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.