words.... Words..... WORDS!!!!: P.E.A

Friday 11 July 2014

P.E.A - E is to ENCHANT

This is the second installment of the P.E.A (Print.Enchant.Animate) trilogy.

E is to ENCHANT delves into the inner workings of a design. Through manufacture, it is the turning point which determines the success or failure.

Behind the scenes!

This is the basic setup.

D80 on Manfrotto tripod, in my kitchen ;)

Initial scenes

The cutting/drawing board (situated below the camera)

It's usually messier than this =P

I used a cutting mat to avoid slicing up the kitchen counter!

Cutting the strawboard according to the previously hand drawn templates.

All the little parts are made individually (to ensure full mobility for animating properties aka rigging)

I'll get to explaining the suspicious looking tissues in a minute.

The tiny hands

They were interesting to make. I decided upon lizard like toes instead of claws.

Painted arms and thigh blanks.

Half done feet and the lower jaw.

The fascinating part. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision for me (and yes. It is what you think it is). Ralph (the dinosaur) is in fact, painted with my blood. Why? Well, look further.

I accidentally sliced my finger whilst cutting up the props. It doesn't look too serious, but it wouldn't stop bleeding ; hence painting Ralph with blood.

This is 5 hours later. I figured that since Ralph was a dinosaur, he should be treated with reverence and awe. Blood itself is holy and taboo in many ways. Slathering him with my blood makes him more of a true predator, instead of a flimsy lifeless paper model. I breathe life into him with my blood. Witchcraft much?

These are the later scenes, shot over the following 3 days after the props were painted and ready.
(I had to let the blood dry and age over a period of time to get the effect and sheen I wanted)

All ready for action!

Lower part of the body. This took longer than I expected due to the lack of allowances for the parts that had to be bent or folded and stretched. It's as stiff as cardboard! ;)