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slicktwix · 6 years ago

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Evaluation for FMP

At first i was not sure what i wanted to create, how big it was and what genre it would be from but i was focused on making a large scale creature brought to life with the skills i have learnt through out this year with model making creating multiple small scale models and creatures like a mystic sci-fi alien samurai and a 4 legged, demonic spider, hive mother creature i learnt a lot of tooling techniques also modeling with super sculpey, clay and mud rock. I also learnt how to create strong sturdy armatures that could support the weight of my creations so i wanted to create something that was in my element but also demanding and large it also has to be a subject that i’m passionate about or else i cant connect with my work and not thoroughly enjoy the process that it why i want to create a creature within the realm of Greek Mythology more specifically a three headed dog called Cerberus! why?

Well because i love creating a more realistic grounded model and have used fur in the past to recreate a undead cat from pet cemetery that looked effective and scary theirs a creepy element to taxidermy how the animal is stuck in a real frame of motion stuck in place which can express anger,fear cunning and hunger which is hard to covey with other Art forms.

At first when researching Cerberus and how i would design and recreate him had me torn at first i wanted to create a fairly terrier sized three headed beast but then decided against that as i wanted a large scale three headed dog for the wow factor the armature ended up being about 76 cm in height and in length 60 cm making him quite heavy if made of clay to transport from and to college.

I based a lot of the armature on sketches and drawings i had gathered showing the anatomy of the animal and the placement of the wires also sketches of some of the limbs for basic reference. These really helped and where an improvement on my cat which i did not make any sketches as reference to rely on for vital design decisions to help you develop a good armature.

I first created the armature out of copper bars and used the metal wielder to wield joints and manufacture the legs and body frame of the dog i did not want to create the supports for the neck for practical reasons.i had no problem with metal wielding as i had done it before when recreating my cat this made it fast and satisfying to construct a fully operating armature i did have a problem with the metal wielder being in an awkward place in the room making it harder to get the right angle for me to fit the armature in place to wield the legs to the body but other than that no major problems.

For the platform or stand of the armature i found a good piece of hard board and made wholes using a drill bit the same size as the sticks of wood to be used as beams to support the weight of the three headed Cerberus. due to his size i always had reasonable doubt in my mind for weight proportionality but the beams helped a lot so that none of the legs collapsed and the actual model was stiff interlocked into the stand this is strengthened the whole model and the rest of the process due to its importance to my project.

I then decided that i would use mud rock to strengthen the Armature so it could withhold the weight of the heads, foam and fur.

I had to decide weather i would use clay which would be effective for a statue based Cerberus with great detail which shows the muscular layout of the creature but would not look good because i am not that good at sculpting and a weight issue i would have to move the dog once finished from my house to college. or i could use a more taxidermy based fury based Cerberus complete with clay paws.

I brought my armature to my house over Easter brake so i could really focus on trying to get a lot of work done instead of having to rely on college open hours i’m glad i did this as i really enjoyed the over all process that went in to creating Cerberus but i had to gather a multitude of supplies to make my room a living workshop. for my FMP i brought a Glue gun and fur from amazon due to one day delivery and the reviews of the glue gun which was very high quality and helpful when you can change the temperature. The fur was very important due to the large amount i needed luckily the dog fur came in big sheets of 150 cm to 100 cm i brought 4 sheets for a total of £43. The fur was very similar to that of a bear almost like a mixture of the animals once i had completed it. this could be seen as a slight problem but hopefully did not take away from the final grade to much. I also had to acquire foam to bulk out the mode,l i was thinking about getting expensive foam board but instead picked up three dog beds, which are cheaper and yield a large amount of foam per bed this was very useful for adding the extra chunkiness to the armature at a total price of £26.

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My next step was adding the foam board/dog beads to my Armature i cut lengths of foam according to how much i wanted to cover of the dog, i would have to fold the foam around legs and mark in my head wear i would cut. This helps me savor the foam and not waste as much of it. I also had to hold a lot of foam in place once stuck with the glue gun as it had a slow setting time i also had a problem where i would burn my fingers due to the heat of the gun because i had to put pressure on every connection i made. I solved this by wearing a thick glove, so the heat could not burn through very effective and stopped my hands feeling awful. this whole process was easy and could of looked scruffy due to the fact it would eventually be covered in fur.

The next day i sculpted the paws, for reference i used pictures of bare skin dog paws to accurately portray the shape and proportional size of the dog paws all though i’m fine with the outcome, their is a lot of room for improvement due to the size of the front left paw being too big, compared to the rest of the paws this is because i did the front left paw first but should have accurately made all the paws to similar proportions this is disappointing because it is my FMP and everything should be to my best standard. Another problem i had was with the anatomy of the dog paw itself being difficult making it a struggle to recreate such a complex part of the dog. i used clay to sculpt the paws which is great for accuracy, one problem i did have was when bringing the model into college one of the paws fell apart aha i solved this by re sculpting a paw at college. more of an inconvenience than a fundamental problem.

After creating the paws i focused on making the heads , this was probably the most fun part of my project as creating heads are an essential part of creating a realistic and good looking imagery, the head is the most important part of any model due to it being what we first look at in a model and will decide if the model is good or bad. so at first i made the basic shape of the head out of tin foil i added the lower jaws using metal wire then layering in tin foil i used about 4 rolls for the whole project at around £5.75 I then added paper mache which i layered multiple times over the heads i wanted to make the heads distinct i did this by the positioning of the ears and the shape of the brows and cheeks of the dogs this was important to give each of the heads more character and identity after the paper mache i had to wait 24 hours (recommended) for the paper mache to dry this step was to ensure a more smoother surface to the heads an add a thickness to the heads i also did this for so it would be easier to add clay and stick the fur to the head tinfoil is not good for this and does not fit the criteria other ways i could of made the heads was by using clay but this would be very heavy to carry into college of course.

while waiting for the heads to dry i added fur to the legs of my armature this was easy enough but some of the fur overlapped looking cheap and horrible. To solve this i cut out chunks of fur from the sheets i had of it but i cut it at an angle so that the ratio of fur to material was 70/30 this was effective for sticking the fur with the glue gun and then neatly shuffling the fur to cover the overlapped spots this took a thew hours over all to cover all the spots and looked way better an essential part of my process to my work.

after this step i added clay and marbles to the eyes of the heads i had to mold the clay to express an angry frown upon his face this worked effectively with all the heads but through out the whole project i had problems with the clay sticking to the heads and paws this could of been because of the moisture of the clay i’m not sure but when i added a dab of water on my finger i could smooth the clay around the heads. this is useful to take into consideration for later projects that involve clay.when i used the glue gun on the dried clay it would dry and fall off not making a bond it took a couple goes to really stick the clay to the object but wasn’t too much of a concern.

when i did the first head the teeth where very low quality and basic as it was my first set of teeth in a long time but i took this into consideration for the other sets of teeth by adding crevices and evidence of worn out teeth and plus the other sets looked more anatomically correct because of the shape and the detail.

My first head is definitely the worst and if i had time i would go back and recreate it completely due to his structure, teeth and the ears but it was a learning experience and every head i created improved in quality due to my knowledge that i learned from my past mistakes, this is the reason i find creating these models so fun and interesting. even the clay around the cheeks and brow improved with minor detail showing wrinkles in the skin and spots. i think it is very important to express the anger of my design through the brow due to the fur covering their faces the most have a strong sense of emotion that pulls through the fur i personally think this went OK and you can see the anger of the creatures but maybe not to the degree i was hoping due to the fur around the face.

for the mouths i used clay to create all the gums and define the jaw i then super sculpted all the teeth and tongues after i had put them in the oven i indented all the teeth into the mouth so it would be easier to insert into the mouth this was effective and went well but had some minor issues with the glue connecting to the clay some teeth would fall out and required re-sticking but other than that no problems.

After that i had to obtain some poles/sticks for the necks of Cerberus this was easy and as i had a forest near my house i had two days before i had to bring the model into college but i had work and didn’t have time to buy sticks. the branches might be quite primitive but worked really effectively i cut the sticks down to size using a saw before whittling away the bark so that when i glue gunned the sticks to the bark wouldn’t break off along with a branch when i brought the armature into college i then rapped mud rock around the neck branches for extra strength for adding the heads.

this is a crucial part of my project involving me attaching the heads to the armature i managed to bring Cerberus into college in me mum’s car and first attached the sticks which represent the skeleton neck of the creature i used glue gun to attach them then put layers of mud rock to strengthen the necks so the heads would not separate and de-attach. i then used a large drill bit to make large wholes in the back of the heads i did a stirring movement with the drill to make the wholes larger for the heads to fit on easily i then poured a lot of glue gun into the wholes i created , i then attached the heads on the end of the sticks firmly to make the bond permanent.

I then added some finishing touches like paint and some different fur to make patterns in his coat. When painting the armature i used a pinkish fleshy brown to show the dirt of the the creature in his natural habitat.

In conclusion i set out to create a three headed dog complete with a snake tail from clay the main difference between them is the fur coat due to weight time restrictions of sculpting all that clay to a professional level and also i preferred the idea of creating a more taxidermy based creature due to its unique nature if i could change anything with my work it would be the general shape of the body the posture is accurate to what i wanted but maybe his front leg is too thick and also the eyes maybe they could be improved another problem i had was with time management i should have planned and recorded what i would accomplish each day if i had started my armature two weeks before i would of had a lot more time to produce a higher quality model that would of been the difference between grades. but i think i have effectively accomplished these goals in the time given and hope to see what your conclusion is of my work.

one change i had to make to my outcome was instead of making all of the tail out of clay i had to use fur for most of the tail and then added a snake head on the end made of super sculpey this was due to time restraints.

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