Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Tiger Shark Ready to Swim

I finally pulled my thumbs out of my arse (a Swedish expression) and finished my contribution to Shelley Noble's "Halfland" project -the Tiger Shark. I just have to find out how she'd like the puppet supported during the animation. Right now it's attached to a bendable rod of braided aluminum wire, but that wire must in its turn be attached to some kind of foot or stand. I'll await instructions from Shelley.

The puppet in itself is a big experiment for me. It's made only out of silicone, with some cotton padding. It's also painted with tinted silicone. Only the teeth (latex rubber) and the claws (plastic) are not silicone. The puppet turned out way too toy-like for my taste, but that may suit the overall style of Shelley's project, so if she's happy I'm happy.

9 comments:

Shelley Noble said...

Toy-like is good! It's a spectacular puppet, Richard! Bravo!

It'll be so great swimming by without explanation! gah, that's great. I think you actually hit the nail on the head with matching Halfland's puppet style. You got just the right amount of realism and creative whimsy. You're obviously highly skilled at making your work match a production's vision.

Even if you hadn't though, it would have been ok. The underwater scene is the one scene in the film that is terrifically democratic. It'll be a hodge podge of styles from all over the world and from all levels of artists.

As for the support question, couldn't I just clamp the twisted wire you've already prepared to my own rigging/weight here? That way it will minimize the postage costs and trouble. You're done!

Thank you for making this character for the film, Richard. It's amazing having you be a pert of this.

rich said...

sweet. looks awesome man.

Richard Svensson said...

Shelley;
Really glad you liked him. Alright -I'll send him off to you as he is. I'll get in touch with you about where to send him.

Rich;
I'm glad you liked him too! I'm still learning how to work with silicones. This is my first all-silicone puppet.

Darkmatters said...

Whoah!!! Richard - dude!!! That is AWESOME!!!! I'd venture to say it's the coolest puppet yet to swim in Halfland waters!

Richard Svensson said...

Thanks, Strider:)
I wish I could've done a better paintjob, but as I said before, I'm still a novice working with silicone. The puppet is quite small too, about 20 inches long.

jriggity said...

That is very cool ....

jriggity

Yaz said...

Looking great!! You said it was made only out of silicone, with some cotton padding. Sounds very interesting and hard to do also.

Richard Svensson said...

Hi, Yaz!
The body of the puppet was cast in silicone from a two-part plaster mold (there's an older post about that). Before closng the two silicone-pasted mold halves I added cotton and also the puppet armature, which was padded with foam rubber. The cotton sort of filled out the body of the puppet where the foam rubber wouldn't.

Yaz said...

Richard! Thanks for the explanation. I have also checked out your post on August 9th about the process. The result is amazing so does the technic you use here!