BAA Nurse - Finished

The nurse is now completely finished, her feet worked out quite well, she is held down very securely by the magnetic tiedown. Also gave her some props, a clipboard with then farmer's patient information on it, and a wee pencil.

BAA Nurse Feet

The nurses feet have little metal strips on the bottom, so she can stand using the magnetic tiedown. Will have to secure them to the legs quite tightly, so she won't snap in half.

BAA Set

Nearly finished the hospital set, all i need is a floor, the bed and a few props. Also did some lighting tests with the window, the blind gives the shading a good dramatic effect.

BAA Nurse - Head and body finished

The nurse's head and body are now finished, unfortunately, her heads balsa core was a little too wide at the base, so she has quite a wide jaw and looks a bit like a man in drag, however, her bodies balsa core was also a little too big, so now she just looks fat, and her head and body match.

BAA Nurse Armature

Head and armature for the nurse are finished, I used a lot of balsa wood, so she will be very light and easier to handle and animate. Her head will also be light, so she shouldn't be too top heavy, i may have to give her a big fat arse to balance her out a bit, but i probably won't film her from behind, so this won't be too noticable.

BAA Farmer - Finished

Finished the puppet for the BAA farmer, I deliberately made his hands massive, as his main forms of communication will be through hand movements and facial expressions. His arms are set quite loose in their slots, as this allows pivotal movement, otherwise his arms would be locked at the shoulders, and that wouldn't be very good at all, and would heavily restrict his body movements to just his head and forearms.
I put him in a set of long-johns, as i figured this is what a farmer would wear in bed, it also makes him look a bit older and bedraggled, and helps to make him appear a bit more pathetic.

BAA - More Sheep

Finished all of my sheep, decided to make them all look sad, except the first one, i think i'm going to have to make him the stupid one.

Their armatures are quite stiff, so their actions will have to be limited to head movements and facial expressions. 

This sheep, which i intend to be my 'main sheep' is a combination of a sheep (obviously) and Courage the cowardly dog, i like the end result.

BAA Sheep

Made the first of four sheep, i totally winged it on the head, never made a sheep head before, it was weird, too used to making people, so the next 3 will probably look much better as i try to improve my method for making little sheep heads. The wool also comes off when i touch it, as it is made out of a bag of 30p cotton balls from Tesco and glued on with PVA, this may be a problem, of course i could just stop touching the sheep for no reason.

BAA Farmer - Body

Made the armature body for the farmer, as he will be in a hospital bed, surrounded by sheep, he doesn't have any legs, so i'll just put something under his duvet to give the masterful illusion of wee plasticine legs. I covered the balsa in plaster tape to help the plasticine stick to it. And the half finished farmer looks creepy as hell.

BAA Farmer - hands

Made one of the hands for the BAA farmer, not sure why, but i've decided to make them quite detailed and with 5 fingers which I've never done before, and as a result they take a really bloody long time to make. I haven't made the other one yet, but I'm waiting until the body is finished, just in case I've made the first hand disproportionately huge. I don't think i have, but who knows?.

BAA Sheep - Armatures

Started making sheep armatures, the sheep aren't actually going to move enough to need armatures, but i need to get the construction practice in for my next film, as i am going to need about seven armatures for it, and have never made an armature out of balsa wood before. I said the word "armatures' way too many times in that sentence, didn't I? Anyway, i have 4 of them now.

BAA Farmer

The head of the BAA Farmer puppet, he's ginger because I'm going to reuse him as an irish drunk in my next film.

Filming

Filming for the Beetle, Ant and Mantis.

Mantis

Praying mantis during filming, his legs kept catching the leaves and pulling them, so i had to completely lift him off them every time he moved half an inch. It took ages.

The Insects

Heres all the insects next to each other, it's the first and only time they've all been in the same place at the same time, and its very pretty and that.

Grasshopper

Started making the grasshopper, it's back legs are a bit too short, so i will have to add extra bits later.

Caterpillar-finished

Finished the caterpillar, its made of Fimo and plastecine, so it can bend, but it's legs are a bit naff, as they are just strips of black plastecine that don't really move...

Insect designs

Nearly forgot to post these, they are the designs for the ant and the stag beetle, i haven't designed the mantis or the cricket yet, because i'm not sure how the hell i'm going to make them after the ant turned out to be much harder to make than previously thought, but i'll figure it out soon. And the caterpillar should be simple enough to not need a design, i can just get on with it when i get the materials. I also included the research photo of the stag beetle i worked from.

Stag Beetle-Finished

Finished my stag beetle, actually very pleased with it, it looks exactly as i planned, although there is one issue i noticed after i had solidified it in the oven and that is that the mandibles don't move, which severely limits it's movements, but making the mandibles movable would have made the model look a bit rubbish because of the altered head shape it would have required. Still, minor oversight on my part.

Stag Beetle-Start

Started making the stag beetle, had to make some last minute design changes, as i have run out of aluminium wire and have to make do with armature wire, which is much more flexible, but definitely will not support the beetles weight. So i will only film the beetle from a bird's eye perspective so no-one will notice that it isn't actually standing.

Ant Model-Finished

I think i've managed it, although it doesn't look as good as i wanted it to, and it's back end has started to fall off, but it should be fine...

Ant Model-start

Turns out that making an ant out of fimo and aluminium wire is surprisingly difficult, the legs seem very rickety and move around a lot, but the heat shrink should hold them in place, and the wire is definitely strong enough to support it's weight.

WSS End Credit sequence

Recommended by Osbert Parker as research, I like the way the names have been presented as graffiti on the wall, i will probably animate the insect models to create the names on the walls and floor in a similar style, but with more insecty action...