Christmas Presents

So hand painted shoes seems to be my new thing, they're a christmas thing this year. 

My mum is a very caring and giving person, her favourite colour is orange and her favourite animal is the elephant.
So I bought her an orange pair of Toms shoes, (for every pair of Toms that are purchased, the company gives a pair of shoes to a child in need) and I was going to just paint elephants on the shoes, but it progressed to African animals. I used some of my photographs that I took when we were in Holiday in South Africa as reference. Here are the finished product: 

For my car crazed mechanic of a father, I bought a plain pair of white Vans and painted Formula 1 related things on them. I used photos of Red Bull and Michael Schumacher as reference and also painted a rough shape of the Bahrain and Abu Dhabi tack on the left shoe. (The Bahrain and Abu Dhabi tracks because my dad has been to both, the Bahrain track more than once, as he lives in Saudi Arabia, which is driving distance, and Adu Dhabi was his most recent trip.) 

"The First rule of Fight Club is..."

My other half loved his Breaking Bad shoes so much that he asked me to paint him a Fight Club pair.

So I did. I got them done just before Halloween, which was good because he dresses as Edward Norton from Fight Club for halloween, so shoes went perfectly. 

After Effects

Learning after effects

Learning after effects

After Effects

After Effects

First commission "something fishy"

My first pair of commissioned shoes were from a fish monger, who requested I paint a fish counter on a pair of vans for him. Below are finished product. 

Hand painted shoes

So my boyfriends birthday was coming up and even though he is the easiest person to buy for, I couldn't for the life of me decide what to get him. I didn't want to get him anything anyone else would get him. He needed new shoes because his current ones were disgraceful, and I work part-time in a shoe store, and he loved Breaking bad, so I bought he a pair of white Vans and painted Breaking Bad related things on them.

They were way more of a success than I anticipated, and as a result I've had a couple of commissions.

My second year film, with an 'old movie' filter over the top. 

I shall post the colour version later on as well.

To be honest hardly any of this project went to plan, but I worked hard to make what I could out of what I had. I learnt a lot of 'what no to do's' for future projects, so my work can and will only get better.

I am not going to use this shot in my final film but I thought I'd show it on my blog anyway. 

Filming test

Here is one of my first tests now that I have started animating. This shot isn't in my storyboard, so I probably won't use it. However, even though it's not perfect and considering I've not animated in quite a while, I am rather pleased with this.

Main character

These images show the progress of making my main character, Jacob. 

The armature.
I also added milliput to the legs and feet as well.

The head, again is plasticine covering a polystyrene ball. 

The hands are latex. I used the mould I made when Kerry came in to teach us mould making back when we were doing the children's project. 

I used cardboard as sort of ribs, strengthening, and padding out the body at the same time, but still allowing movement.
I covered the arms and legs in sponge using super glue and used scissors to cut the sponge into shape. 

The head is simply pushed onto the neck, so it can be removed. 

I actually made all 3 characters at the same time, which is why I've waited so long to post anything about them, because I kept adding a little bit to each rather than just completely one and then moving onto the next one.
Here you can see the Strong Man and Jacob together, both unfinished.
I started the sew Jacobs clothes but there were frustrating me. 

Thats when I discovered the bag of old dolls clothes in the model room. Jacob originally had a tight white t-shirt on, but then I realised the shirt needed to be big and baggy because two melons need to fit down his shirt.
Also this stripy top i found works well, colour wise, with the set.
The trousers I found are also too big, however, he is meant to look kinda scruffy, so I sort of like them.
I used wool to wrap around the arms and leg for shape, but also to cover the sponge. I also used wool for the hair, which is glued on with fabric glue. 

The eye brows are painted plasticine. and the braces are denim material with wire running through the middle. 

I also added plasticine to finish off his chest.

The Strong Man

Progression through the making of the Strong Man.

I didn't take many photo while making the strong man, so I'll just have to tell you what I did. 

Plasticine covering polystyrene balls for the head.

I used milliput to define the two parts in each arm and each leg. I also used milliput to wrap in small pieces around the spine, to make it stronger but also allow it to move.

I then glued sponge around the arms and legs and used scissors to cut it to shape. 

I also used sponge to make the hair, I was going to use plasticine but it would have made the puppet top heavy.

I used electrical joiners glued to washers for the feet.

I used padding to wrap around the body to fill the Strong man out a bit, before stitching his vest and shorts on to him. 

I found a pair of already knitted shorts that I put on over the top of the shorts that I made to see what they look like.
I preferred the knitted shorts so I've left them on him for now.

I used wool to wrap around the arms and legs to cover the sponge and make the limbs more defined.

I also used wire for the hands and covered them in plasticine, the same as the Bearded Lady.

I also covered the Strong man's feet in Plasticine too, to define their shape. 

I painted the sponge hair and made his eye brows and moustache separate, so that they just stick on and can be manipulated. 

There is also a rigging point in the back of the strong man, which will be used when animating in the next couple of days. 

I think the only thing left now is his mouth pieces and a change of eyes. 

The Bearded Lady continued

I decided to go through some of the off cuts of material I had to see what would look best on the Bearded Lady. 

I then covered the Lady in cling film and masking tape. 

I then marked out the seem line and cut the cling film and tape of the puppet. These will now be used as templates for cutting out my chosen material to make the Bearded Lady's clothes.

I found that the templates did not work for me, so I was just going to sew/ glue the material into place.
However, this wasn't working either. 

I then discovered a bag in the model room filled with old dolls and teddy bear clothes. I was so happy about this because I really didn't want to make the clothes, it would have been nice to make them, but I was feeling a tad under pressure from everything and didn't have the patients to make the clothes myself at this point.
The hands are made from wire and then covered in plasticine and I added more plasticine to the chest to look like skin.