Carving The Character: Wooden Maquette of Edrik

As the final step of our character creation came the wood workshop's recreation of our characters. This time, we attempted to re-make our characters from cut and carved wood by using their prime proportions, so that we may practice with the mechanical saws and sanding machines. Every one of my peers had a different approach to their characters based on their distinct proportions, volumes, and depth. As for Edrik, I decided to make him in his front perspective, thus I roughly drew all of his main parts on a block of wood, then cut them off accurately (as much as I could, not enough experience), and proceeded on sand papering them for additional smoothness that would serve in depth. However, unlike most of my peers' characters, mine is rather sharp in visual design, which is why I didn't sand paper him to the max. Continuously, I stuck the main joint point by drilling holes in between the connecting limbs and fusing them with aluminium wire (whereas some were done with wooden sticks or chains). At the end, I drew the character's outline and details with a fineliner in the comic-style of Borderlands to give him his final look. Although Edrik doesn't match the 3D aspect of his being, I am satisfied with the model since it has served in my understanding of using wood-cutting tools and the safety of working with them. A lot smaller than the clay model, but nevertheless, spot on!

Sculpting The Character - Developmental Process: Clay Final Layer

Final clay model of Edrik

With the armature done previously, it's time to mask Edrik in his flesh, made from clay, of course. Personally, I expected the last step to be rather tedious by using methods of covering him with silicone or hardening clay, but it was just good old colored plasticine - easily shaped and diverse in terms of combining colors. It was a good thing that I had already designed the color scheme of my character, so without any thought I knew which colors I was to use. Firstly, I covered Edrik in the cloth layers, which are his legs and shoulders, since those layers are in the background, preceding the spiky and exaggerated armor. However, the head armature was too big to execute the precise proportions of my character, hence his head is really small to contemplate his physique. Still, it resembled the facial features of my character, as I used a marker to point out his contours (eyebrows and lines above lips). I tried to maintain the key features, such as the emphasized cheek bones and long slender lips, something I believe to have "nailed", to be quite honest. As for the rest of the details, I did by scraping the top layer of the plasticine with a thin aluminium wire (such as his abs, or under-eye lines). This character really put my character into perspective, as I can see him in 3D and use him now as a better reference for dynamic shape. Aside from this, during our session we also learned how silicone molds are made - something that intrigued me ever since I saw the process of the molded characters being made for "Shaun the Sheep" at the Manchester Animation Festival. A real versatile material, all I now need to do is be a bit more curious so that I can do it on my own for my future stop-motion films to come!

Sculpting The Character - Developmental Process: Making the Skeleton Armature

Original Sketch

Edrik, The Flamboyant King of Vladya is about to be brought upon this world, with all his arrogance disseminating through the air. Today, in the Ceramics Shop, we started creating our individual characters by making their armatures. Since my character is a humanoid, the crafted armature went according to the guidance of our proctor. Firstly, I sketched out the basic shapes of my character in a T-Pose in relation to a linear graph with 9 points, all separated by 25mm. We did this in order to use the sketches as references to the size of our character, as we drew all joint points as well. Accordingly, by twisting aluminium wires (in order to get a stronger bind) we created the skeleton of the legs, spine, arms, and head, by bending the malleable wires with pliers, all in relation to the original sketch. By using milliput, a versatile industrial adhesive, I molded the muscles of the legs and arms of Edrik, leaving space in between the joints for flexibility. Finally, with styrofoam I crafted the torso and head of my character, which are soon to be covered in a plasticine mold. I had to be careful of the size, because with the plasticine at the end the shape of the character shall increase in bulkyness, considering Edrik is a slender king! Hopefully, by the next time the milliput will set and harden, so that I may awaken Edrik and bring him to this realm!

Sculpting The Character - Developmental Process: Base

As a part of our induction, we have been instructed to create our Visual Language character in 3D by sculpting him. I personally believe that this will be great practice to develop our perspective in terms to Solid Drawing of a character. Accordingly, with these inductions we will also learn the use of tools and techniques in the world of model-making, something essential for me especially, hence I wish to pursue stop-motion. Our first induction consisted of wood works, where we were to create the base for our armatured character, as well as to understand the wood work machines in case we need them in the future (safety procedures and all). Firstly, we used a giant saw machine with which we measured and cut our base from a huge vertical wooden plate, and then measured its diameter in relation to the bolts that should be fastened once we get working on our character. The distance in between both holes on the plate is 60 mm, and they are placed in the middle of the base, all accurately measured with a ruler. Other than this, we also fiddled with the sanding machine and the vertical saw machine just to understand their functionality.

Finished base plate