Fabricated Films: "I Am a Flamingo" Production Photos - Puppets Pt.2

Hey Steemers!

Here's part two of my puppet creation process for "I Am a Flamingo." If you missed part one where I discussed the process I used to build Mingo, the Flamingo, here's a link to it:

https://steemit.com/animation/@tysonjames/fabricated-films-i-am-a-flamingo-production-photos-puppets-pt-1

Let's begin! Here is Allie:

Step 01: The Design

She started out as a gorilla...and honestly, I just couldn't come up with a design that seemed feasible to turn into a puppet. When designing for stop motion, you have to take into account a lot of different technical factors: How is the character going to talk? How is it going to move? How is going to be built? What is it going to be built out of? Etc. I just couldn't visualize a design that I liked and seemed technically achievable at the time. So I explored other characters that could just as easily compliment Mingo.

The first sketches of Allie weren't particularly cute, but I liked the possibilities a lot more than what I had worked out with the gorilla.

This was the design I settled on for Allie:

Step 02: The Sculpt

Barney Marquez was also responsible for this sculpt. It took a little longer to figure out her design, because I also didn't do a turnaround for her. There was a lot to figure out in 3D space that was not there in the drawings. I think the sculpt was pretty successful.

We planned to mold Allie's main body as one part, and her arms and tail as separate. This is why there are dividing lines around her arms and tail.

Step 03: The Mold

The armature wire keeps the sculpt centered within the soon-to-be mold, while also creating the pour spouts and air vents for the actual casting portion.

The character was molded in clear silicone, to help see the inside of the mold when injecting with dragon skin silicone.

Step 04: Armature

The armature was made out of aluminum wire, and 3 hard parts used for gripping the character.

Making sure the armature fits into the mold -- not an easy thing to do when you skipped out on doing proper character turn arounds.

I glued nylon to the hard parts to help the silicone stick to the armature.

Step 05: Casting

The arms ready to be cast -- armature is locked in place.

A successful casting of the tail, you can see the colored silicone flowed throughout the entire cavity.

Here is a video of the silicone setting up in Allie's body mold. I think this silicone had a 1hr cure time?

Taking Allie out of the mold that was made out of 3 parts, due to the complexity of her shape:

Fresh out of the mold. Because Allie is made out of silicone, it had to be colored before being cast. Multiple colors meant that the secondary color (tan) had to be painted into the mold, prior to filling it with green.

Step 06: Detailing

Several Allie's being tested on. It was my first time painting with silicone, so I needed some testers for practice:

I used a sponge-texture technique, to apply color variation to the skin. Eyelids were vacuum formed and airbrushed:

Here she is camera ready! Those threaded rods coming out of her legs and tail are for her tie-down access, which keeps her from falling over during animation.

And there you have the puppet process! If you have any questions feel free to ask.

Thanks for peepin!