Model Making

Night of the Trampires BBC WALES

Click above for more background insights from the BBC



December 2016

I worked on Night of the Trampires for a year and half.  

Here is the Link to the Trailer

Night of the Trampires

First as part of the Art Department team making Props and Models including a bit of set work. 

Around Easter 2016 I moved over to the Puppet Department. Sculpting and cleaning up the main Characters, made in 'Plasticine' - Newplast Modelling Clay. 

I was responsible for maintaining the Sculpt for the main Character Chuck Steel for all the animators. In this film the animators 'sculpt through' meaning they start the shot with one head and sculpt every frame to change the puppets expression and the mouth for lips sync of the dialogue. The film is being shot on ones, that is every frame is animated. It takes time. Once the shot is over they would prep the puppets for the next shot sometimes coming back to the Puppet Department for a new clean and puppet head.


At the moment I am unable to put any images up until the film is release. 

Here are images from Instagram 
This is me at work building seating to go on set, whilst working in the Art Department.
This one of my colleagues is at work, animating a selection of background characters. These are typical of the Background Characters that I would clean up.
One happy chappy. This is the type of back street that I built parts of. This finished version which has been assembled, to make the complete set, then painted and set dress.

September 2016
Sculpts in Sculpy with a simple aluminium wire armature. 
 I made these for friends sculpts of their much loved dogs. They were Wedding Cake Toppers which they would definitely be keeping after the wedding. One finished I then airbrushed them with a dry brush finish. (Sorry no photos)

Father & daughter together


Almost in profile, just a little surface detail needed to be tidied up before baking
Getting there. I baked the sculpt at this point before going back and reworking the paws. Really enjoyed working in this medium because it's possible to bake it and then work again with new un-baked Sculpty.

March 2015
Today I went to Parson Street School to show two classes, Year 3, how to make a Modelling Clay Armadillo.

The Art day was about colour and Year 3 had recently done a project on Guatamala hence the choice of a great animal from Central America.

Multicoloured Armadillo's



The second group I was less ambitious and kept their bodies to one colour

Everyone has a cardboard carton to take their Armadillo home.

Christmas 2015
Harts Bakery Display
I was asked to do another display at Harts Bakery, which is hidden away very close to Temple Meads Station. 
The loose title was Polar Express. I envisioned a trip by train from Temple Meads, through snow covered mountains and into a blizzard somewhere in a Polar direction.
Bristol Houses, like those found in Totterdown not far from Bristol Temple Meads
Mountains 

Detail of my snowy blizzard.


Christmas 2014

Here are some examples of Alex Maxwell's Jewellery











These are designs I've made and cut in 3mm birch ply for a friends jewellery making.

April 2014


My sketches

Small Swallow

The Hare being cut by the laser


My Hare sketches
The Hare








 





January - March 2014

At the beginning of 2014 I worked on Shaun the Movie in Model Making on some background characters


Two clients at the hairdressers (photos of one only)

Lady with foils 

I spent two months, working on costumes for background characters for the Shaun the Sheep Movie for Aardman Animations. 

Here is the teaser trailer

http://www.shaunthesheep.com/trailer


Christmas Display Harts Bakery,

Temple Meads, Bristol

Saturday 14th at Harts Bakery I had a Stall selling all my work and Chopping boards and Bird Boxes from Bristol Wood Recycled Project.

It went really well, many compliments for my Ginger Bread houses and Snowflakes, many thanks for everyones support.





www.hartsbakery.co.uk

We spent a happy evening decorating the bakery and eating delicious pizza

Ginger Bread Houses cut from cardboard, decorated with perspex sweets and candy canes.The details are chased in white chalk board pen.

Each House is held in place with magnets.


I designed the houses to look like Bristol houses then cut everything by laser at





Aardman Animations usually have a Christmas Fair where staff & freelancers are able to set up and sell their work

Set up at Aardman, in the new building, it went well
(& a good chance to catch up with friends!)

Bat Lampshades


These are a few shots of my new Bat lampshades the design is inspired by bats I have found in Japanese wood cut prints


The shade is made of a thin plywood cut, sewn together with a leather cord, then the design cut by laser.






Close up detail of the Bats




I decided to make Lavender bags after my neighbour cut down her large Lavender bush.
I am using up old scraps of fabric and buttons for eyes. Hopefully I will be selling them at various stalls in the lead up to Christmas


At home? or ready to take home with you?
This is my little owl with a bird house waiting to be taken away by a happy customer!
I designed the bird box and had it cut by Laser.

I made a few test cutting small patterns using the laser cutter
July 2013

Yellow glazed cotton cut with by laser cutter.
This produces a very clean clear edge which does not seem
to fray which I feel would be a great advantage
for costume making for Stop Motion puppets
Linen mix fabric

Neil Derbyshire - Stop Motion Puppet


May/June 2013

This is the armature design I made for Sam Tipper at StudioMe. It's a simple armature for a Modelling clay puppet.

Armature Design over Sam's original drawing


Feet ball & socket feet armatures,
K&S cut with lock offs
Armature almost complete

Armature with rough plastazote form
Side view
Neil close to final finish,
I made his coat as flat layers of modelling clay with the side seams open. This was in order to remove the legs if necessary. The eyes are beads set into the clay and the glasses made from a monofiliment of electrical wire plastic coated in black.


Neil Finished

3/4 View

Side View

Back

Sculpts


These are a series of 7 sculpts I am making as representatives of the staff at the Bristol Wood Recycled Project, BWRP.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bristol-Wood-Recycling-Project/251914291553809
and look at the photo's!

They've have taken 2-4 hours to complete

Teddy Bear, in football colours
Viking
Emperor Penguin
Skip
BWRP Van

Goat

Peacock

Reindeer Costume

I've been adapting a 'Onies' monkey into a Reindeer for a friend for when they do a run at Christmas time.


I made a pattern from newspaper and then tacked out it's outline on the back of a piece of fur. I thought it would be easier to follow than working directly from the paper.
One half of the chest hair sewn in place
The two halves of the chest hair in place and
I also removed the little monkey head from the hood,
using extra pieces of fabric taken from the feet!
Here you can see how amazing the headdress is, all sculpted from cardboard.
As well as the Onies I also made
some hoof gloves for him to wear.

Gromit Workshops

The Watercress Line, Ropley, Hampshire.



I ran 3 workshops per day for 3 days. These are a couple of Gromits made on Friday 22nd February 2013. The groups were mainly children over the age of 5. A few adults were very tempted and joined in!

Over the 3 days, I think, about 200 Gromits were sculpted.
Gromit sculpted by a talented 6 year old


The Barbican, London 24th November

A busy day at the Barbican showing everyone how to make
Polly from Modelling Clay.
Here's Helen Javes just before we started.


National Trust Gromit Workshop at Anglesey Abbey 4th June 2012






I ran 3 workshops, with just under 100 people, teaching them how to make their own model of Gromit, these are just a few of the completed Masterpieces.
 See the video at the Directors web page
HTTP://nushypeas.com/

On set, during filming.




During the video and teddy gets angry and he splits at the seams, this is how he appeared at the end of the shot!


Progress as I made an animatable Teddy Bear and animated some shots for 'Nailstorm' Pop Video for the French band s.a.F, here is the progress of my making the puppet;
Laying out pattern before cutting

Ear, wire and thin metal foil to make it more animatable
Both legs sewn and then turn right side out, with the body


His left arm with the rest of the body, so far


Body armature,chest and hips.Arms and Legs added. Arm with form former, and armature fed through.


Leg and armature. With foam core. Leg assemble


Body assembled. Not finished See the Video
July 2012

Christmas card idea for Big Red Button. Dec 2011

They wanted to make a Stop Motion film for their Christmas message. From first contact with Big Red Red Button, making the models to finishing the shoot was less than 5 days.
Baby Santa as he emerges from his egg




Pier, Director, acting out the shot for Tim Allen, Animator

Initial sculpt for Baby Santa, in Sculpey as I wanted the translucent quality for his skin.
The final puppet had a baked head with unbaked eye lids, red felt costume with white fur trim.

 He had a Ali wire and K&S armature. We put clear silicone over the the felt to help it look

Pirates in an Adventure with Scientist

Rats
These are one pair of feet, for three ship rats, their hands were made in the same way.
with Fast cast noses.


Feet Armatures

Twisted Aluminium Wire, K&S with a lock -off soldier to the top of the leg.


Set up before casting
Cast feet and legs
After Injection cast, in 10T Silicone

The seams would then be trimmed & sanded before passing to the paint department.


Cast Feet and legs










The slight touch down on the shin would be repaired with a Sil Poxy/ White Spirit/pigment mix.
Rat Body set up before injecting with foam latex, by another of the team.
Panda
Panda Puppet
Plasticine Mouth, fast cast teeth, held in place with magnets to head core.

Test Cast
This is how the puppet was set up in the mould
Test cast painting into the mould with the two colours. Painting the mould with Ecoflex 00-30 silicone pigmented with white and dark brown black. Then assembling the mould with a basic wire armature and Plastazote body before injecting the mould with Ecoflex 00-30silicone.






This how the puppet was set up in the mould. A layer of wax was applied to the surfaces, so that a coloured skin could be painted into the mould after the main body silicone had been cast. The body core was sculpted in Plastazote and snipped upholstery foam

Cleaned up






The body was cast in two layers of Silicon, Ecoflex 00-30 core and Dragon Skin Pro skin, to give a soft flexible puppet with a durable skin.






Right Paw



I made a 2 piece injection mould in Ali Fast Cast for each Paw.The armature was simple with a twisted wire across the fingers and steel plate across the palm to be rigged through.
I lined the mould with a thin layer of plastaline then injected the core with Ecoflex 00-30. Once this was cured, cleaned the mould and then injected the mould with Dragon Skin FX Pro.
(The imagine is after it had been painted and given a protective coating)

The Beefeater's

I made many of the moulds, cast the Silicone parts and was responsible for their maintenance throughout the shoot.




Silicone gripping hands, this involved making a four piece mould to cast the armature in situ and allowing the handle to be inserted in place.


Silicone lower legs and feet, 'flowers' on buckles and sides of the knees. The armature was cast in situ. 
Wellington
Pastrami
Sirloin

   
Stroganoff
Brisket
Bovril
These are the Beefeater Character from Pirates, I made several of the moulds for the moustaches, beards and hair. Then cast them in 10T Silicone, trimmed and sanded the seams.The hair pieces are stuck to one another with Sil Poxy and to the RP head with Silicone super glue.Their foreheads and eyebrows are press moulded in Plasticine.

The hats were cast in 45D and the roses cast in fast cast.

The white ruff around their neck is cast in 10T and adhered in place with Sil Poxy.
Black Bellamy



Boots and Shirt cuffs cast in Silicone. Hat in Polyurethane

Hand Armatures

Gripping/sword hand armature fitted into a 3 piece mould

Beard, side burns and hair/head scarf cast in Silicone. (The moutasche was silicone then was made in latex foam as it was more flexible for animating)

Beard Armature located into the chin of the replaceable mouth pieces
 
Cutlass Liz
I cast some arms, in 10T Silicone. Also repaired or covered the soles of her Boots when required with either a Sil Poxy and pigment mix or 10T with the Accelerator.



Right arm


Arm and hand mould. This mould had very little clearance and could be tricky to set up
Bobo



I cast the hands, feet and hair & neck in Silicone



When Bobo is Tramp his hat is cast in 10T with armatured in a core made of fast cast with Fil-lite mix. The armatured clicked off when pressed.The cap brim was wired


Feet armature, I made a second lower foot mould so that we could cast his feet with the soles for shots with them in.The base of his feet would be seen at various times throughout the film (normally the base plate is used for tying down and only occasionally seen)

Final hand armature, using the standard armature and bending the fingers to fit


I made the first right hand proto-type armature made using the thumb from standard hand armature. I was trying to design a hand for Bobo to use whilst carrying a plate, like a waiter. It was not used as one hand (left) was too slim
Initial designs in Ali & copper wire. Used for special hands when required

Pirate King
His Silicone Hair, Moustache, Beard & Sideburns were all armatured.


Silicone Shirt frills

Silicone Boots
Silicone Hands, shirt frilly cuff. Rings round K&S with 45D ring faces.

Albino
I cast his hands, feet and hair/head scarf in silicone

Silicone hands cast in 10T

There was very little clearance in the mould, about 1 mm, so it was necessary to locate the armature in the same place each time with a locator - bolt and half a joint added to the mould later.

Scarf

Scarf before fitting up


Shoes- pigmented 10T painted into mould.

Then the armature fitted in place clamped and the leg colour injection cast.

 

Left Hand Armature, injection mould


Hand cast in 10T then trimmed and sanded


Dairylea Cheese Adverts
2004 June/July, 2005 July, 2006 Jan/Feb

Series of Dairylea Cheese Adverts. Directed by Michael Wright

These Commercials began at Aardman and then switched agencies. For Partizan continued working on adverts. Prepared Cows, built props, design & made white lab coats for cows.

Lab coats made for the plasticine cows

Prepped lab coated cow

Pressed cow with applied black patches

Press mould, I help design & made this Ali Fast cast mould, at Aardman.




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