Freestyle hand embroidery

I've always wanted to try cross stitch or embroidery. But I never found a pattern kit that I liked. So I decided to find my old hoop and just go for it. Freestyle embroidery. Just letting the image flow from my hand to the fabric.

It's been fun so far. This is 2 sittings so approximately 2 hours.  I'll need to look up new and different techniques but this is fun for now.

Antlers final!

So I'm posting the various stages of the antlers. Forgot on of just the gesso gauze stage but you get an idea. I had fun making these as the parameters were sturdy but light weight for a dance piece. The costume designer was going to attach them herself to some sort of head piece. I'll get a photo of the full costume hopefully soon. Hope you like.

Antlers

I was asked to make a set of lightweight antlers for a friend. They will need to be worn and survive a dance choreography that will be videod. I had no clue as to how it would be attached to the head that was the costume designer/maker's job. So I'm using a wall anchor and screw system to help them out if necessary. This is a photo of it between steps 1 and 2. I think it's shaping up quite nicely.

An old GIANT puppet that I found

photos of and I helped to build. The client eventually changed their mind and they had to redo the entire thing. But it was fun to help build and set up. I even have a funny story about it. I got a bruise on my thumb from all the cardboard I had to cut to help build it. The scissors I used had a really hard, non-ergonomic handle, that put repeated pressure on my thumb. When I asked the pharmacist if an arthritis finger pressure wrap would help, so that I could continue cutting on day two, she asked if I got the bruised thumb from texting. Ah, to still look so young!

Anyway, enjoy the photos as they show some of the fun we had in building and setting it up for shooting.

So this is how he stood at the end of the day, with the "3D" cardboard words the were going to be stop-frame animated with us as the "models". See those shingles. Hand cut, stapled and glued cardboard and fabric, made by yours truly.

First photo of the yeti being changed. They didn't like the shingles. Bah humbug.
as he stood after the "de-shingling". Cute right?
His arms are too long. Sorry yeti, need to amputate those arms.

His final phase. Framed by the paper set, with tissue water and ice. And here are the final clips:

Movistar Patinaje, Movistar Flamenco, and Movistar Cueva.

My giant tabi sock

So here it is. My first attempt at a sock, done in the toe down method. It is massive. Giant! It'll be a Christmas sock of course. But it was fun to make and I can't wait to make a human sized pair.

Puppet Head Take 2

So I kept fiddling with the eyes and the head, and making small modifications to this that and whatever, and when I started making the clothe covering for her head, something kept nagging at me. It took me a week to figure out what that was. What was bothering me and making me feel like something was wrong? Take a look at the picture above and tell me if you can figure it out.

Did you figure it out?

The head is half the size of the body! It is huge and would be really difficult to animate as a full puppet. So I decided she will be my close-up head to practice lip synch. AND I've started on another head, more proportional than the original. Her features are off a little, but I like that. I have a personality already, so now it's more like a sculptor figuring out what the physical being looks like to match that personality. I'm having fun again (is that a requirement? Yes if it's your personal project I think) and it feels like she is really being born. Growing.

I have her first scene decided already in my head, just have to time it out, see where my accents hit and finish her. She will be interacting with the spider from the previous animation, so you can count on a cameo of him.

Oh, and if you say that the 2 heads look completely different its because they are. The bigger head will NOT be the CU of the smaller puppet: more puppets, more people to play with, don't you think?

The body and head con't

Here is the body that I started last year. The reason that that this particular puppet was put aside for so long was because of the way I had wanted to do her eyes. I and now building her hair and will be adding the eyes and eyelids soon. The funny thing is that I can't seem to find the sketchbook that I designed her in, so she is really in a way a redesign. All I remembered where her eyes, which I guess were very important to me. I think originally i was going to give her a movable mouth, but that has been scrapped. I like her being silent and really emoting with her eyes. Hopefully I'll have her finished soon, and you will all be able to see her act soon. Still no suggestions for names? So sad to see a person come to life without a name....

New puppet being born

I started to finish (funny no?) a puppet that I designed over a year ago. Especially since she will now have playmate with my spider. More pictures as she progresses, as well as more animation, coming soon.

This picture is the head and eyes in progress. I think they are sufficiently creepy.

Anyone has suggestions for names?

The Creation of the World

So the title should speak for itself.

This was one of the first projects that I had to do for Dancing Diablo, based off of my boss's design of how to create a globe out of cardboard. The animation is complete and it is currently in post. The color was continually tweaked until animation day so the final will probably not look like this, but it is still one of my favorite projects. I was very happy that I was aware enough to take these pictures after every stage. It looks cool to see it come together. Hopefully before the new year I'll be able to show you the spot. For scale look at those tape dispensers on the bottom holding the globe up. Nice, no?

What I've been up to: Evolution of DNA

I've been working at an animation studio that has a client that asked for a model of DNA. We thought first to make it out of paper as such:

But i don't think it really worked. Didn't say DNA. So we went another route, cutting out small slivers into each strip of paper before folding it, so it looked as such:

But the client didn't like that one. They wanted it to look more realistic (if a model of DNA can ever truly be realistic). And so after thinking it over much I remembered how cutting cardboard on a diagonal and twisting it, it would stay twisted, I made this:

I think it is the best one... and so did the client.

This is what I have been up to lately. Working with a studio that allows me to make things, build things and paint things. I haven't really been drawing much, but I've been a whole lot more creative than I have been in a while. I did have to do a series of basic illustrations as a child, and construction of a man running (this I will be throwing into iMovie? or Final Cut Express? later and making an animatic of).

I so much more to show, but this is a teaser for now. Enjoy.