Alright those weren't so bad. I think being up close and personal with the puppet makes me judge it more critically. But then I turned off the lights and got down and dirty (G Rated).
see the bulgey non-smooth bumperific seams still showing. The paint job also isn't spectacular. It all started with the woodburning step. I was so afraid to go too far with it. Next time I wont wuss on it too much. Next is paste-patching the seams and smoothing it out. I did a sloppy job there too. Then to put the cherry on top of the cinammon on top of the whipped-cream on top of the ice cream that makes the sundae, my layers of paint weren't thin enough (per coating) and it gets blotchy. At first using the foam to dab the paint on I thought I was doing it wrong. Turns out I started it right then screwed it up as I went along haha. The sweater turned out pretty smooth and the rest got crappier and crappier.
Here you can see the seam line from top to bottom. It looks pretty nasty, but I had to take like 15 pictures at a certain angle to get this seam line to really show. It's not as bad as I'm making it out to be, but its definitely something I MUST fix from here on out. Also I was mixing the pros-aide and the paint in poor proportions. I was messing around with it and its not nearly as flexible as I'd hoped. I guess that means I did every single step wrong hahaha...All is good though. At least 2 more of these puppets to make :) Waiting on foam to come! and 300 feet of 20 gauge wire <- my new fave wire! After watching a film "Dried Up" by Jeremy Casper on SMA.com which you can watch HERE.
They discuss a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff. They built a cheap yet sturdy camera rig:
That's the next step for me. My dad wants a piece of this action too and once he has a free day we'll head out to grab the wood / pipes / washers and nuts to build this baby. Then it's frickin' animating time. YES! (jump in mid air and freeze frame).
IDK, the paint job doesn't look that bad to me. I really wish you'd either use a tripod or your camera's flash though, so your pictures would stop being so blurry!! ;)
ReplyDeleteLooks to me like you're off to a great start on this!!
Ha, will do Mike! Silly cause I have the tripod sitting right there behind the puppet! (top pic).
ReplyDeleteMain prob is that the paint isn't as elastic as it should be, gets creased in movement. Still a good test puppet though.
Hi Tony, a great blog site you have here. Your posts are very detailed and it will be interesting to follow up your process. I have not tried making foam latex puppets yet. It will be for my next film. Your puppet seem very good. I tried mixing pros-aide with acrylic one time and it was not flexible enough either. I think a certain proportion should be applied to not to have cracks later. Thanks for posting about the camera rig. I will be making one too. So, I look forward to your post about the rig.
ReplyDeleteyeah man.....your making tons of progress!!
ReplyDeleteit doesnt look horrible either...
the trick in seaming your foam latex is definately Patience. Layers and layers till smoothe.
cant wait for animation!!
jriggity
When I mix up PAX paint I basically just add enough paint to tint it the color I want... it should be mostly adhesive. The less acrylic the better.
ReplyDelete