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AX2002: 2 minute film: Creating the cat

This was a MAJOR challenge for me, as I've never made an animal that's able to be animated before. I started out by making a wire armature in the shape and added super sculpy (that I had baked at 100 degrees) to the feet for stability.

Then I bulked up the body with foam and superglued it to the armature. I covered the car in faux fur form a fur ball off an old jacket. I used fabric flue to attach it to the cat. This was very difficult as I had to keep building up the fur to cover the spaces and it was a looooong process. Once the cat was fully covered, I painted the eyes green and added pupils. Then I added a black nose and stuck some wire from a dog brush into it to make the whiskers. I feel like the whole thing turned out quite well for a first attempt.

However, if I was making this again, I would use a fur wrapping of some kind that is already compressed, because you can tell that the fur has lot of fraying. Which I had to cut off mid shot sometimes because it was annoying me. I would also use thinner wire for the tail too, I wasn't able to sway it as much as a cat would, due to it not being very flexible. Other than that, I'm quite happy with it.

AX2002: 2 Minute film assets:

These are some props I made for my 2 minute film. The sofa was created by cutting out different shapes of foam and creating the sofa form, I superglued all of the separate pieces together. The I wrapped the sofa in black material from an old hoodie. Making sure the seam was alined with the edge of the couch. This was quite tricky because I started with once piece of material and cut the folds asi went along, quite a long process. I superglued the fabric down as well, would use fabric glue next time because there were some marks on th black form where the superglue reacted with the foam. The pillows are also, squares of foam with material wrapped around and glued. All in all, I think It works well and was a good first attempt.

For the fridge, I cut out pieces of wood to the scale I wanted. and used wood glue to hold the edges in place to create the shape. The door handles were two random items found in the garage and I drilled holes in the doors for these to slot in and be glued. When the fridge form was made, I then wrapped the whole thing in Crome wrapping and smoothed out the bubbles. The inside was the same, except I used white wrapping. The shelves are just some card cut out to scale and wedges in, not held up by anything but worked surprisingly well. I feel like the wrapping material gave more of a glossy effect (like a fridge would have) rather than using spray paint. Very happy with the way that it turned out in the end.

Test shots

The characters against the set. Checking the scale and testing the characters to see their animation capability.

Replacement hands

For this project i created replacement hands for the main character Jane. This would allow her character to be able to carry out the actions that have been designed for the shots. I made quite a few hands for Jane just incase some broke etc. There are also a few posed hands eg a hand holding a cup & a hand writing. These are being used during the ward scene. The hands made for the other character will be fixed to their armature, thus unable to move. However their characters are only in shot for a few seconds each during the film, usuallt having one action. I’m really happy with the way that they have turned out.

Props

Also created some props for the ward scene, eg biscuits, tea set and walking stick. Will be creating more for the future

To create the tie, I cut a rectangle piece of fabric to measurement. Then folded over the edges and fabric glued them to avoid fraying. The tied it in the traditional tie shape and guled it in place. Then I measured the neck of the character and cut out a collar from the white fabric and glued that to the tie and onto the shirt. Having the collar not glued onto the neck like the pharmacist allows more movement for the head. I will use this technique in future.

For the volunteers shirt I took blue fabric, measured it against the character and cut a shirt shape. Then glued and sewed the seems.

For the nurses uniform I did the same techniques as before to make the outfit, however frabric glued thin strips of white to create the stripes. All of the shoes were painted with acrylic paint and had a small magnet superglued to the foot.

For the volunteer character I used a reference image for the uniform. For the apron I took a rectangle piece of fabric then cut it so that the fabric when thinner towards the neck and cut a hole at the top for the neck. Then I folded over the edges and fabric glued them to avoid any fraying. Made sure to leave two other piece of fabric at the back of the apron to be tied. Then cut it a pocket and fabric glued it on.

For the pants I cut a piece of back fabric from some old pants into the shape of trousers against the character for measurement. Then I fabric glued all the edges of the legs and the crotch together and sewed over it. Leaving a hole for the weist.

For the pharmacist jacket, I took white fabric and cut it to fit the character. Then I sewed and glued the edges. To create the sleeves I used the same technique at Janes PJs however I accidentally glued the seem facing the outside so that was a big mistake but I ruffled the sleeves to make it look abit disguised but I’ll know for next time.

And then finally for Janes cardigan. I ended up using this white cotton from an old T-short so less likely to fray. I just simply glued the sleeves onto the cardigan. I really love he way that all the characters have turned out so far.

NHS project

I cut out a piece of measured fabric for the back and the front then I glued the edges together with fabric glue and sewed over it. Leaving a gap for the arms again. I then cut two rectangle pieces of fabric and fabric glued them into sleeves then sewed over the top to avoid showing the seem. Then I placed the sleeves through the arm holes and fabric glued the edges down. This worked really well and was surprisingly durable. I’m really happy with the way that the pjs turned out however. I would have changed the sewing on the pants because I didn’t realise when making them that you should fabric glue it before sewing to get a clean seem but I know now for next time.

NHS project

As for Janes second character, I have casted the feet in superscuply, however realised I moulded the wrong foot to be broken so I have changed that now. For the PJs I’ve taken a check flannel cotton fabric and stitched the sides up to make the pj pants for the top I did the same texhnique. Then I tested the fabric against this outfit to decide if I was going to make a button up blouse and I ended up choosing to do so

NHS project.

This is the process of how I made one of the Jane characters outfits. I cut out a measured price of patterned fabric for the dress. Sewed each side and left a gap at the top for the arms. Then cut a small hole at the top for the neck.

For the cardigan, I stared by testing out different colour swatches against the patterned fabric. Started to make the cardigan, however this failed. I needed more practice before seeing this outfit.

Further research into the uniforms of the NHS workforce

Research into uniforms for the NHS workforce

NHS brief. I have now managed to complete all of the characters bodies. Only 5 in total of the characters have a proper armature inside. The rest I kind of winged it. So I twisted two pieces of wire together to create the legs. Then took another doubled up wire and twisted that around the centre of the legs to create the spine. Then for the arms, mid way up the spine I threaded through a thinner piece of wire to give me an idea of where the shoulders were. To bond them together I ended up using V-Tie. Which has awful reviews, however somehow worked for me. The clay in the middle set hard over night and then I could add the extra wire to the arms. Then there was the same process as the previous post. Adding foam and shaping the body. I tried to create as many different shapes as I could to show a more diverse range. I think they turned out quite well. I will be adding feet and hands to these characters shortly, then begin making the NHS uniforms.

For the NHS brief, this is showing the process of how I made our main character Jane’s body. I stared of with putting together two identical armatures. Then I put the armatures against my previous designs to scale them up. I added apolstry foam to the armature using superglue. The foam will lighten the character and make it more nimble for animating. I then sculpted her body shape afterwards with scissors. These foam body shapes don’t always need to be perfect as they are going to be covered with clothes in the next step. I also need to add hands out of superscuply and feet to one of the models.

Creating more heads for the NHS brief. Experimenting with curley hair and adding more detail to the characters. The characters are made out of superscuply and baked. Then painted with acrylic paint. The paint I had used left a glossy look to the characters. This was actually an accident but I love the way it’s turned out because the shine makes the skin appear more realistic. Characters from the top are the volunteer, the paramedic, the nurse to physiotherapist. I still have one character left to make after this and most of the necks still need painting.

Creating the Jane character for the NHS group project.

This process was quite challenging for me because I had to make two identical heads. I tried to get them as close to match as I could and I think they turned out well in the end. To start the process I drew the two characters to scale, in their different outfits and also with the armature drawn underneath to give a perspective of the size of the character and how big the heads needed to be. I made the heads at the same time in each step to make sure they looked identical. Then painted them with acrylic paint to add the colour. The only thing that I did purposefully change about the characters is that they both have a slightly different expression to each other. This was deliberate so that we could show Jane in different states of emotion through the process of being in hospital to the recovery. Having two main characters means we will be able to animate different scenes at the same time, halving the amount of filming time we would have had to do.

The first of the NHS character designs.

From the top is the Social worker, Middle is the pharmacist and the bottom is the porter. Things that need to be added are eyelids, pupils and eyebrows. Also the woman’s hair I would like to change abit and make it cleaner, looks a little bit messy to me so that should be fixed shortly. But, overall I like the way that they have turned out. For future characters, im finding id difficult to find supersculpy in other skin colours to represent the diversity of the NHS we are putting across. So, I may have to change materials or paint the characters faces, unsure of what to do yet.

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