WireHead 1.1

Well...

I went ahead and cast a second model of wirehead. My plaster was a bit too soft so she didn't really come out as well as I'd have hoped but I decided she was good enough to test the new model with. So... Here she is. WireHead 1.1 the model obviously still needs a lot of work and I think also needs to be a little bigger. Particularly the glasses becaue they made it hard to work on her eyes. I'd also have liked to use heavier wire for her hair and fewer strands (though admittedly this is pretty neat) Lotsa things to fix. Need harder plaster, probably want to make my latex skin thinner, and a few other things. Still. Not bad for 4 hours work.

Sparkly

Hee!

I forgot to mention that I finally got around to painting my nails again after going for like 3 weeks without biting them without them being covered! I'd been waiting on finding the right colour and last weekend, I found it, 'Liquid Euphoria'. This is the most awsome colour EVAH! It's sorta interference blue with a deeper brass sort of colour so it's got sort of a diffuse, dusty spectrum beneath a bluish sheen.

I actually bought two colours, this one and a very cool metallic blue, which I attacked Stacey centauress with and di her fingers and toes. It's really brilliant in contrast with her skin and matches her eyes. Soo cool. We look like freaky sci-fi babes now. ;)

WireHead recap

it was late last night so I didn't post the full scoop on Wirehead but now here's the rest of it. :) Soooo... For a rough-cut test I'm pretty happy with it. It was fun and she ended up looking like the illegitimate love child of Gadget Hackwrench, Tank Girl, and Ani DiFranco, which totally rules. As for things I liked:

• I'm generally happy with most of the motion. Considering it was 30 seconds in 4 hours, I think I did pretty darn good.
• The ease of use with the foam model is really nice.
• The weight of the foam model is really nice.
• The hair, while not quite my original design, was pretty cool.
• Using dope-sheets went really well.
• And finally, I wanna say that Frame Thief Is the most awsome piece of shareware I've ever used! It has all the functions of a lunchbox unit and many more. I am DEFINETELY going to pay them the $40 registration fee out of my birthday money. So totally worth it! I did all of WireHead 1.1 with it and will be using it a LOT in the future for pencil tests. Being able to do live playback AND onionskin at the same time is just impossibly cool. The only thing I didn't like about it was that it defaults to PICT mode and a file extension that sometimes has trouble in Premiere but both of these were easily changed in the preferences. All in all, GREAT piece of software!

Things I didn't like:

• Can see supports in first scene with block wobbling. While I wasn't specifically trying to hide this since it was just a test, I probably should have.
• Bubbles in mould/mould too soft. I've been told UltraCal30 will take care of this, but I need to make a new body since I broke the original.
• Mould lines. Next time, I need to put down a seam of latex just before I add the foam so that the seams are easier to clean up.
• Skin too thick. Next time I should make a thinner latex skin so that it doesn't bind weirdly.
• Model a little too small. This may be a problem with nails. Hard to work on a model this size. I kept dinging it. I think roughly 1.5 times the size I'm working with might be better.
• Couldn't find mineral oil. I needed mineral oil to smooth out the clay. That's why there's too much texture in the skin.
• Wanted thicker wires. In the original design, her hair was a few 12ga wires instead of a bajillion 24ga wires. I think this turned out okay.
• Eyes not round enough/too textured. I need glass eyes. The clay sticks to the sculpey ones I made too much.
• Glasses too small/frames too big. Hard to work eyes.
• Camera range. I need a macro lens.
• Not enough time. Story of my life.

Things that will cost me that I want for claymation.

• UltraCal30 About $30 + shipping for 50lbs.
• Register Frame Thief. $40
• Macro lens adaptor for camera. $20 + shipping.
• Some clamps. (varied)

Why do all of my hobbies turn spendy? *sulk*