The Mother: Sculpt WIP

This is my latest full-sized creature bust project which, as always will end up being mould and then cast in resin, painted and set up with glowing eyes. I’m really excited about this sculpt, and it’s coming together very nicely.

The concept was done in a couple of hours in ZBrush, which was then rendered in the front, side and rear views, sized up in Illustrator and then printed out for scale, and taped to a shelf at the rear of my work area so that I could work with full-sized references.

I then started work with a polystyrene foam base, and a core column made from the same material to provide stability and support, with the base in mind to use as a convenient surface to mould on when it’s ready. I knew this was going to get pretty heavy as I worked on it, so picking it up and shifting it around isn’t something that I want to do. For convenience sake, the base was set up a lazy Susan.

The bust sculpt was then built up in Monster Clay medium-grade, turning as I added clay, and then leaving to cool; building up a lot of Monster Clay in one go can sag when it’s still warm. After getting the general silhouette right (checked by shifting the lazy Susan in front of each of the printed references), I cut the end off a broom handle and set it into the top of the skull. This would be the mount for the halo crown.

I then took down the reference images, to allow myself the freedom to develop the piece without being tied down to the original concept. Some of the details changed; replacing the shoulder ‘tentacles’ with the masses pictured below at the front and back around the base of the neck.

After completing the overall forms, and doing some of the detailing, I tried out some skin textures, before moving onto the crown – the detail of the symmetry will come later on.

As this is going to have to be moulded in several distinct pieces, it was time to think about how the moulding would occur. The mould will be a two-part silicone mould, covering the left and right halves, with a two part resin mother mould for stability over the top. This means that the crown will have to be sculpted and moulded separately, in addition to the skull ‘tentacles’, two of which are set behind either ear hole. When the pieces are cast, I need to fit them all together and for the seams to be hidden in a natural manner… so that’s why I’ve started on the crown.

A sized template was printed and cut, then traced onto 5cm polystyrene foam. It was then cut out with a foam cutter, a hole cut into the center, and one end of the sawn-off broom handle slotted into place. The first pic shows the test fit, which is positioned higher than in the concept. She’s now 71cm high (!), the largest piece that I’ve worked on, and extremely imposing on the desk!

The halo was then removed, covered in clay, and I’ve started to lay out the forms. Again, I’ve changed the design into something that I think feels better. The final two shots are of the unfinished halo fitted into place so I can check the size, developing silhouette and overall feel.

This is going to cost a couple of hundred pounds to mould and cast, so I need to make sure that everything’s as perfect for moulding as it can be. When the sculpting is done, I’ll take my time with the mould, so I don’t waste the money. I need to get it right first time. Eventually, I’ll stick The Mother on Etsy as casts for sale, after my own cast is painted and wired up with her glowing eyes. I might add some more LEDs in the holes around the neck too, if the tests look good.

She’s beautiful and scary and, like the other ‘night light’ busts I’ve done, will look really creepy in our hallway. The sculpting work should be basically done this month, and I’ll mould and cast the crown, the two pairs of skull ‘tentacles’ too. Then I’ll fit these into the main bust and finish the sculpting there to get the seams right, before removing the cast pieces, moulding and casting the main body… though that might have to wait until June; so I can afford to mould such a large piece, and to give me time to check my thinking on how the moulding for the main part of the bust will actually pan out.

Thanks for looking!

Jim.

Resin Prop Gun: Progress

I finally managed to finish the resin prop gun that I’ve been working on, and wanted to share it on here! It was a real labour of love that involved a pretty huge learning curve, because I’ve never done anything like this before. I wanted to turn the piece into a ‘working prop’, complete with lights, and that’s not something that I’ve ever done before. I’ve done some soldering, but not since I was twelve… I think my dad insisted that I go and help him with his projects in the garage rather when I was insisting that I wanted to help my mum in the kitchen. Looking back, I think my mum just needed some time free to cook Sunday lunch, and finally I can see what use that brief time soldering was!

So, here’s some pics of the ‘completed’ clay sculpt. It took a few hours to smooth everything down, using my usual cut-off chip brush, a soft small paint brush and a kitchen scouring pad/sponge, all with some white spirits/ mineral spirits… but only because I had to the spirits evaporate from one side before I could risk turning the piece over. I ended up making a few small changes before I was really finished; sorry for the lack of pics, but I was on a roll 🙂

 

For moulding the piece, I raised it up off my cutting mat on some old piece of soft EVA foam, so as to reduce the risk of the clay being damaged. I then built a base of water-based clay around the blaster, which came up to the halfway point with the gun lying on its side. The clay was smoothed out with a water-covered finger, a wet sponge, with the detail around the very edges of the piece made smooth and tight-fitting with a soft rubber sculpting tool. This was then surrounded by mould wall made from cut sections of A4 foam board, and the top half of this two-piece mould was filled in with silicone.

This was done in two layers; the first for detail, and the second thickened with some Polyfibre II so that I could ‘sculpt’ the silicone on in a half-jacket, which saves a lot of silicone compared to just filling the mould up to the top.

For a mother mould, I used just a couple of layers of Easyflo 120 resin; the first layers poured and then spread with a paint brush, and the second bulked out with more Polyfibre II, which saved resin and made it easier to adequately cover the curved and vertical surfaces.

The whole piece was then flipped over. the clay was cleaned out, and the moulding process repeated, using some silicone free mould release to stop the silicone from the first part of the mould sticking to that of the second.

 

After opening it all up and cleaning out the clay, it was then time for moulding. I poured some Easyflo 120 into each side of the mould, spreading it around with a paint brush. Once this had cured, I mixed up some more resin, poured it in one half of the mould, then closed the mould and sloshed the resin around. Feeling how the weight of the piece shifted as the resin moved, I tried to make sure that everything inside was covered evenly, making sure that the seems would be completely covered… and it worked!

 

Since I needed to make this piece ‘functional’, I needed to open it up; batteries, lights and wiring needed to be fitted inside, so I cut off the top section with my Dremel. I then primed and painted the piece, to make it look as if it was well-used.

Then came the wiring, and this was the real learning part for me. With help from my partner, I came up with a wiring diagram (which I won’t show you, because I scribbled all over it, and it’s a mess). I drilled out the barrel of the blaster, and the hole I’d marked for the ‘laser’ sight. I bought a couple of LED switches form eBay; a main power switch that would light up and provide power to two strips of LED lights for the sides plus the sight LED, and a moment switch to function as the trigger, which would light up the beam emitter when being fired.

There was a problem, though… the voltage for the LEDs embedded in the switches was 12V, and the other LEDs was 6V. Testing this out with four AA batteries left the switch LEDs a little dimmer than I’d wanted, but I was happy enough to run with things. I then soldered and wired everything up, drilled out the side panels and hot glued some cut pieces of opaque acrylic sheets over them and behind the beam emitter.

Everything was then re-tested before final wiring… the light on the beam emitter isn’t as strong as I’d like it and, thanks to getting too eager, the laser sight is actually slightly off target…. But I’m really happy with the results. Additionally, wiring up the LEDs for the side panels was a nightmare, simply because the connections were 3mmx2mm. This was extremely hard. My hands were shaking just from my heart beating, which I wouldn’t normally notice, but it was apparent at this scale.

The contacts on the strips are arranged in pairs, repeating between each LED. It doesn’t matter which contacts along the strip you solder on to, and in fact you can cut the strips to length. So, when working on the positive contacts, I put bluetac on the negative, and vice versa, to prevent any shorts. I then used hot glue over my soldering to anchor the connections in place; I don’t plan on opening up the blaster very often, but at some point I’ll need to change the batteries, and I need the connections to be physically secure. Because of this, I burned through a couple of the LEDs on the sides strips, making them non-functional. I think it works though. The piece is supposed to be well-used.

It was pointed out to me that there are designers that develop projects to be wired up, and that the process can take a great deal of time and effort. My results, on the surface, are great for cosplay, and I’ll know how to get a better result in the future… but inside things are quite messy, and although it can be used, I wouldn’t give this to a kid to play with. It just won’t stand up to their enthusiastic abuse.

So, here we go. Here’s the final product. The pictures don’t quite do the piece justice. It’s far more exciting to look at in real life! That’s partly due to my lack of decent photography skills, and also due to my phone’s camera.

 

Grey Head… Done!

He’s finally done!

Sculpted in Monster Claw, then moulded in Platsil Gel 10 with an Easyflo 120 resin mother mould that was thickened with Polyfibre II. Then slush cast in Easyflo 120, primed and airbrushed, with two acrylic spheres for the eyes that have white LEDs hot glued into their backs.

The electrics are comprised of 4xAA batteries in a battery pack, two super bright white LEDs, and a resistor, with the LEDs soldered onto small PCBs.

It’s taken me six months to complete him, but I’ve got a lot of other projects on the go, and so overall it’s only a week’s worth of work, most of which was evenly split between sculpting and moulding. The final piece is also my first full head-sized bust sculpt and cast that I’ve completed, and with some help from my partner, my first lighting project too.

I’m so proud of him.

I think I’ll call him Bob.

Grey Head: WIP

A quick update on one of my projects, which is going to be a lamp!

It’s a full-sized bust in Monster Clay, with a clay wall around the base to contain the silicone and resin that I’ll be using to create the mould. I’ll eventually cast it in polyurethane resin, paint it in grey tones, with the eyes formed of acrylic hemispheres that will be filled with Platsil Gel 10. These will then have LEDs mounted behind them, to create glowing eyes!

The eyes have been a bit of an issue for me. I really struggled to work out how to mould and cast them so that I could fill them with silicone to back light.

The options and issues were:

• Mould over smooth acrylic forms under the sculpt, then cast in resin and drill out the spaces for fresh spheres with a Dremel. This is a really problematic approach, as the eyes tend to be spaces where the resin pools. On a test piece, it took ages to drill out the excess resin, and it was extremely difficult to conserve the eyelids without accidental damage, or ruining the slight interior fold between the eyes lids and the eyeballs. It was also impossible to drill out exactly the right volume for the acrylic hemispheres to then fit inside.
• Sculpt and mould as above, but then when casting place the acrylic hemispheres in place and pour the resin in around them. This was a nightmare, as although the hemispheres were held in place, it was extremely difficult to slush or paint-cast the resin into the mould without contamination of the hemispheres. Additionally, reaching inside the cast to pour the correct amount of silicone into place was just too tricky.

In the end, I followed so expert advice from the The Moldin’ Years: Rubber and Resin group on Facebook:

• Sculpt a key onto one of the blank acrylic hemispheres.
• Mould in silicone and cast in resin, making two copies.
• Sculpt around these on the main bust.
• When it comes to moulding, just mould over the whole piece in silicone.
• Cast silicone copies of the keyed eyes.
• Insert the fresh silicone keyed eyes into the silicone mould and cast in resin.
• This should allow me to simply pluck out the silicone eyes from inside the cast, creating empty eye forms that should require very little clean up.

The busts just needs a final polish up… and then it’s onto mouldin’ time!

Monster Sculpt!

My latest monster mask sculpt!

As usual, this was sculpted in Monster Clay on a Plaster of Paris life cast of my head.

The ring of clar around the edges of the sculpt is flashing and a wall, behind which I’ll build another wall made of water-based clay, before making the mould with plaster.

The cuts with the short slashes across them will be stitched with string once the mask is cast and painted; they’ll be wound stitches.

I’ve got a little more refining to do, mostly clean up… but I’m happy with this for now.

Note On Final Detail:

To create a subtly bumpy surface, I took a makeup sponge and applied a little white spirit (mineral spirits in the US, I think). Then, dabbing all over the sculpt where I wanted this detail, the clay begins to soften, and I just kept going until the texture was right… and stopped before the clay got outright mushy.

If you try this for the first time, be aware that a makeup sponge can hold a lot of white spirit. It’ll easily run down the model, which might not be a problem… but slight glances with the back of your hand can smear previously-created detail. Caution is the watchword.

Attack Ship

It’s been a long while since I posted to my blog… Busy world, lots of distractions and a lot of home improvement.

I bought Substance Painter a few months ago, and have been blown away by the ease of texturing a model. With so many filters, so much control and a great ability to customise, paint and make a model worn/ dirty, it’s an exceptional piece of software.

The model was sculpted in ZBrush, then retopologised and UV mapped in Maya.

Original ZBrush Sculpt

To allow for high resolution textures, there are nine different texture sets/ UV groups, each with their own materials assigned, set up as different objects. The component objects are then unified into a single object that now has multiple texture sets, and it’s exported as an .obj file; importing this into Substance Painter then allows for the different texture sets to be worked on. I’ve included a UV snapshot of three of these texture sets below for reference and, whilst one of them doesn’t fill up the space as efficiently as it might do, it did the job.

The modelling took far more time than the texturing. Completing the ZBrush sculpt was pretty rapid, and I was happy with the overall design. This was created via Dynamesh and then reduced from 5m polygons to 36k using Decimation Master. The model was then made live in Maya, curves drawn across the surface which were then smoothed to make the flow of the individual piece of the model in the next step more regular.

The retopology was then completed at a low resolution; only around 25k polygons for the whole ship. The borders of the model’s pieces were checked with smooth preview, before the next step in Maya.

Substance Painter doesn’t have an option for smooth preview, so to prevent any blockiness the objects need to be at a higher resolution. So the pieces were subdivided, and unwanted edges were deleted. The final object is around 100k polygons which, when imported into Substance Painter, made my machine run like a dog.

However, because I’d UV mapped in groups and created several texture sets, the various pieces can be viewed and worked on in isolation in Substance Painter, speeding things up considerably. It’s also worth pointing out that by cycling through the material options with the ‘m’ shortcut key, you can effectively turn lighting and shadows off, allowing the whole object to be visible with very little slow down.

I was going to take everything back into Maya to render… but the in-built renderer in Substance Painter does a very nice job using HDRI maps for lighting. Since this is just a static image, just some beauty shots of the model and no scenery or posing, I’m just going to leave it as it is.

Head Bust

Exploration Buggy: Test Comp

Much to do still: model the rear and inside, and add texturing… but couldn’t resist posting!

Armored Scout Buggy: Teaser

A quick update of the model. The exterior has been completely retopologised (thanks to the use of Maya’s Quad Draw function and lots of curves to help smooth out the edges and various interior pieces of the body panels). The front wheels now have brake pads and suspension modeled too. The textures are purely placeholders… lots of exciting stuff still to come: interior modelling, full texturing, the weaponry and maybe some exterior armor plating.

Another Alien WIP!

Sculpted, retopologised and textured in ZBrush 4.5.