connorbaldryfmp

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Refined Photo:

After eliminating any objects that are exposed such as the yellow base that the model was sitting above using the crop tool on photoshop, and prioritising the soldier as the main attraction of each photo, I am now finished with taking photos and have decided to edit the one that captures the mot light whilst also making the details visible.

I am really glad I picked this one out of the three to edit to expose its full potential in capturing the light reflection as well as the details that I want to be noted and I feel that I have included that, like all photos before, a photo can tell a thousand stories, and this one certainly does.

I feel that taking these photos of the model and then editing this specific one is like icing on the cake as I feel it just completes the entire project as a whole.

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Photographs of Final Outcome:

I feel this photo is really effective with the background as it reflects with the snow effect , The background could be the fog that has covered the entire battlefield. There are so many ways that this specific photo can be interpreted which make my outcome uniquely interesting to look at in different ways.

Although this photo Is very dark, I am really liking the illusion of it looking more like a silhouette than the model itself. With the effect I feel this links to the overall topic of the First World War really well.

I really like this one as  the orange tinted light that reflects onto the soldier look like an explosion has just happened close enough to him. I am also liking the silhouette effect that was unintentionally added into the photo that looks like a dead soldier who wore a very similar uniform is following him from, which also goes well with the outcome.

Out of the three I am really liking the third one as I feel that this one gives more of an understanding of what is going on within the model with the different colours that are shown within this one.

I am going to crop this specific photo down to make it more presentable as I feel the these this could be a lot more better without the base being exposed in the photo. I will achieve this by cropping it out using photoshop and then zooming in more onto the solider himself.

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The final Outcome:

This is a GIF of the finished outcome.

I did this by taking 35 pictures of the model with each one bing of it at the same place but at different angles and later dropping all of these into a ‘Timeline’ which is used to create animations and GIFS.

Before creating the animation I had to convert the photos from being layers into ‘Frames’ using the function ‘Make Frames from Layers’ that was within the timeline feature. Doing this would allow me to create the mini animation with the photos themselves.

Once all of the photos were in the timeline and re ordered, but generate the animation, I had to change the speed and to do this, I clicked on one of the photos and a mini tab appeared with a number of 0.0. This is the delay speed between each photos and needed to be changed in order for the animation to work effectively, I begun trying with different speeds with the first one being 0.1, the made the animation work however it was very slow which brought me onto the next speed I tried, 0.2.

This speed was perfect as it allowed me to spectate what the model looks like and the details in each perfectly cut distance making it look effective for a mini animation. My only concern is that the animation is very laggy but I feel that if I went any quicker, then the animation would be too quick, making it difficult to observe the details.

With the mini animation all done, I now needed to export it in order to convert it in a GIF format as this particular one will allow me to upload the video anywhere whereas any other files will not accept the video and only show one photo instead of all of them which makes up the animation itself.

I am really keen with how this came out, considering I am not the best at producing digital work, particularly on Photoshop but the GIF is a great way to show the model from every angles which sees the light, allowing me and the viewers to see all of the details carved into the soldier.

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Lawrence Of Arabia:

 Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence was an English Soldier who is well known for fighting for in the Middle Eastern part of the World.

It was his persuasion and intelligence that earned him becoming a War Hero as he used these skills to build up a rebellion made of innocent people who were under the rule of the Turkish, who ruled the majority of the countries in the continent.

He sabotaged supplies, and planned attacks which eventually weakened the Turkish enough for them be overwhelmed. From this, Thomas Lawrence would now be codenamed ‘Lawrence Of Arabia’.

There has been various movies telling tale of the British hero for his efforts and courage that brought down the Turkish Empire. This particular War hero is an inspiration to everyone as not many people knew/did not care about what going on in the eastern part of the world but he cared and took the action which saved many lives from being treated like dirt.

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Applying the Snow effect:

As said before in the last post, I am going to try and add in the snow effect with flour.

With a cup and a small bag of flour, I chucked the flour onto the model to make the mark of the white effect as if the snow had been on the coat in that area for a long period of time. I really liked this effect so using a dry paintbrush, I moved the flour around and dabbing it in the areas I wanted to have this effect in.

 I paid attention to the helmet, the bag and the base especially as I want the snow building up on these areas to make the soldiers look as if he had been in the trenches for a long period of time without acknowledging the snow that had built up on his back, the back of his neck and the helmet.

For the base I dumped more flour on there the most than all the other parts because I wanted to capture the solid, cold wintered ground effect, as bitter as they once were from looking at the research and photos and I feel the I have captured that by sinking the flour into the little gaps under various bits of debris.

With this being the last stage of making my soldier, I am more than happy with how things turned out on this, despite there big compromises and complications, but I feel the without these, this model of the soldier wouldn’t look no way near as good as it does now.

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The Snow Effect:

The original plan was to add in a snowy effect to show how brutal and bitter the winters were that the soldiers had to endure whilst fighting fo our countries, whilst dealing with shortage in food and wearing cheap clothing.

I looked up various techniques on how to apply the specific weather onto my soldier including materials that are used to create that effect whilst maintaining the realistic effect. However, although the supplies are inexpensive, I didn't want to take the chance of them being useless nd not helpful so looked up a resourceful yet effective way to apply the snow effect, Flour!

Flour is a thin, but builds up very quickly if sprinkled in the same viscinity to create little mountains where it has built up, which could be really effective on the base.

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Trialling with the Brown:

I found a shop that had the exact colour that I had found on the website and it was not metallic which was even better so I brought it and decided to give it a go on the model and the results were phenomenal!

I am really happy with how this came out as it is not too dark ( the picture is as it is under a shelter and was overcast) it has a shiny reference to it but not as big as the grey which makes it already a much better outcome. I like the colour as like I said before, there are two ways people can look at this, the viewers could see this as a mini statue of a soldier, and you can also see a sculpture of a soldier for a chocolate fountain which gives it a unique speciality.

I have also noticed that from some angles, you can get a sight of a bronze colour which is also cool as even though bronze is a metal, you can see it without getting a metallic vibe.

The base is more effective with the brown than it is with the grey as mud is brown anyway so the colour is not only effective but I feel that the fencing and the barbed wire look good as well, considering it has had PVA, the grey, now brown spray paint over it, it still provides a crisp, barbed effect, as it should do.

have also noticed that from some angles, you can get a sight of a bronze colour which is also cool as even though bronze is a metal, you can see it without getting a metallic vibe.The base is more effective with the brown than it is with the grey as mud is brown anyway so the colour is not only effective but I feel that the fencing and the barbed wire look good as well, considering it has had PVA, the grey, now brown spray paint over it, it still provides a crisp, barbed effect, as it should do.

From this colour looking so effective as well as giving my soldier more of a contextual feel, I am going to keep this colour and see how it will look with its final stage in applying the weathered effect.

[connorbaldryfmp]

Trialling with the Grey:

I looked online to find a coloured grey that was a very close match to the one I wanted to use but the problem was that they were fairly expensive, especially that I would a small percentage of it to coat the model. I also noticed that the majority of the paints that were a perfect match turned out to have a metallic effect. I feel that having a metallic effect would ruin the model with being too shiny, which would make the model look more of a trophy/award rather than a statue to commemorate the soldiers.

I managed to find a spray paint within college that was very similar to the colour but slightly brighter but I decided to give the colour a chance and spray it onto the model. Before I did that, I had to move the model outside as the spray paint is toxic to breathe in when in a closed environment, I did this by using a movable caddy. Once outside I moved it onto the spray booth and now I was ready to begin spray.

This is the aftermath of applying the grey coloured spray paint onto the model, Overall the colour is nice however, after leaving it to dry, I noticed that it had a reflective shine, like a trophy, despite there not having a label stating this.

I am a little disappointed with the result of this experiment as not only does it reflect , which is the opposite to my original plan but as it dried, it was a lot brighter than I thought which was a shame as I want the texturing and the detailing to be barely but still clearly visible. I feel that this bright colour will not work with the snow effect the I will apply onto the soldier later on after the colour is right and combinable with the feature.

Now with the grey unsuccessful, I will try the chocolate brown colour on the model.

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Colours for the statue:

To help me decide the colour that I felt would not only look effective but that would also capture every single bit of detail. These colours are ones that I felt would look good on the model.

I picked this specific variant of the brown as I feel that this shade of the colour is light enough to capture all the detail as well as provide a statue like atmosphere around it, It could also make my outcome be interpreted as a sculpture made of chocolate, which could capture more viewers.

The second colour I picked that I felt could look good is a brass colour as its reflective advantage could prove to be effective when it come into contact with light. Brass is commonly used in statues which is another key reason I picked this.

This variant of the grey is similar to the brown one, with its possibility of catching the detail such as the texture of the belt as well as the patterned lenses of the soldier’s gas mask.

The last colour I felt would look good was Gold with its metallic finish which could make my outcome look more like a gold trophy like an OSCAR award instead of a statue, the original plan.

Out of all five of them, I have decided to go along with the chocolate brown and the dark grey as I feel that they will expose the big and small details that are featured on the model which is key to making my soldier looking real.

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Coating the model:

To prevent all the moisture escaping from the clay which could compromise my entire model, I decided to protect it by applying layers of PVA glue. I decided to use this type of glue as I needed a glue that would not be difficult to use, especially in the areas that are hard to reach.

Using a paintbrush, I started on the rifle as I wanted to capture the texture of the wood that I spent time etching as well was the cloth on the barrel. I then moved onto the hand hat was holding the role as this was the perfect opportunity to reinforce the strength of the join. After these particular side of the model was coated, I begun to apply more PVA to other places of the body.

Once every area was coated the glue, I went over it a couple of times to add more layers to cover any gaps that might have appeared from the PVA dripping.

I also felt that this would a good time to create an even better mud effect for the base so I mixed PVA with some water and dabbed some where the debris and stirred it in with the mud using the paintbrush.

Overall I am really happy with how the coating went as PVA can be difficult when using it from its stickiness but it does make up for his uses for its flexibility In awkward areas such as the armpits.

Now all done with the coating, I will wait until it is dry then I will begin to colour it.

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Shoulder Arms

Shoulder Arms is an English War Movie scReenplayed and directed by Charlie Chaplin and his brother Sydney. The movie is set in the First World War where a young man nicknamed ‘Doughboy’ joins the army to not only help fight the war but also come a national hero.

Throughout the film, Doughboy performs heroic acts such as capturing thirteen German soldiers as well as rescuing a Young French woman who we find out eventually Is not real and is only in his imagination.

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The Big Parade:

The Big parade is an American silent war movie created in 1929 by King Vidor and George hill

The story is set in the First World War and is based on the life of James Apperson, a young man who comes from a seriously rich family who has to go to fight the war the is raging on the Western fronts In France.

Alongside his new squadron and his new friends, Slim and Bull who all three eventually encounter a young French Woman called Melisande who warns them off however as the film goes on, Melisande slowly warms towards James out of the three and eventually fall in love with each other.

Like the Road To Glory, this film explore both action and adventure with vessels of romance as well which makes it a heartwarming story.

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The Road To Glory:

The Road To Glory is World War One set film directed Howard hawks in 1936. The movie is based in a war occupied France where a French commander who is more obsessed with his job rather than being a team member, an officer who disagrees with his superior’s behaviour and a Nurse who eventually falls both in Love with whilst being on the western front.

The movie categorises around action and adventure with some romance which makes it a mixture f both a war move and a love story.

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This is a video of the fully finished soldier.

Overall I am really pleased with how this has turned out as I feel I have captured specks of realism and detail that can be seen such as the creasing in the puttees as well as the dents and scratches in the helmet which bring not only realism, but also builds the character up, which makes the model looks so effective and unique to look at.

One thing I have changed up to this point is the bases design as the original idea seemed dull and boring and worst of all, did not look like mud.

To make the barbed wire, I cut three pieces of thin wire with the exact same length, and intersected two of them to thicken up the wire whilst keeping its flexibility. With the last strip, I cut it into tiny little pieces that were long enough to be wrapped around new thicker wire more than once to capture the barbed effect.

So I thought that by making my very own barbed wire and attaching it to wooden posts that had been split unevenly to gain the realism of what them and the enemies would have used in order to defend their trenches from assault on foot.

I did this a couple of times so that I had plenty of it to spread across the base as well wrapping it around the post multiple times, to relate to the context even more, I sunk some of the wire into the clay base to make it look unsuspecting as barbed wire could be found in the most unpredictable places which could cost a soldier their lives should they get ensnared within it.

I feel that applying barbed wire to my base makes my outcome relate to the overall contextual theme of World War One even more. The more I can get of this effect, the stronger and better my outcome will be which is priority

I felt that adding odd shapes that I had accidentally made that had also dried out and adding them to the base would look good too as they look like little fragments of debris, and there was alot of that in Many locations of water war took place in WW1, therefore adding even more character and story to my piece.

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The Gas Mask:

The most important part of the model yet which is critical to linking back to the First World War for its simplicity in design but high functionality.

Before beginning to add any clay on to the mask for any other features, I decided to add in creasing where the chin and the back of the neck would be using a wood modelling tool.

To add realism to the gas mask, I used a cloth to etch the patterns to create the texture as from research, cheap gas masks made of cloth or rubber were given to soldiers in those times and I wanted to add this in not only t give the soldier a better look but to also present the lack of materials and how they improvised to create cheap yet effective pieces of equipment.

The next step was to create the canister that will be connected to the bag with the tubing that I will be making alongside. Once again I wanted to achieve his of relain on the surface of the gas mask that the viewers will be able to see so I indented on the outer rim of the canister using a clay knife, I used this tool as even with the lightest touch, it can make a nice dent within the clay and felt it would be appropriate to use it this way, 

For the tubing I obtained a lump of clay and rolled it into a sausage like shape using both my hands and once it was no longer a thick lump and a sausage like length, I cut the thin sides off using the clay knife but thought that the length was too long so instead of using the clay knife again, I used my scissors.

The reason I did this is that with a clay knife, you only apply pressure on one side of the shape which could flatten it wholey whereas using scissors applies pressure on both sides and allows me to keep the shape in tact.

One I was satisfied with the length of the tubing, I measured it up against the canister and connected it to the filter (The bag on the soldier’s chest) but I noticed it was a bit too long still so I had trim it down. Once the length was exactly what it needed to be, I then used slip to join it to both the canister and the bag themselves.

The last part to do was the lenses and to make these, I used the cheese wire I originally used to cut the block of clay I have used for covering the skeleton. I indented lightly onto a sheet of fresh clay using the wire’s handles to create the shape then using the clay knife, I cut both circles out, these will not be the lenses themselves but the rims of them that are there to prevent the actual lenses from slitting in half and exposing the wearer the toxic air, potentially killing them. 

For the lenses I rolled a small piece of clay into a ball using the palms of my hands to the size it needed in order to fit within the rims, it had to be slightly smaller as I waned the edging of the rims to be noticeable  and using the clay knife, I cut one side to create a flat surface which would enable me to place the lenses onto the rim.

Lastly I added in a tiny feature to the rims which would add a bit more character to the and it was adding indents onto them, using the cay knife as it proved effective when I did a similar task on another area of the model.

Overall I a really happy with how the mask turned out as I feel that it is full of detail and from certain angles of looking at it, It looks realistic, which is a good thing, It is all thanks to Elliot Mallon, The sculptor who creates incredible models of soldiers and other character because I learnt how to space out the main features on the face, Which has not only helped me successfully create a gas mask, but It will also benefit me in the long run.

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Creating the Helmet and the details:

With the various pieces of details that make up the solider such as their weapon and equipment, I was now ready to move onto , I am now ready to move onto creating the gas mask, the helmet and begin to also add in little bits of details that will make a huge difference in the soldier

I started with the helmet first so that I could determine where the forehead would be as well as the how big the helmet will need to be in order to make it fit the soldier’s head.

For the helmet, I added thin, little strips of clay and stuck them onto the outside of the head to create a rough shape the would be the outer ring that covers the ears. Then applying pressure with the tips of my fingers, I squeezed the strips out to make them even thinner as well to straighten them out to create a wider edging of the helmet. At this stage the helmet was not looking good at all, it looked like a cowboy hat rather than what it was supposed look like and that was due to me not adding clay onto the main wearable part of the helmet so I begun to apply small lumps of clay to thicken up the size.

One I was done with applying enough clay for the wearable part of the helmet, I felt it was way too big so I slimmed it down dramatically using a clay knife. To smoothly blend the tip of the helmet to the bowl of the helmet, I used a specific model called a pear cover trim tool which has a tip that is weirdly shaped yet it is perfect for blending in awkward areas.

I was now happy with the helmet for now as I had the basic shape and the final thing to do a this stage for the helmet for now was to curve the edges of the edging of the helmet, to do this, I once again used the pear cover trimming tool and slanted it tan awkward angle to include the smoothly finished effect on the helmet. At this stage in time, I am really happy with how the helmet turned out, despite me trying to create it for the first time. However I have noticed in certain small ares, It is lumpy and uneven but I will fix that when I got up to the stage where the basics are all on the soldier like the gas mask, from then on , I will come back to the helmet and even out the shape.

Even though I said that I was originally going to get the basics done first, including the gas mask, I felt that my soldier was very simple at this stage so I decided to being applying small things that a soldier would have on them during this time using a photo I found on Google such as the belts and braces they would wear to keep their puttees from falling down. I also added in the bag which will eventually connect the gas mask tubing to the mask itself. 

To apply more realism, I used a spare sieve I found laying around and etched its own texture onto these specific items. Overall I feel that I have made the right decision in prioritising this over the gas mask as now I know how big and what angle the tubing will need to be in order to fit both within the bag as well as conch to the actual mask itself.

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Since watching this Youtuber’s incredible body of work since he started showing off his work, I felt it would be perfect to include him alongside the research, despite my model being nearly done.

His technique on how he clay onto his skeleton is incredible as I have noticed that in other videos, he tends to start off on the arms to get them all big and muscly, Dr Garuda not only applies the perfect muscle shape but he also adds aspects of realism to them as well.

I have also noticed that he includes ceases on his characters such as the trousers for Kratos, however he does it opposite to me for that he places thin strips of clay and then blends them into the trousers whereas for my soldier I indented into the clay to create the creases. 

The most appealing thing overall to me is how he poses his characters =, its amazing! As each pose he chooses for each specific character look effective for that characters such as for Kratos, he has posed him in a way to show the God in an opposing position which makes him look effective as well as Venom in another video where he poses the alien in a way to show its power and strength through its muscles.

I am both impressed and inspired and ope to mimic his style in future projects which the amount of detail he includes.