Sketchbot Prototype Sculpt, Phase 4, Part II

I poured the 2nd half of the mold this afternoon, and after 4 1/2 hours of letting it cure it appears that it's still squishy in parts. As I feared, the top half is way too thin around the eye opening to hold a proper shape. You can even see the mold creased a bit and I've got an awkward line running through the upper front portion. Grrrr. Additionally, I think the foam core ended up being too flimsy for this size of a mold. I might have to start from scratch here. I just want to get this molded, because that Sculpey is already cracking and chipping in areas. Not a happy camper at the moment. Stay tuned...

Sketchbot Prototype Sculpt - Phase 4

So, I'm upstate and have lugged all the materials with me to create the mold and pull some positives. The only problem is, I underestimated how much OOMOO 25 was needed for the mold! I ended up using two kits just for one side of the mold. I'll now have to wait until getting back to the city on Monday and visiting The Compleat Sculptor for more Smooth-On materials to finish the mold.

It's clear that I'll have to further machine the first resin pull, as the Sculpey is just too fragile at this point to continue working on, especially drilling holes for inserting ball-bearings as rivets. Additionally, I filled in the right hand so as to avoid a concave surface in the mold (I didn't want to undertake too complex of a mold my first time out). This will allow me to drill out a more accurate surface for holding the accessories.

As usual, more pictures up here on Flickr.

Sketchbot Prototype Sculpt, Phase 3

Alright, finally getting to the sanding and smoothing stages. I've been doing quite a bit of tiny corrections, then re-baking, sanding, and repeat. There's still that minor crack in the bent arm that just wont take the filler - grrr. During the last bake I decided to do a Photoshop colour mock-up to visualize the final paint. I'm going to try and finish the detail work tonight so I can make a mold tomorrow. Then I'll pull a few resin positives over the holiday weekend. A few more pics up on Flickr.

APW Gallery 16" Qee Exhibition

I stopped by APW Gallery last night to view the custom 16" Qee show on display. This was a smaller, more intimate show than usual for APW, and a welcome one at that. Hit the Flickr set for all the images, and please excuse the crappy iPhone quality.

Sketchbot Prototype Sculpt, Phase Two

As work continues on the sculpt i've learned to NOT over bake Sculpey! However, I did manage to get my carve on and was quite studious in fleshing out the volumes, using two 8" metal files and an X-Acto knife. I then applied a second - and extremely thin - layer of Sculpey, smoothing out as much as possible.  I had to break this into two sessions, as it was getting difficult to keep my detailed work pristine while working on the various parts.  I'll continue on with the bottom half, beefing up the right leg and leveling the character.  The Sharpie paint marker is more for size and thickness reference - i really didn't plan on having him be able to hold other objects other than the customized ones I'll be creating for him.

I've posted more pics up on the Sketchbot Flickr set.

Sketchbot Prototype Sculpt, Phase One

I finally had time on Friday to begin a sculpt of the Sketchbot prototype. In addition to creating a 3d model in the computer, I believe it's equally - if not more - important to execute a traditional sculpt that will allow me to better visualize the forms and volumes, and get a feel for how the object will hold up in real life. Having not actually sculpted since taking a figure sculpting class back in college, I decided to just dive in.



I printed out a size template and used the old cardboard reference trick. I had a pretty good idea how to lay out the underlying armature, however, I think I underestimated the amount of aluminum foil I should have used below the clay layer. I did wrap the thicker wire of the arms and legs with thinner gauged wire so that the Sculpey would have a surface to stick to. (not shown here, once I was rolling I ended up doing less documenting and more sculpting!)




I used an entire(!) box of Super Sculpey just to flesh out the form and ended up baking it longer than instructed because the thickness of the clay was greater than 1/2" at some points. (Next time, I may consider using Styrofoam or balsa wood shaped closer to the actual shape.) The sculpt looked fairly burnt in areas and is rock hard. I hope I'll be able to adequately carve and sandpaper this down a bit. I also need to further explore the "Firm" variant of Super Sculpey that air dries and would most likely have been a better base layer to use. In any case, this first attempt was beneficial in helping me figure out different ways of translating the 2d concept into a 3d form. Stay tuned for more updates!

Sketchbot Plushform featured on Toycyte and ToysREvil

Two of my favourite daily visits, Toycyte and ToysREvil, picked up my Plushform post. It's a great honor to be paired with my buddy kaNO. Thanks Jeremy and Andy!

Sketchbot Custom Plush in Plushform Exhibit and Launch Party @ Rotofugi, June 27th

I'm taking a cue from kaNO and posting a peak of my custom Plushform piece for the upcoming Custom Exhibit and Launch Party to be held at the Rotofugi design store and gallery. This is my second platform custom. Incidentally, kaNO's Moneygrip was my first.


The show opens next Friday, June 27th, in Chicago. As you can see from the announcement, there are quite a few big names participating. I was a late invite (hence, not on the flyer) and am excited to be included with such an esteemed group of peers. Be sure to check out the Shawnimals site for more plush goodness, including the original Ninja plushie!

Cyclawps - My First Spore Creation!

I've been anxiously awaiting this game for years now. Today, EA released the demo of the Spore Creature Creator. You can take snapshots of your creation and even upload videos to youTube. I always cringed when hearing the claim "build and animate characters just like Pixar!", however, this does enable you to get up and running fairly quickly with a fully customized and rudimentarily rigged character. Of course, being an animator I'm already looking for the "Set Key Frame" and graph editor... ;)

Butterfly Robot

This was a day's worth of work I did for a quick pitch idea for a friend. Original character design executed as layers in Illustrator, then animated straight-ahead in After Effects.