Still Shots

Children just a little bit further!

This post is exciting for me. I have spent a lot of time into making this part of the film, and usually the best parts are when you start adding finishing touches to the characters. So here are the now 13 children... No way was I alone able to make 10 more. My hands hurt soo much and there are so many other things to get cracking on.

Below are the skeletons made of tubes, pipe cleaners, and foam blocks. This process seemed to be very successful due to the light weightness and flexibility. Unfortunately... I am saddened to say that I may not use the special skeletons if they do not work and resort to this method. I hate spending so much time and effort into a project and be forced to abandon it.

I have attached 'biscuits' to the feet from leftover parts from the wagon, Then drilled a hole to fit the magnet into.

Major assembly line! The Foam people, Then the masks, then the Painting:

The evolution of the face:

Felt Hair! And I wrap the skeleton in fabric... Clothes, color, and hands and feet will be added as soon as all of the puppets are finished! I am very happy with how the face came out and the overall aesthetic. This definitely helped me become more motivated to hurry this process up.

Vacuumed Molds to Plastic Masks

The first step has been completed, now we still have cast the faces.

SmoothOn makes a plastic resin that turns liquid to solid in 30 minutes. Mold release has been painted on the mold before mixing and pouring the resin.

I wish I had a better picture for you, Here are the final results! Some are the backs of the heads with carved faces, so not to waste time or the molds. They worked out well and they are still lightweight, and I love the idea that they are masks instead of a head, masks can be more expressive and is easier to attach to a body.

Start to finish: Carvings, Molds, Castings, and then an experimental casting... 

I saw a bag of sawdust in the shop so i scooped some up and thought how it would look casted with some wood glue mixed in.. Wood glue + Sawdust = Gingerbread dough.. mush the dough into the cookie molds..

The face came out well, the finish was rougher though. It was decided that I will have to finish the faces anyway, this would require more work and an overnight curing time. This was definitely more hit and miss, so I felt safer with the resin.

Heads to Masks

I allow myself to get ahead of myself so that I don't waste time thinking and have more time fixing mistakes I have made. Bad strategy, maybe, but I end up learning a lot so I don't think I will change the way I am doing anything, as of yet.
So remember what I said about rotomolding? Yeah scratch that, I learned the plastic I used is viscous while on its way to setting, but once the reaction happens it refuses to move. That is when I needed it to move the most, so the rotomolding thing didn't work, BUT that was the only thing that changed. I am still making plastic faces, and I have quite a few of them as of today.
This is the process I went through to get to the faces:
If the picture doesn't show, click on the empty box where it should have been...

Original carved heads in balsa wood

Paper glued in between allowed the halves to split

The heads are numbered and split.

They are placed on the base of the vacuum former.

It was successful! Thank you Tech John Medley!

This is the mold, a vacuum formed sheet of plastic, now I can make multiples of one

Heads will rotomold!

Here is how I will be making the children's heads in the masses. To make the ~25 heads, I carved a hard material into 5 types of faces. I split them in half so I have front and back. The next step is to vacuum form them so I have a plastic mold. Think of hollow chocolate bunnies, chocolate is poured into one half of the shell, the mold is closed, and then rotated to cover the inside to create a hollow shell. When dried it becomes that solidified hollow, lightweight version of the form. I will do this same process with liquid plastic so that I can get multiple heads out of one mold, all light weight (eliminating top heaviness) and I can't think of an easier faster method.