OUAN406 - A Tale in The Sting: Ceramics Induction 2.1

OUAN406 - Ceramics Induction:

Although I couldn't attend the last session due to illness, I still took part in as much as I could. I managed to get my first model finished and began to make a start on the clay head of my model. The objective for this was to create an enlarged model of the head of my previous character in earthenware clay. This material is fairly new on the market and is sturdier and more flexible than stoneware clay as earthenware has a slightly springy, rubbery texture meaning it has the ability to be stretched and pushed into odd shapes a little better and has less chance of cracking in the kiln or when sculpted with.

I much preferred using the clay to the plasticine as it was easier to mould, had a smoother texture and allowed me to sculpt much easier as it was a lot more pliable and didn't necessarily need to be warm to be soft and pliable like the plasticine. The clay was much more malleable and when used with the clay "slip" - a wash made from a clay bowl and added water mixed in, making a runny clay glue that was extremely strong - it had the opportunity to make strong sculptures.

In order to make the skull of our character hollow and save on weight and clay, thus cutting down cost and unnecessary clay use, we made sure that we sculpted two individual halves to the head and stuck them together using the slip. We had to be extremely careful when doing so and had to prick a little hole in the base when done to minimise the chances of the finished sculpture exploding in the kiln and causing tragic damage to other people's work too.

OUAN406 - A Tale in The Sting: Ceramics Induction 2

OUAN406 - Ceramics Induction:

For our second session and much of our first, we focused on creating the base and supporting pole for our model. This was done using simple MDF board at a few inches thick for sturdiness, cut into a square model base with enough room for the pole to be fit into a drilled hole in the base. The pole was made by measuring and sawing off a piece of metal rod then by bending it into an L shape using a hammer and vice, it was able to slot into a hole drilled into the base. This would be used to model the character around so that it was given support.

Here are some photographs of the model I chose to make from the design sheet shown earlier:

 

OUAN406 - A Tale in The Sting: Ceramics Induction 1

OUAN406 - Ceramics Induction:

In order to get us even more used to the college and to learn some new areas and skills within animation to prove that it does not simply have to be limited to computer-generated styles, we were introduced to the ceramics department along with the woodwork and metalwork rooms. We were given the task of creating a character that we would then eventually create in 3D by using a range of materials; clay, plasticine and then a glaze to finish off our clay sculpture.

I throughly enjoyed these inductions and although I was ill for the third and final part of our induction, the first two were great and allowed me to expand my knowledge of stop motion animation and the processes used in creating a model.

The first session was introducing us to creating a character on paper that would be suitable for a model to be created from. We started by drawing out a character of our choice, measuring out the height of roughly 7 inches on the paper. This would give us an indication when creating the model of proportions as our models would need to be about 7 inches high in total.

Although you can see I have used a colour scheme that I would have liked to apply to my character, we were challenged to stick with only one colours; red, black or white. We learned that simplicity was key in creating stop motion models as it can often be tedious to swap the faces and expressions, body parts and so forth if many colours have been used as it can look very messy! Drawing the character in a T pose with arms splayed out meant that if we modelled our character like this with the armature in a similar shape, it would be easier for movement as the arms could move a little more freely. 

OUAN406 - A Tale in The Sting: Finished Idents

OUAN406 - Finished Idents:

Finally! A finished Discovery Channel ident! After a long day on Photoshop and After Effects once again, I managed to get a jump that I was happy with as it had the arc I wanted - a principle of animation right there - and what dynamic enough for me to notice the ease in to the jump and ease out as it lands. I also had some secondary animation - the grass rustling and tail moving slightly - to throw into the mix.