Before I ripped the set down...

Here are some photos of my final well set before I took it down to finish my centre of the world set.

Here is the spaced that I was animating in. I used three lights. Two at the front and then one shining on the sky backdrop. This made the background brighter creating more depth in the scene.

I painted on hills in the background and used wadding for clouds to break up blue of the sky.

I also attempted to create depth by putting smaller trees in the background. I dry brushed them a lighter colour so that they looked further in the distance

Overall I was very happy with the outcome of this set. I like the textures I used and the depth that was created.

Fun on set

Ready...

Headless Animating

Watch Out For The Giant Drill!

'Where is my body?'

Flying Man

Looking Down

The Big Picture

Odds and ends

I have started filming now, but I still have loads to build.

Here is the clothes for The Mechanic so far...

I still have glue the hems and add details.

For the machine I made a base like I did the well.

I made a mechanism from Lego for the moving parts of the machine. I will add parts to the top of each of the moving parts so that you will not see any of the Lego.

You can see the staff and chair I have made here.

I tested the lighting for the centre of the world set with the characters. I used red and yellow filters over the lights to give the cave an unearthly feel. I will need more lights behind the machine. I am thinking of using fairy lights for that.

Making Some Clothes

I find making clothes for puppets very fiddly and annoying, but it is very rewarding as it finishes off the puppet.

I started by measuring the different parts of the puppet to make patterns for the clothes. 

I made test clothes using a cloth called Calico.

Here are my test clothes.

I then made the read clothes with the cloth for the trousers, shirt and cardigan. I not have to glue the hems and finish off the details. 

I made collar and a tie from ribbon.

I cut a hole in clothes were the rig points are so that I can reach them when I need to rig the puppet.

Here is the final puppet on the finished set.

Some Props

Now to make some important props. I need to make a a ring box, a ring, coins and a staff for the mechanic.

To make the ring box I measured out it out to the hand of the man.

I made a test box with wire for a hinge....

...but it was a bit big for the hand of the man.

So I set out to make another with thinner cardboard. I rapped the cardboard in a leather style material for the box put a suede and silk like inside. 

Here is the final box and ring. I made the ring with wire and a jewel like bead on top. I also made a closed box as this one does not close fully. I put a magnet in the bottom of the boxes so that they can be rigged when animating. 

I made the coins with Miliput and then painted them gold.

I have also started making the staff but it is not finished yet. I do not need it yet as I am filming next week.

Making The Centre of The World

How I was to create a semi-sphere set took much thought. I wanted it to be in sections so that I could both move the sections to animated the earth breaking and so that I could take sections away to get the camera in at different angles.

I decieded to use wire and chicken wire for the main structure...

I made a full semi-sphere first with the hole for the man to fall down into. I made sure to overlap the chicken wire so that I could had different sections and added extra wire to them to give them more support.

I then covered the inside of the chicken wire with Mod-Roc. I was going to use papier mache but I then a classmate was using Mod-Roc and I thought tht it would give me my solid walls and texture in one go.

  I then spray painted the walls with an orange paint to make it look hot and fiery.

To make the centre of the world seem older and give the world a history I thought The Mechanic would have studied the world and the stars. So I printed out some old maps of the world and star maps dipped them in some tea to make them look old and then with PVA glue stuck them to the walls of the cave.

Casting Hands

Casting the hands in silicone has been a problem. The silicone has been harder to work with than I thought it would and it has taken a few attempts to to get some usable hands.

 To start with I mixed acrylic paint to get as close to the colour of my skin paint as possible. I mixed this into the silicone and attempted to add 5% catalyst to the silicone so that it would set.

 I then put my hand armatures into the moulds and spread in some of the silicone.

 I put some on top of a spare mould to make a flat so that I could wrap it up to make a neck.

 I clamped the moulds together so that they would set.

 Some of my attempts failed because I did not put enough catalyst into the mixture or I did not put enough mixture into the mould.

 Here are one set of hands for The Man that are ok and I will use as spares.

 Here are one set of hands for The Mechanic that I am happy enough with.

 Here are the final hands that I have made. I hope they hope up as I animate with them as I do not know if I have time to make any more.

 My mould for The Man's hands crack so badly I am unsure if they will work again.

But I am very happy with the neck I made with the flat of silicone.

I only have to make the clothes for the puppet now, but we will be getting extra advice for them so I they wll be better. Now I will continue with building my sets.