Stop Motion #2

While I continue to think this is interesting, at this point I'm no longer filming the process, because I'm finding it to be kind of disruptive, as I work on the final finish. Best to watch this one a couple of times, focusing on different areas. Next time I do something like this, I'll come up with some kind of registration system, so it's not so jumpy. My current system is pretty low tech.

Framing Up The Back And Arms

I'm glad there are no furniture makers around to see me at this moment. Totally muddling through. Thank God it I only need to figure it out once.

Got To Be A Better Way

Nothing more frustrating than knowing with certainty that there is a better way to do something, but not having the time (or, admittedly, the inclination) to figure it out.

1st Wax

All Wrong Laminating

Great stuff and old deck screws.

Love Seat Back Finished Design

Stop Motion As A Training Tool

So, this was interesting. Today I rigged up the tripod so it hung down from the ceiling, and then set frameograph (a great app) to take one shot every 5 minutes, set to beep in the last three seconds so that I would know to get out of the way.

The resulting video isn't perfect, but it does provide a sense of one of things I love most about modeling; watching the accumulation of a million tiny changes that slowly bring the object into "focus".  Having a consistent 5 minute timer also had the unexpected benefit of reminding me to keep moving around the sculpture as a whole (see yesterday's post), instead of getting bogged down in any particular problem areas, or tricky little details.

If you watch closely (it's much, much better to watch it on Vimeo), you can see that I started in the upper left, and then slowly worked my way across and back. I think everything got changed at least a little, so give it a couple of views to really track the changes (it's only 7 seconds). Watch it and be amazed that I considered this a really productive day.

Working With Castilene

The modeling on this project is being done in Castilene, which is fantastic medium and, happily, working just liked I hoped it would in combination with the urethane foam. The downside of Castilene is that it's slow,  like plasticene, and the surface is finicky. The problem is that, or me, a finicky surface is like the tar baby - I can get stuck to trying to perfect the surface, when I really need to be working the form.

With that in mind, I am very deliberately trying to keep away from working the surface. In this clip you can see I'm working with a wax pen and an alcohol torch, trying to keep the Castilene soft and the modeling light.

The deadlines on this project are tight enough that I'm actually thinking about my "touch rate" - trying make sure that I'm moving quickly and working the piece as a whole without getting stuck resolving individual elements or problem areas.

To The Foundry!

Dropped these off to Jeb Wood at Independent Casting on Friday. I was particularly happy with the back of the chair, which is coated with Bondo, and smooth as a baby's bottom. I'm really excited to see how they look in aluminum. Bright, is my guess. There's a nice contrast between that the face, which has a nice, slightly jittery, texture. 

In the meantime, progress continues on the back of the love seat. I've got the tri-pod set up on the ceiling, and I'm hoping to make another stop motion movie of the process as it unfolds. I've also got a process video to post that I'll put up as soon as it uploads to Vimeo.