I'm in the second year of the animation program at Seneca and this is my final project for the subject Character Design. We dedicated one semester in planing our own character, from its story and skatches, fully painted characters and props, to a materialised product; the maquette.
So, he sees a sweet inocent golden retriever and he enjoys following him and bullying him around, setting traps for that poor dog. But he has no interest in killing the golden retriever; he just likes to have someone to play with...
- Concept designs and different poses for the maquette -
The pose I chose for the final step; the maquette.
Blue 8 on the watch for his victim.
Mr. Blue 8 holding a carrot for the first time since he was a little bunny.
Full body rotation of the character done before creating the poses.
Early stages of the maquette. Lots of plumber's epoxy was used on the parts where metal touches metal, in order to glue it togather.
Here with some tin foil and even more epoxy. My teacher said that only cockroaches and my maquette would survive the end of the world.
Almost there!
Ready to be baked.
I baked my maquette at 190 F for 25 minutes. To prevent the maguette from cracking, be really causious not to expose the maquette too fast to a different temperature. After baking, I let it to cool down in the owen for 10 minutes. Then opened the owen and let it adjust to the room temperature. After that, I left it in my room, with cosed windows (cause it's winter and we don't want to get a crack).
I grey sprayed it in order to paint it digitally, as a test (and also because the acrylics would stick a little better).
- Final product -
The maquette ended up having just three minor cracks, which is not a big deal. And those cracks appeared after two days. Another tip: to prevent any air inside the maquette, wrap that sculpy tight around the base. That is mostly the reason why maquettes get cracks.
