Bunny Rabit Face

I had a very strong idea on how I want the face of the Rabbit boy to look like. I had it in my head, but I find it difficult to put images from my imagination on paper. Just not enough practice, I usually draw from observation. I decided then to ask an illustrator to give it a go and although it helped it wasn't a simple proses. Mainly to communicate ideas piece. In the process of communicating there is always some information lost. And the gaps of information are filled in by a creative person with there own interpenetration.... with is great and bad at the same time. This proses gave ma something to think about, but I haven't been quite there yet.

A friend gave me a name of a nice illustrator... but I forgot his name just now... anyhow this guy inspired me a bit. He is making loads of illustration with kids having enormous heads and big eyes. Caricature. And that was exactly what I needed to see. It allowed me to clarify my design.

Next step was to make a model ... and this bit of work was very frustrating. Switching from working in 2d into 3d portrait was a bit painful... well, took me one evening.

 

Now to take out the real stuff. A plasticine kind of stuff that dries out in few minutes, and gets solid hard (and light) over nigh. When you take it out of the pack, its nice and  white. But its very easy to make it full of dust, so its important to keep tidy while working with it. I found that the best way of working with it is by using wooden modelling knife and spit. Just like with clay sculpturing, until you work you keep the surface wet.
First, I made two balls. I tried to make them kind of the same size and as round as possible. After they dried I put some nail polish on them, to make them solid and durable but most of all I wanted them to shine.
My objectives:
- Hide all the metal elements.
- Place the head in the right palace on the spine.
- Make the Head the right size comparing to the rest of the body.
- Fit in  the two balls that I have previously made. They needed to be spot on in the right place or the whole face would look wrong.
- Sculpt the face.

 

Well, Ill say that it looks nice. But lets wait for the final result when I finish the shoes and the paint work.

Bunny Rabit #2

I have this flat mate. She is a 50 year old Polish housewife. I thought she knows all about sewing... but nooooo. Just my luck, she turn out to be the cooking/cleaning housewife and not the sewing one.
The material that I used was from a jumper from a second hand shop... paid £2. When I tried to get some similar textiles from a shop I was asked to pay £10 for few bits.

So there's me taking my chances against the devil machine... The two first attempts were far off from satisfying. And the third one, what could I say... it went perfectly, no problems what so ever. No mistakes, no screw ups, exactly what I wanted. Nice.

Bunny Rabbit

Well, I'm not sure which day is it today. I decided to loose track when I didn't do anything through the weekend. Anyhow I'm still working and have loads of new stuff I need to publish.

Armature.
I looked all around Dundee for bolts and nuts and I managed to find nothing. The best and only place as far as I concerned is the internet. I placed my order on The Site Box website. It took them a week to get the stuff to me and a £5 for delivery but still at least now I have all the stuff that I need for making the armature.
This armature is smaller and more complicated than the one I made for the A.R.T project. But thanks to the previous project I know the weak points of an armature of this type. I managed to re-enforce the weak points and stop the bolts unscrewing. The puppet moves and reacts much more precise and fluently than the robot from A.R.T. project. I'm very happy with that, and cant wait to start animating.

Building The Hill

Day 4

Hill = Clay + Chicken Wire + My X-girlfriend's XX-boyfriend's quilt cover.
Tree = Chicken Wire + Scrap Metal + Wire + Plastic Bag

I built the set about three month ago and started a different project after that, so I haven't touched the hill  since. Frankly I had a small problem to get back working on it, but luckily my flat mate came round and helped me to "open the paint". I have to say that it was fun to paint the set. I took out my acrylic paint and just went mental on in. It all went very messy but smooth. My target was to make the set vibrant and three dimensional and not flat with pure light green. I'm happy with what I ended up with. There is a lot of randomness and dirt that in my opinion looks like a real hill. Nice.

Sewing Machine

Day 3
I got the sewing machine to work!!!
I need the machine to sew the rabbit costume. And it could sound easy for some, but the first time I tried to do something with the machine I ended up breaking it. So I have been kind of avoiding the problem for some time now, but its about time to face the mechanical creature.
A grown up lad is spending the evening playing with a sewing machine... that's just not right... I took some parts out, loosen some bolts and added some oil here and there, and got the machine to work, but still it did not sew properly. It takes TWO grow up lads to figure out how it's suppose to be done... Thread here and then there. Bobbin in here and like that... nee bother... How many guys these days know how to use a sewing machine... that right... only gay fashion students and me. Quality.

Rest of the evening spent on sculpturing the boys face... not happy with what I've end up with though.

Rabbit Puppet Armature.

Day 2
Long day at work, long and not very enjoyable evening on Sepulturas concert, but luckily I managed to do some work just before I left for the gig.
Rabbit armature for the "Not Growing Up" project will be made with screws, that are suppose to work as joints. Its a technique that I have already tried out in the "A.R.T." Project. Was it successful... I wouldn't say that. There were cons and pros. Screw armature gave me a very stiff robot that moved in the joints but nowhere elsewhere. The plasticine puppets move all ways and every direction... which is not always good. The screw armature tends to loosen up and requires tightening and the puppet always loses balance... but that last one could be cause of a bad puppet design.

The Rabbit armature is a new design and has, I hope, better solutions for joints placement. The arm should be capable of moving more precisely, than in the previous armatures, as it's placed in a different dimension. I'll use spring washers to get less traction in the joints, I hope that that will make the armature movement more fluent... Well I just can't be bothered explaining what I did with it, its all on the drawing.

"Not Growing Up" Animatex

I did the Animatex some time ago to submit for university. Since then the script changed several times and now it looks quite different but nevertheless watching this animation was very helpful in script writing process.