput and it still needs to be smoothed down.
3) After a few layers of sanding and filling: The grey paint mattifies after being sanded and more milliput has been built up in the areas that have dips.
4) After another layer or so of sanding, filling then spray painting, I circled the areas that needed filling to assist myself in remembering what areas needed attention.

Mask Fabrication: Progress

I've now re-sculpted in the details that were lost in the process of vac-forming. Once these have dried, I'll sand them smooth, then prime the whole thing. Several coats of primer paint and a few sessions of sanding and filling may be necessary to get the mask flush and smooth at every 'seam'.

The edges of the mask were hand sanded, and the eyes cut out with a sharp pair of tin snips, then hand sanded and filed back. They still need some re-shaping done at this point though so ensure safety of the wearer, good vision and clean edges.

Mask Fabrication: Repair work, sanding and filling.

I began by marking out the areas that needed defining. These were the brow, cheek, nose, muzzle and chin areas. 'Milliput' is a two part epoxy putty that goes rock hard after being left for a few hours, and is sandable, mouldable, sculptable, and smoothable with water. It was a quick and easy way of sanding and filling, and was everything I needed it to be in terms of drying time and flexibility. The second image shows the beginnings of cutting out one of the eyes, as well as progress showing a more fleshed out mask.

Mask Fabrication: Post-vac-forming

At first, one of the technicians attempted cutting the sculpt out of the plastic, but when I realised that the clay would have dried and cracked, it also meant that this 'cast' was going to be the only shot without having to sculpt it all over again. This is why the plastic was in a bit of a state.

The air-dry clay crumbled very easily out of the plastic, so it would've been impossible to cast from this sculpt again. After cutting it out of the leftover plastic, the edges were a bit chewed up. I'll be able to fix this with some simple re-shaping and sanding though. I could either do this using a course sandpaper and do it by hand, or possibly use a dremel. A belt-sander would be way too aggressive for this though. The last image shows the current sizing and overall shape of the mask. I can't say I'm not disappointed with how the mask turned out, as I was really happy with the sculpt, so for it to mess up at the final stage is a little annoying to say the least. It also means I have to put a lot of restorative work into it now, whereas if it had taken properly then I could be onto the painting stages by now. 

Vac-forming process

Vac-forming process from Lily Greenhalgh on Vimeo.


Unfortunately something went wrong with the vac-forming process! You can see at about 00:10 the details start to come through, but at 00:11 there's a small pop and the details are lost. Seeing as the heat from the vac-former will have dried the clay, we only really had one shot at vac-forming the mask. This means a little extra work, and some problem solving.
My current options are:
1) Sculpt and vac-form the mask all over again.
2) Add details to this vac-formed version.
3) Try and get the clay out and attempting to vac form it again.
The most time, material and cost efficient option was 2); Essentially I have to use some epoxy putty to sculpt the missing features onto the mask. This does mean quite a bit more time will be spent on this mask than I had initially planned, throwing my time schedule out slightly, so I'll have to compensate by putting more hours into the mask, staying later or working faster to keep up to date. These things are sent to try us!

Mask Fabrication: Vac-forming

The mask had to sit lifted from resting on the vac-former, as air had to get underneath it in order for the process to work; we used two little pieces of wood to lift it up. The mask had to have a few little repairs again before it was vac-formed, but the whole thing was dry enough to be used.

Mask Fabrication: Ears

After prototyping a quick ear sculpted in air dry clay (for sizing and shape reference) I decided to experiment making the ears with the same material, only this time I gave it an inner-structure of chicken wire to support it and potentially help with the inevitable crumbling. This was simply to experiment with the material and different ways of working with it further.
In the first image you can see me checking the wire against the mask sculpt to make sure it wasn't too big or small.
The second image shows beginning to pad the clay around the wire, beginning to see the shape.
The third image shows the rough sculpt with details. It was hard to hide the wire without the sculpt becoming too thick, but I liked the overall look of it.

Mask Fabrication: Small repairs

Before vac-forming, there were a few minor repairs I had to make simply by blending some clay into the cracks that had appeared. This tends to happen naturally as the clay dries and the water evaporates out of it, so unfortunately it can't really be avoided. This is why I prefer sculpting in other materials if air-dry clay can be avoided, but seeing as I wanted to vac-form this mask due to time restraints and budget, air dry clay was the way to go! A small hurdle, but very easily fixed.
The cracks can be seen around the eyes and the top of the forehead; this also indicates where weaker points may be, so are often in corners or detailed areas.

Mask Fabrication: Refining and detailing

At this point I've used water and brushes to begin smoothing out the sculpt. The features are how I want them (seen in the second image). As this kind of clay is air dry I covered the sculpt in cling film to make it air tight to it wouldn't dry out before vac-forming it later.

The reason I chose air dry clay over chavant is because chavant would melt in the vac former!

Mask Fabrication: Shaping and Smoothing

Now we can see the features of the mask beginning to show! Definition in the eyebrows, pointed cheeks and nose can also be seen. I also had to pay special attention to the edges of the mask; if too thin these will be the first bits to crumble, so made sure they were padded out nicely. I also made sure that the edges of the mask would extend enough to cover the sides of someones face too, instead of not being tall/ wide enough.

Mask Fabrication: Blocking out

I began shaping out the mask by blocking out the overall form using rough balls of clay. This allowed me to begin to figure out and understand the initial form that the mask would take. Once I had the shapes blocked out, I smoothed out the separate blocks so I could start roughly adding details and refining the base shapes.

Bird mask: Painting and sealing

After priming the mask with a dark brown, I painted it using acrylics. I wanted to re-enforce the fact that this was a mask a bird was wearing as opposed to the face and head of the animal itself, so went for a leathery kind of appearance, with faded marks around the eyes, highlights around the different panels and small white dots showing where the seams are. Overall I'm relatively pleased with the paint job, but feel I should've used a lighter primer, as the colours wouldn't really lift after a dark backing tone was put down.
Once this was dry I used a clear lacquer gloss to seal it and provide a slight shine.

Bird mask: Moulding and casting

1) Seeing as the little bird mask sculpt didn't have a flat back to it, I had to cast it by means of a two part mould. I began this by finding a container that would fit the sculpt whilst still accommodating enough room on every side so the silicone wouldn't be too weak. I then filled half the container, in this case a small ramekin glass, with air dry clay and buried half the sculpt in this making sure it was air tight. Silicone was then poured over the remaining half of the sculpt that was left exposed, and left to set.

2) On taking out this half of the set silicone after the going off time, I accidentally pushed the tool I was using for leverage in getting the mould out of the container, into the sculpt itself. Because of this a little repair work was needed between casting. I also took this opportunity to trim down the silicone to fit back into the same container; it had a rim to it, so needed to be cut back down to size.

3) The second half of the mould after it had been cast: Quite a bad mould really, with a lot of airbubbles, but in no place they couldn't be simply sanded quickly away once the mask piece was cast so I saw no reason to completely re-cast this half. This half of the mould is also a slightly darker green; I put more catalyst in so it would go off a little faster this time.

4) The resin cast straight out of the mould pieces! It worked! My next step will be sanding down the edges that were left where the two mould pieces met.

Bird Maquette body pattern.

To begin figuring out the pattern for the body, I first created a paper mock-up to look at sizing and overall shape; I didn't want it to look too boxy.

At first the pattern came out too small, then too long. Finally I achieved a shape I was happy with, and matched the kind of bird I was basing the design on.

Material experiment 2: Masking tape

The wire was twisted together in order to form the claw shape I wanted; no use of adhesives was necessary here. I then layered up masking tape to the desired thickness. 

Once the masking tape was layered up enough, I wrapped some cotton around for texture then painted red with acrylic paint.
I feel like this design was too bulky though, so although it had the desired effect I'll probably use a lot less tape next time.