Tobias

The main characters In my film are Sally and Tobias, I now have a full body scale of Tobias to work from for the puppet, I have also been given a maquet of Tobias’s head to use as reference when working on the puppet.

More soon

Puppets and armatures

I started off making armatures just as I always have, wire, foam and miliput, quite simple but effective:

I then covered the puppet in cotton wool and latex:

But I realised that the amount of animation I could do with these puppets were quite limited, also I felt that the simplistic creation and easily breakable armatures were a little amateurish for a full on animated film such as this.

I wanted this film to be the best thing that I have ever created so far.

So for this film I wanted to use some professional ball and socket armatures, I ordered a couple online, they were a bit pricey but I think that they will be worth it, the animation I can get out of them will be far more than I have ever been able to in the past.

So this was what I got for my £80 odd quid, some metal, some balls and some little bronze pieces.

With the help of a few fellow course mates I started building.

I now have a fully finished armature, it took a while to build but with a saw, some glue and the right tools these things are pretty simple to knock together, you just need to make sure you take your time and read the instructions.

I would say I am very happy with the way this first one has turned out, I hope that I am as satisfied with the second.

Next step for this puppet is foaming and bulking out the body, I will update again soon.

An oven and turkey

For the kitchen set I had to create an oven and a turkey.

This is a big part of the film and so had to look just right.

I built the oven out of foam board and paint

I used acetate for the glass in the oven door

The turkey was created using tin foil, it was then covered in super sculpy and moulded into shape

More concept art and storyboarding

Hey, I have more photos to upload soon of set building and prop making which has come a long way, but for now I am going to show you a picture of what the main male character, Tobias, will look like.

Concept art, courtesy of Simon Marsh

Also the storyboarding for the film is complete; I am recording voice actors as soon as possible and hopefully will have a full animatic within the next few weeks.

The project is really coming together now and I am exited about what is to come.

More updates soon.

Tables and chairs

Here are a few more making of pictures, there are quite a lot so I’m uploading them bit by bit, but this shows more of the kitchens progress.

Nearly everything is made out of white foam board, super sculpy and paint.

More pics up soon.

Set building

Okay, so set building is a big part of my project, I want to show that the main character lives in a really disgusting flat, it’s just full of mould and dirt and grime. The main set of the film is the kitchen, it is the set in witch most of the scenes take place, it is the central location of my film.
The whole film is set within this small flat and so I wanted to put a lot of detail into the kitchen, this was the set I was most anxious to get created and so this is the set I started with, I felt that if I got the kitchen set right then I could create the other sets using this one as a basis.

Here are so making of pictures, I will upload more soon, but for now here is a little look at what the kitchen will be.

First i looked at my own kitchen for research

I then set about creating cabinets

This is a life scale drawing of the Sally character; I used it to measure the kitchens proportions

I then cut draws and counter tops out of white foam board and glued them to the pink pieces of foam

Painted foam board

Almost finished cabinet

The walls for my sets are going to all be created out of white foam board backed with cut pieces of wood, here is the back wall for the kitchen

Now with kitchen tiles added

This is the kitchen window where the set will get it's light

I created a sink out of cut foam board and white miliput

I then made the kitchen look grotty and dirty with paints and super sculpy

I created wooden blinds for the window and a fish was created by a fellow student

The tap for the sink was created out of super sculpy as was the kettle seen below. I spray painted the sink silver to give it a metallic look.

Working title / concept art

The working title for this film is ‘Bloody Obsession,’ the title is subject to change but is what I am using so far.

This past year I have been working on puppets and sets, I shall upload images of these as I progress, I have not posted since May as I was not sure if this film was going to be created, but now seven months later and I am positive that this film will be made.

I have uploaded a the concept art for the character Sally, this sketch was created by Chloe Howley, a fellow stop motion student at university, I will be basing my main character from this image:

From now onwards, more regular updates will be posted showing my progression of the film.

--Kyle--