A lot has happened since I posted my creative writing exercise. I have started turning it into an animation! The story has changed slightly from the written piece, but not drastically. I am supposed to be documenting my progress on this blog as I go, but anyone who has taken on an animation - especially a stop-motion animation, will understand why I haven't been very good at this! I have however been keeping a production journal and taking fuzzy phone snaps of my work, so I will post chunks of my back-dated entries on here!
Saturday 16th MarchI have been working on my puppet maquette today. It is taking a while because the plastiline that I am working with is really hard and therefore difficult to mould. I have been leaving it on the heater to soften before I use it, then letting it harden to carve into it. It has become quite a long process!
My character designs have been inspired my 1920s boudoir dolls which were fashion accessories of the period. They characteristically have pale faces with large dark rimmed eyes and small mouths and noses. In plastiline they look a little creepy, but once they are cast in silicone and have hair and eyes, they will hopefully look a little doll-like and pleasant! My animation is about swimming attire through the ages, so I felt that a dress-up doll style would be appropriate.
Today I also ordered materials from Tiranti, which is where my producer for Shoes!, Jen ordered many of our materials last year. As I am making so many more puppets this time, I altered my original budget and ordered the 5kg T20 silicone and catalyst as it worked out a bit better. I also decided I did not need any more plastiline, so I took that off of the budget. It was all quite expensive though! I have not been given an estimated time of arrival for the materials, but hopefully it will be this week so I can begin the molds.
