Prepping for the Animal in Motion

Examples of the armatures for the octopus and the stag.

Bring all of your materials to class for week 5 to build your armature. We will be building our animal armatures in class.

Bring Goggles (eye safety glasses).

GO TO ECOMPANION TO DOWNLOAD AN EXTENSIVE POWERPOINT ON THIS PROJECT.

Bring all your resource images. Make sure you have all the smaller gauge wire and the two part epoxy.

Field Trip

No Class for week 4. Field trip instead.

Option 1.
Richard McDonald
Dawson Cole Gallery located in Laguna Beach. Map.
Friday the 30th at 6pm.

Option 2.
Nick Cave
Fowler Museum UCLA. Map.
Anytime, no set day.

You may go to either one of them at anytime before week 5. I will be at the Dawson Cole Gallery at the scheduled time.

For extra credit, go to both. Be sure to keep your evidence of attendance.

Final Day of Class

If you have an exceptional piece that you would like to have documented, please bring it in on the final day. This includes the head and animal work. I will give you a copy of the image with request.

Extra Credit

For some additional credit points, put your final character into the environment you imagined it to be in. Use a digital painting format. Send me the digital jpg along with your character pre-production package.

Example

Baking

The box the the clay comes in, and the recommendation from the company that makes the clay, suggests that you bake at 275 for 15 minutes per quarter inch of thickness. This equals one hour per inch of thickness.

Thickness is calculated from the skin of the thickest section to the core of that section.

I tend to bake at a lower temp for a longer period in three steps:

• Step 1: 225-250 (225 for shallow pieces on up to 250 for the thicker ones) Double the time of baking. (2 hours per inch of thickness)
• Step 2: Drop the oven temp to the lowest setting after the 225-250 bake for an additional time that is equal to half of the higher bake. Example- If I have a piece that is two inches thick, I bake at 225 for four hours then reduce the heat to the lowest setting and bake an additional two hours.
• Step 3: Turn oven off and allow to cool over night or for a period in which the maquette cools to the temp of the room with out being removed from the oven. A quick cool can result in cracks.

Successful Student Examples Prior

The two examples below are of two students who teamed up to make one overall composition.

Final two pieces together.

Effective use of gesture and line below.

Good character proportions below.

Below is good follow-through. Student had precise concept on paper and executed in 3D space exactly as was pre-visualized in 2D.

Below is a simple design, but the over all proportions work well and an effective character is established following conventional iconography. The character is a working class robot. Notice the symbolic rat embellishments.

Another example of very good execution of 3D form from 2D concept.

Below is an ambitious execution. The student made a piece that was perhaps too large, but the dedication and the execution of technique pervaded and he created a piece that dropped jaws in the classroom. While the work was maybe unusable in the grand scheme of things, it was a work that not only wowed the audience, but inspired a whole group to up the anty of their own work in the future. Something to be said about inspiration and dedication!

Another simple design that works well due to its overall proportions and sense of character.

Final Project Concept Example

Here is my example of the final project concept setup. The more complete this concept package is, the easier it will be to implement the maquette and better your final maquette is going to appear.

• My concept came about by a dream that I had several months ago. I dreamt that I was in a land where there was desperation and famine. As I was going through town after town (it was something you might expect in a typical American city and the outlying suburbs and towns) I saw waste and devastation. Everyone was hungry and the region was a desolate achromatic environment with strong winds and decomposing buildings (dust devils and a hazy sun). The people I came across were all emaciated - either dying or already dead. This was a typical post-apocalyptic environment as we understand in our contemporary visual culture.

• As I went through the various towns, the people who were able to move were all running from something that I knew must be the source of the devastation. Eventually, I saw what I thought might be the thing that was so scary to everyone- but from the distance, it just looked like a large fat man in the haze. As I got closer, I saw that he (the beast thing) was about three times my height. It was constructed in such a way that the upper half was a very very fat man resting in a nest like structure of dead branches, and the lower half was dead tree branches (legs) leading up to the nest like structure.

• Every step this beast took, I could see the life and color leave the area around its step and sort of rush up the dead tree-branched legs to the fat upper man body. I knew (as we tend to know stuff in dreams) that this beast was taking life and filling itself up to the point where it would eventually burst --- and I was like, "ahhh, this is famine, and he is fattening himself up with everything he touches, but once he is full, he will bust and all that stuff inside will fertilize the lands for the future". This knowledge did not make him any less spooky to me.

• It did not seem to notice me, as it walked past in the devastated city streets with super quiet steps that sucked in sound just like it sucked in color and life, and even though I knew it was not paying attention to me, it was both terrifying and exciting- something so monumental and lethal.

• I woke up right after it passed in my dream and I rushed to my computer to make a rough sketch of what it looked like before I forgot.

Initial sketch

john hammer © all rights reserved

I used the initial sketch as the starting point. Rather than using the tightly bunched/wrapped horns, I chose to stretch them and expand out. I also chose to make some things that I "knew" in my dream into symbolic objects and details, such as the cornucopia of death and the jewel encrusted horns. The gesture of the left hand was a choice made for further aesthetics, design, and understanding of the character.

john hammer © all rights reserved

The Story to go with the design concept:

Famine is a beast which brings about shortage and deficiency by absorbing all fertility and life out of the land into the body of itself. Every step it takes depletes the abundance of the land.

Once the gluttonous beast is full, it will eventually burst, spreading all the stolen lands fertility back to the earth, along with sending out its own seed to the wind.

It will repeat this cycle on any land where its seeds are deposited and manage to take root.

Its horns are jeweled with the riches it steals from nations. It has no ears and is thus unresponsive to the cries of desperation that it leaves in the wake of its path, not that it would matter, as famine’s only drive is to suck up every possible sign of life to the point of its own explosion.

It carries in one arm the cornucopia of drought, disease, and death, along with the fruits that will once again go back to the lands.

The other hand displays the sign of peace and tranquility, creating a mirage to effectively bring about the complacency of neighboring populaces – it relies on this to achieve its goal. Ironically, this hand gesture also hints of the eventual outcome of fertility being regained and the balance all things must have.

john hammer © all rights reserved

REMINDER:

Once again, the better fleshed out your initial concept, the better and the easier the execution of your concept will be.

Look at your fellow classmates- there are a couple who are very well prepared and had most all aspects of their character fleshed out and designed on paper. Their progress in class shows the ease that such preparation provides --- the guess work is gone because there is a strong game plan in place.

Take the time NOW to put your thoughts and concepts on paper so that the clay is a vehicle to achieve the concept, not necessarily the tool to work out the problems with the idea or design.

You have two more class periods and all the days in between to work on this. The execution in clay will be much faster and much better the more your plan is in place before hand. Use your time well.

Check my ealier post on what you need to have in place for submission on week 11.

Animal in Motion

Final form before detailing with dremal tool.



LATE IN POSTING BUT USE THE APPROACH BELOW WITH YOUR FINAL PROJECT

As with any armature, make sure your gesture is secure in the wireframe. Pay attention to this with your final character.

Add your substantial mass first.

Then work on defining your major and minor planes. You need to use this approach with your final project to keep the process as clean and direct as possible.

Make sure you continue to work in the round.

Pay attention to muscle direction and definition.

Use what tools you can to add various texture and interest.

Check list for Final Project

1. Initial concept sketches.
2. Background story and analysis for character.
3. Three point turn around (front-side-back). Watch for your proportions.
4. Character in pose/gesture which defines the character to the viewer.

Some suggested questions to ponder and maybe use to help define your character:

• Why are you choosing your character?

• Why is your character alive-what brought about your character?

• What does your character do to stay alive?

• What purpose does your character serve?

• How old or young is your character?

• Is your character good, evil, neutral, mundane, complacent, nervous, etc…?

• Where does it live, what is its habitat, how does the environment influence it’s structure?

• Any unusual habits or quirks?

• How does it interact with others/how do others respond to it?

• Is this an epic moment or a quiet moment (the gesture)?

Detailing your maquette

Detailing:

• Look to your texture and juxtaposition of textures.


• Ask yourself, "what can be less detailed and what might I want to further detail?"


• "How can I make this interesting in composition and expression?"

You will see that I used various textures and places in which detail might add interest --- keep this in mind for the future projects. Also, you will see that I have brought in other materials- keep this approach in mind for the next projects.

Scroll down to see the the texture I used for hair and the approach for the garment.

I expect to bake this tomorrow.

Week 3

Scroll down to see the process and build up of my maquette.

First you will see a general build up of simple mass and form, paying attention to a slight gesture or movement of the simple pose.

Next, you will see that I blocked out my major planes, closing in more on the gesture of the simple pose.

Once I am satisfied with the overall form and gesture, I then start blocking out the simplified features, working all up simultaneously.

I begin the refining of the major planes into a more nuanced planer structure that defines an individual.

I then block in the mass for the hair.

THIS is where I would like you to be for class- basic feature structure in place and basic mass for hair/hat in place.

We will work on refining and texture in class.

WATCH YOUR SILHOUETTES!