Best Of
Experiment gone wrong
For this look I pretty much used what I had laying around the house. The blood is a pint of blood from like the Halloween stores. As for the texture and skin I used paper towels and tissue. To get everything to stick I used Ben Nye Spirit Gum.
I titled it Experiment gone wrong because I was portraying a scientist trying to conduct a very important experiment that ended up going horribly wrong. My face ended up getting burnt due to the chemicals I accidentally mixed exploded. 
Bright orc remake
This orc is a creation of “Richard Redlefson” for the Will Smith movie “Bright”. I have loved Richards work for so long and had wanted to do a recreation of the same species of orc.The prosthetics are “Rubberwear” sold by “Last looks makeup Fx store”. This look was created on my father and was such a special project for me.
Egyptian scarab beetle goddess
For this look, I had to life cast,sculpt, mold, and run this prosthetic, start to finish! We were also responsible for creating our own costumes. Her dress and jewelry were purchased and altered, and her wings were hand made by me. This scarab beetle goddess is my most in depth piece currently.Re: Projects I have completed using my SWSoCA DVDs
That's a nice looking Vacuum Former!!! You get extra points for style!
Re: Life-size head bust armature question.
As new sculptor i always recommend the pole,its harder takes longer and is less forgiving but it teaches you core skills and will lock in your skill and ability
Enigma
2
Re: Life-size head bust armature question.
It all depends on what you want to sculpt.
If you are going to add to the human form, an Ed-head is great.
But if you want to sculpt deeper and not be constrained by the human form, a custom armature is needed.
/Chris
If you are going to add to the human form, an Ed-head is great.
But if you want to sculpt deeper and not be constrained by the human form, a custom armature is needed.
/Chris
Articulated robotic rhino sculpture
I just finished this guy, he's 56" long and weighs somewhere north of 125 lbs. The left side is mostly naturalistic and the right side is more obviously mechanical because I'm indecisive and as Fon Davis pointed out in his sci-fi helmet video, you never see both sides of an object at the same time (except when it's next to a mirror)
Here's a stop motion animation of him charging
https://youtu.be/Vhhit2xHSpQ
Here's a stop motion animation of him charging
https://youtu.be/Vhhit2xHSpQ
Dennis Ombie - stop motion puppet
I purchased the SWSoCA DVDs for stop motion hosted by the Chiodo Brothers as a Christmas gift to myself last year. In February 2016 animator Anthony Scott of stopmotionanimation dot com decided to host a stop motion jam. Participants would need to submit a 20 second film with "Spring" as the theme and all skill levels were invited to participate. I decided that it would be the perfect time to try stop motion so I built a puppet and set following the instructions on my dvds.
My finished result is Dennis Ombie who is so happy the snow is gone and flowers are blooming that he decides to dance and jump around.
The stop motion jam had over 50 animators and Anthony Scott has a final cut complete and music is currently being written for it before it will be posted. My 20 second clip was called Spring Fever and here are a few shots and stills from the clip.
My finished result is Dennis Ombie who is so happy the snow is gone and flowers are blooming that he decides to dance and jump around.
The stop motion jam had over 50 animators and Anthony Scott has a final cut complete and music is currently being written for it before it will be posted. My 20 second clip was called Spring Fever and here are a few shots and stills from the clip.
Re: Sculptures with Animatronics
I don't know of any locations where animatronics are being worked on, but there are some great maker spaces in LA where folks are often working with 3d printers, laser cutters, arduinos, etc.
My biggest advice would be to work modularly, and try and avoid ever gluing or permanently attaching anything. This way you can easily swap out prototype components for more polished versions, make upgrades, make repairs, or evolve the design to include new functionality. I try and have everything bolt together where possible.
I'd start with a basic list of requirements for your character. List off everything you want it to do, what features move, what range of motion those movements should have, how fast you want them to move. Then determine your character's design requirements like scale, general profile, so you can determine how much space you'll have inside to house your components. This is also a good time to see if you want to have some components external (usually linked with cables) if that works for your project.
A lot of folks use an outside-in process for building animatronic characters. Starting with the sculpt, then casting the skin, making the fiberglass/vacuum formed underskull, then building the internal mechanisms, supports, etc.
/Chris
My biggest advice would be to work modularly, and try and avoid ever gluing or permanently attaching anything. This way you can easily swap out prototype components for more polished versions, make upgrades, make repairs, or evolve the design to include new functionality. I try and have everything bolt together where possible.
I'd start with a basic list of requirements for your character. List off everything you want it to do, what features move, what range of motion those movements should have, how fast you want them to move. Then determine your character's design requirements like scale, general profile, so you can determine how much space you'll have inside to house your components. This is also a good time to see if you want to have some components external (usually linked with cables) if that works for your project.
A lot of folks use an outside-in process for building animatronic characters. Starting with the sculpt, then casting the skin, making the fiberglass/vacuum formed underskull, then building the internal mechanisms, supports, etc.
/Chris
Re: Choosing an epoxy for a glowing knife
For an amber or orange colored blade that needs to be flexible and able to be lit from within, I would go with something like PMC-746 from Smooth-On. It's a urethane rubber, about Shore A 60. You could design whatever is holding the LEDs to reinforce the rubber to keep it from being floppy while leaving the majority of the blade user friendly (think about a smaller version of the blade as the reinforcement). Incorporate this core, including the LEDs into the mold design. It's not necessary but, I would pressure cast it to remove any bubbles (make sure whatever mold you are using is also pressure cast or it will be ruined when casting the blade). Painting might be an issue but, you could add metallic powder pigments to the mix when casting. This will affect transparency so, I would be sparing in how much I added. You could also "paint" the interior of the mold with metallic powder pigments to bind them to the blades surface. Again, be conservative or you lose transparency.
It may work out for you to omit the metal paint and just go with the rubber. It's semi-transparent but, might look cool.
Another idea would be to have the light come from the handle and cut a blade core from acrylic sheet plastic and overmold that acrylic sheet with clear rubber or silicone. Look up images of "edge lit acrylic" for what I'm meaning. it may help to "frost" or sand the acrylic sheet so the light is universal up the blade. You could also add an extra layer of cool by inscribing sigils or something on the surface of the acrylic which will catch the light even more. No need for an LED strip up the blade, the acrylic will diffuse the light.
Cool design, by the way.
It may work out for you to omit the metal paint and just go with the rubber. It's semi-transparent but, might look cool.
Another idea would be to have the light come from the handle and cut a blade core from acrylic sheet plastic and overmold that acrylic sheet with clear rubber or silicone. Look up images of "edge lit acrylic" for what I'm meaning. it may help to "frost" or sand the acrylic sheet so the light is universal up the blade. You could also add an extra layer of cool by inscribing sigils or something on the surface of the acrylic which will catch the light even more. No need for an LED strip up the blade, the acrylic will diffuse the light.
Cool design, by the way.
Micah J.
1