Toymakers Dream

Here is the video that I completed for my Digital Effects class. The editing program I used was Adobe Premiere Pro 5.

          Quite a bit of work went into this video. For one I had to think about the angle of the shots and how I wanted the angles to match up when I layered the characters into the background. Which was solved by shooting as many different angles as possible and if in the editing stage they didn't match up then there were a few tricks I could use to swing it. Such as zooming in on a slightly wide image to make it a close up, or horizontally flipping an image (as there is no text or distinguishable imagery in the background of the shots I did that in, it works). Of course in any project the best bet to solving a problem is just to shoot it right the first time, but in a pinch creative editing can do fairly well.
           Chroma key is a tool I used to layer the video and leave out the green screen. Another thing I did was crop along the characters edges so that any irregularities in the green screen would disappear, for instance where shadows end unexpectedly. About a minute into the film there's a shot where I clearly cropped her shadow messily. To clean that up I would have to go back and drag a 16 point cropping frame closer to her body and animate it frame by frame, getting rid of the larger shadow completely. Animating an effect frame by frame is called key framing, and is very time consuming. I feel I did use it quite successfully for most of the video except for a few small moments.
         Overall, it was a fun class and I now have a greater grasp of what is possible within video editing.

Digital Effects

         Last spring I took a digital effects class, there was a great deal of creative freedom in it as it was the first time it was being offered and the instructor was feeling out the best way to do things. Because of this allowance I decided to branch off and try my hand at green screening and key framing within a narrative form set to music. Nothing to strenuous in the special effects field, but time consuming if not done well in the shooting process. 

        As you can see, I tend to become deeply involved in my projects and attempt to portray them as best I can. I had alot of fun figuring out this set up, which is where I was placing my green screened characters. 

 

       The storyline for this film was one of the simpler one's I've tried. I matched it to a song I found off of this website years ago that has continuously buggered around my head with ideas. Simply put my storyline is of a toymaker who is dreaming/remembering a past acquaintance. I portrayed him "remembering" by placing him and the woman he knew onto the tabletop and having them dance to the music. 

      The idea changed as I planned it, and became much more simplistic than I would have liked. Originally I had hope to have the toymaker dancing with an overlarge marionette, who would be played by an masked actor. Unfortunately I did not have the resources or time to pull that off for the class.

I'm alive, really.

I can be a slacker sometimes, but only when it comes to things that don't have a deadline. Like this blog for instance. I'm already halfway through the fall semester of my senior year. Where did the summer go? 

Anyhoo, here's a follow up photo of one of the bronze pieces I made last semester, it's done! (and has been for awhile)

In my next few posts, I want to start posting about a few of my video projects and the work that went into them. I made two of them last semester, so it'll give me something to talk about. :)

The Final Stages of a Bronze Sculpture

We're nearing the end of the bronze sculptures posts!

Removing the screws and cleaning off any of the little bubbles of bronze that may have occured during the pour is an important step as it gives the project a cleaner and more professional look. After the bronze is whole and complete and any extraneous pieces have been welded together the patina can be applied.

There were only three patinas made available in class, green, a warmer tone, and an almost black one, by far my favorite is the darkest one. To apply a patina all that is needed is to simply heat the piece and brush on the desired concentration of the patina. Heating the piece gets rid of excess moisture in the metal and allows it to be more receptive the patina.

After the patina looks good a coat of wax helps protect it, and it's ready for display!

Pouring

The pour! 

We poured aluminum and bronze several weeks ago. I've been busy with the last weeks of school so here it is! Finally. 

For the pour we placed our empty molds in a bed of sand so that there would be less chance of splitting. It was also important that before then we made sure there were no loose pieces inside the molds that would mess up the form of the figure.

We all wore plenty of protection and looked kind of like spacemen.

The metal cools and we soak it in water til it's cold enough to remove the mold.

The pieces can be dislodged by striking the end of the piece that the metal was poured into.  

Once the larger pieces of the mold have been removed the smaller pieces can be chipped off and the piece can be blasted with air to clean off any excess silica. After that the next step is to saw off the excess metal (the screw) and apply a patina or base, as the case may be. 

Anyway, it's practically summer, and it's a beaaaauuutiful day! 

Melting Waxes

Tiny post today. The end of the semester is throwing me a loop and keeping me busy. Here's the last step before actually pouring the molten metal into the molds. 

Basically in this step, using a torch, the wax is melted out of the silica casing. One of the concerns in this is very nearly the same concern when attaching screws to the piece. When the wax is melted out, it's important to start from the bottom of the piece and melt the bottom of the piece so that the wax at the top has a place to go. If the bottom of the cup doesn't clear first, then the wax above it won't have anywhere to go and will expand and possibly damage the mold. Always point the torch down, and think through exactly how the wax will melt.

 I've been thinking about posting about video production soon, but at the moment I am far to busy actually putting together my video projects. 

Dipping Waxes Part 2

Part 2! Now the actual dipping begins. The screws have been attached and each piece has had the surface coated for protection.

The first layer of silica is applied in liquid form. The particles should be suspended so it is important to mix this well and stir it often.  It's important to dip the piece in slowly and to make sure no bubbles form on the surface of it. Any bubbles that form in the first few dips allow the molten bronze to bubble out into the space and only provide more trouble later in the work.

Depending on the size of the piece a different amount and kind of dipping is recommended. My professor suggested that I dip mine twice in the fine silica and three times in the coarse because of their small size.

Each dip needs to dry completely before the next can be applied, and the process can take several days. It is easy to tell when it's ready to be dipped again because the coating goes from a green to yellow. Below can be seen  first dip, the wax is still visible underneath the initial layer.

Below is an example of what the finished dipping should look like. The waxes are completely hidden and the forms are muffled.

Next update should have more on the process with melting out the waxes. 

Dipping Waxes part 1

The second set of waxes is finally done after many hours of work.  I've attached the waxes to a wax cup and started coating on the silica glass pieces. First I'd like to spend some time explaining the concept of sprews* and how they function. Sprews attach the wax piece that has been sculpted to a wax cup which will be the opening that the metal can be poured through.

 *It has been pointed out the me that the term is "sprew" and not "screw." Oops, my bad.

The main sprew needs to be thick depending on the size of the piece so that as the metal cools it does not block the flow. The smaller vent exists to allow the air to flow out of the highest point of the sculpture enabling the metal to push its way through the entire piece. This is especially important in larger pieces, in smaller pieces it is not as a big a concern unless there are appendages that may not fill otherwise.

Location of the sprews is very important, and as an older art student told me, "it is best to think of it as the way the metal will flow." I had quite a bit of difficulty deciding on placement of sprews on the piece above, because it is actually longer and very delicate. Finally it was suggested I cut it into separate pieces and treat them as such, and then weld the pieces together afterwards. This made the attachment of sprews much easier, because I did not have to worry about the wax bending or breaking during the coating process.

Part 2 coming up next time, with some actual dipping! 

We've been having some interesting weather lately. It went from absolutely gorgeous weather, to fog for three days straight, and now it's a lovely but incredibly windy day. Here's some photos from the other day down in Canal Park in Duluth.

                       

Bronze Pieces Finished!

Bronze figures are officially finished now! I've coated them each with a patina, and some have several different kinds applied to different parts of them.

More wax figures! Below is the concept sketch for my next sculpture. It emerged after a several hours of contemplation on the image of the idealized and stereotypical woman and the restrictions it puts on women. The wax figure (on the left) is going to have several poles going through the body, with several more criss-crossing them locking the figure into place. It's evolved greatly since the original concept, but I like the direction it's going.

Sunflowers and Art!

It's springtime! Though granted there's always a chance of a random snowstorm in april it's beginning to feel an awful lot of like things should be green and growing. So I have begun planting! My sunflowers are growing like crazy and they only began sprouting on saturday. They inspired me to design a dress based upon them. 

As an artist and a student of art who wants to one day be a professional, I need to start getting my work out of the classroom. This april I am going to be showing some paintings in a local coffeehouse during our areas Homegrown Music Festival!

Previously it's been primarily about the music, but this year they are adding a visual aspect to it as well. So I dusted off a few of my favorite paintings from 2010 (and one from 2011, accidentally labeled it the wrong year though) and submitted them! Two of the three I entered were accepted!

 These are the two paintings I entered that were accepted. The one above was painted in acrylic in 2010, and the one below is a watercolor I did in 2011 (though I completely spaced, and thought I did it in 2010 for some reason when I submitted it).

For awhile now, I've been completely dumbfounded by cute miniature food. It is a fact of life that when something is smaller, it becomes even more adorable. So I will spread the delightfulness!

Cuteness!

Also she has a channel on youtube where she has posted samples of her work as well as a tutorial on how to make tiny cupcakes!

She doesn't just make food though!

More awesomeness!

:)

Wax figures

 Wax figures!



Above are two photo's of the first figure I made.

         I really liked how these two figures turned out, even though originally I hadn't even planned on making two figures. The second one, the one kneeling as the seat, was inspired by a man playing "seat for hire" that I'd seen at the renaissance festival once before, and as I needed something for the sitting figure to use as a seat, I thought it would be amusing if he sat and had a conversation with his chair.  One thing I do love about this piece is how the form flows downward in a triangle if you look at it from the right angle. 

      Haven't updated in awhile, but today we got to pour the molten bronze into our silica cases we'd made of our wax figures. I didn't have a camera to take pictures of the process, but next time we beging this process (it takes several days), I'll do my best to get step by step photos. :)

Finished my steel project! It's about a foot and a half wide or more and two feet tall, can't be sure because I'm just guesstimating. I got some good feedback on it, and I think it turned out fairly well. What do y'all think, did I manage to convey the concept of "soft" using sheets of steel and rod?

Here's the original concept sketch. 

As you can see it's changed slightly, although it does keep the original idea of using multiple curved objects to create a texture. This idea I pushed even further by using curved triangles and rounding them out. I also kept the idea of having the curves move upward on one end, though I did change the direction the curves faced.

We're going to start dipping our wax models on monday and I've scheduled a shoot for my video project this weekend. More updates to follow! 

I promised photos of my current art project and since I was on a roll of being on top of things, I borrowed a camera to take a few pictures. 

These are of the miniature model I made of the concept "soft," and the original drawing looked completely different. I quite like the model, especially how the paper I used for the triangles stands out against the wire. Although the final result will be different as I will be using sheet metal and not paper. 

Here is the full scale base of the piece, with paper triangles as stand-ins so I can visualize where I will put the sheet metal ones. You can see the model in the background to get an idea of the size change. At this point in time I have all five of the large and small triangles cut out, their edges filed, and have bowed them out so that they kind of look like a scoop. I am toying with the idea of bashing the edges of the triangles to give it a more rippled and organic feel, but I'm not sure how I'll like it as a whole as of yet. 

The next step after getting the triangles mostly ready and the wire bent (by hand might I add, and god that was annoying. Cept the end bits, I cheated on those) is to add the slots for the triangles to fit in.

The handy dandy tool that will accomplish this.

Clamped tight, and all the way through. It's a long process but got there in the end. Final project is due next monday, let's see if I can finish it in time and still manage to update.

Also I began sculpting with wax today for the first time, and loved it. I'll save those photos for another time. 

Apparently I'm not so hot at keeping this blog up as a regular thing. I do apologize. The semester has begun again and I'm hard at work, this time with much more actual production. I'll be shooting and editing a  screenplay I wrote last semester and making many art projects for my sculpture class.

It occurs to me that I've not really put any of my work up on here, and it might make me think more about the actual production. So how about an art update.

My latest school related project has been inspired by a drawing of a concept. The professor told us to illustrate several descriptive words and we then based a model off of one chosen drawing. I picked the sketch I did for the word "soft." Not such a bad idea, except the materials assigned for the final result are sheets of steel and quarter inch rod. Originally I was stumped with how I was supposed to make something look soft, but I think I may have come across a way to do it.

I will return next time with pictures of my model and drawing, and possibly pictures of the in progress work. Currently I am camera-less and until I can remedy that I don't want to waste time talking about something that a picture could easily explain.