Homework - Mike Chapman

Casey Kelly
Casey Kelly ✭
in Homework - Muscle Suit Fabrication with Ted Haines
Hey Mike,

Post your homework on this page!

Comments

  • Mike Chapman
    Mike Chapman ✭
    edited March 2016
    My homework so far - I started with the bodycast that I had started at Ted's previous class Body Casting on a Budget - I went back and got new measurements on the friend who will be wearing the suit to help me shave down the rigid foam to his new proportions.



    from there I went into Zbrush and build a 3D model of my friend using an existing model and modified it to his measurements. I then started digitally sculpting the final result I was hoping for to build out the proportions. 



    I then "reverse engineered" his bone and muscle structure to see where the Hulk's joints would lie in order to have a more accurate hinge as tho where the joints would bend.




    At that point, I built one side of the muscles underneath the skin to build out the approximate foam shapes.



  • Mike Chapman
    Mike Chapman ✭
    After sculpting the muscles in Zbrush, I used the Shadowbox feature in Zbrush to give me the muscle "silhouette" in width, length and height to be able to translate it to 2 dimensional scaled templates to trace onto the foam and give me a good start to the shape of the muscles and keep all the muscles to scale.



    I didn't have a bandsaw big enough to trim these and keep them accurate from top to bottom so I used the electric carving knife and tried to keep things level to cut each plane, then tape the pieces back together before cutting the second plane. In hindsight, I should have given myself a larger block to start off with because slivers of foam don't want to go back to their original shape very well. 

  • Mike Chapman
    Mike Chapman ✭
    once I had all the shapes carved, I laid them out to see if they would fit.

    I started to smooth out the muscles using the techniques we went over in class and BJ Guyer's class on foam puppets. Once I put it on the foam cast of my friend, It looked like more work had to be done to the underside of the muscle to make things fit better together. I also started cutting alittle more detail into the muscle on Ted's advice.

    I have started to work with the overlock machine to cover the muscles in spandex, but one of the threads keeps breaking and I can't get around a side without it getting messed up. It also doesn't take slight curves very well and the top piece of fabric tends to bunch up Seeing as this is my first time using any sewing device, it may be 100 different things that I could be doing wrong. 



    It's going to take a lot more practice until I feel comfortable with this "sewing" stuff. 
    Thankfully I have Amazon streaming video...


  • Mike Chapman
    Mike Chapman ✭

    finished up bondo-ing and sealing my bodycast, since it was time to start working with spandex. Much nicer surface to work with.
    As mentioned, the overlock machine is giving me problems. Ted's suggestion of raising the thread rack definitely helped the thread from breaking, but I am still getting skipping threads and it looks like I will have to bring it in to a pro to have it set up and give me some instruction on how to use it. I am getting better at moving it around curves though, so its good practice in working with the machine.

    the clavicle I wasn't happy with, so I sculpted it and cast it in a higher density flexible polyfoam (Foam-it flex 17) and whip stitched the spandex tightly around it. 

    since I will be gluing the spandex to the surface to get all the muscle striations, I simply pinned the spandex skin onto the foam and safety pinned it to the surface. It doesnt get as nice as a stitched cover does, but it is good enough for the muscle suit test.
  • Mike Chapman
    Mike Chapman ✭
    edited March 2016
    The model has to leave for a work trip tomorrow, so I got a quick muscle test so I could make some adjustments and see how it all works.

    Here is the video:



    after reviewing, I think that I need to make the chest a bit smaller and the biceps attached to the suit. I think they are a little to big to show any movement that an elastic band could drive. I also need to have the chest tie in a bit more under the deltoid. I really like how the back is looking, the front needs a little more love though. 
  • Mike Chapman
    Mike Chapman ✭
    hand stitching taking more time than anticipated - I have been gluing the spandex to the foam using 74 spray and then hand stitching the muscle bodies. starting to get the hang of it...
  • Mike Chapman
    Mike Chapman ✭
    The rest of the muscle covers are done (so far) and I was able to get my overlock machine working correctly - the spandex shirt I got for the base is only about 5% spandex, so I plan on cutting it apart and using it as a pattern for a better spandex to sew all the muscles onto. This one just isn't as form-fitting as I think I would like. I wanted to get an idea of what the spandex skin on the whole thing would look like so I did a quick pinning of the spandex over everything to get a sense of how it would look. 

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