The green screen set.

I have designed and made four adentical wooden frames from lengths of 3ft and 2ft pine and the added panels of 3ft by 2ft plywood on the front of each and fastened them together with bolts and wing nuts so it is easily disasembled if i need to transport it or the fabric i will pin to it rips. i then painted the wood the same colour green as the fabric incase the fabric stretches. I then dissasembled the box and pinned the green fabric to each pannel and reassembled.

Woodwork

I have sanded down these four wooden components until they roughly resemble the design for the arm and leg. I have then made a hinge joint for the knee and elbow by conecting the two peices of wood with a pin and securing it with appoxy resin to stop the wood from splitting. the plastercine hand and foot will be added before painting and adding more design with modeling clay.

A head.

This is the unpainted head that will be attached to the body of the characted shown in the design below. It is made from three peices cut from thin leather, soaked in hot water, moulded arourn a dolls head and then dried with a hair dryer until stiff. The inside is made from hard setting clay that is sturdy enough to house the wire that will connect it to the plastercine body. there will only be eye movement from this piece.

Designs for another character.

These are designs for a second character that is much more complicated. these different components will fit together to form to legs and feet, two arms and hands and a tail moulded from leather and wood. the legs will be dowling tht is shaped and sanded attached to lastercine feet to give realistic movement when animating.

Adding modeling clay

The character design i have chosen is very simple not unlike an evil looking Morph. Hopefully the white clay will stand out against the green screen enough to make it easier to key out the green in after effects.

Making a character

I started off with a wire frame and added small woooden blocks on the feet for stability when the plastercine in added. With a wire frame like this any human-like design can be added.

An idea that i have been working on in regards to a script has been worked around the paintings. I have gone back to some very early sketches and found that most of them center around towns, inside buildings and subway like enviroments so i will be repainting alot of them and designing characters that fit but are simple enough to be made out of clay and textiles. I also will be working around every animation medium i can get a hold of to be eventually put onto and into the green screen set but this may prove difficult to incorporate seemlessly. I dont really want to think of it as an instalation piece as i am working towards a film but it may turn out to be half and half.