Visual Language- Study Task 2 - Captain Character- Building the character

Building my Character

After designing my character i then built it up from an armature to a plasticine model. Here are the stages it took to build her fully.

First i did a rough sketch of my character to the scale i needed to build her as. I then drew the skeleton where the metal was going to be, leaving sections longer as they were to be tied around the spine, hips and shoulders. 

I then did an extra drawing of where the muscle of my character was and where i needed to build her up from. I have done these to show where the milliput needs to go as it gets hard and makes joints and sections bendable. It is also used so the feet are hard when holding the bolts to keep the character on the base.

This is the wire frame i have built up so i can use it to build my character on. I started by simply twisting two pieces of metal together so it is thicker for me to use and is less likely to snap. I then cut the lengths of my legs using my scale model. Then curled the feet around making sue a bolt will securely hold in place with the milliput. I then spun the spin onto the legs so it is held in place before then making the arms and hands. Then lastly was curling the head into the correct shape. This was all very simple but it took time as i was using a think metal so it made the bending of metal harder to do. I didn't snap the metal as i was gentle with it and took my time making sure it was precise.

This was just after i put milliput on my model. The feet are now holding the bolts to attach to the board so now once it has dried i can make my model secure. I have also placed it on the joints and hands so when bending, it bends at the joints and not at any point on the arms. 

Now i have to wait for it to dry which takes a few hours before i can build on it as i need it to dry hard.

I have spent a lot of time building this up as it is so hard to get the character to look smooth. I then added the boots and skirt so it looks loosley like my character so far. I have only added the nose so far but even that was tricky as it is so small and my hands became very unsteady so adding the details were harder.

This is my final character fully covered in plasticine. I found this whole process very enjoyable but it was very hard and i dont like how my character turned out as she doesn't look enough like the character i draw and is too flat. I didn't do well with creating a character that was fully 3D as she still looks rather flat on the face and skirt so i would try to make her fully 3D next time i try to use this medium.

I am happy to to have a completed character and for my first time using this i was happy to be able to know how to use it in the future. For the shoes, skirt and armour, i mixed my own colours as i did not like any of the basic shades that were available. I am happy with how the hair turned out as it is small rolls and small thin strips that come down as the hair coming out of the ponytail so it looks very effective as the hair. I also like the belt as the buckle looks quite like an actual buckle so that section looks good, its just the torso that is too small so it throws off the whole look as the shoulders then look way too big and bulky. The eyes took me a while as they were to small. The pupils needed to be straight so this took time and effort trying to get them looking exactly on the right point of the eye.

Overall i am happy to have it completed but there's many things i would like to change in the future so i would add all these aspects to the next character that i design if i were to build them again for any stop motion. This was a helpful experience as i got to know the stages that needed to be done when building and i now know what to apply as improvements for my next plasticine model.