Animating With CLAY!

Clay as in "the material"... not as in "a guy named Clay".

Many people are introduced to animation (and stop motion in particular) through clay, or plasticine, or even Play-Doh.  The material is readily available, and is easy to work with.

There's some real advantages to working strictly with clay. First of all you don't need an armature! The clay itself is all you need. The trick is that the clay can't stand up on its own (if you try to make too tall of a character), but if you can work within those constraints, you're in for a good time.

Another advantage is how incredibly animate-able it is. If you are up for it, you can sink whole days and weeks in carefully sculpting and re-sculpting every tiny piece of material. The results can be astounding. Growing out of this is another fun thing- if you love to sculpt and craft, it's a chance to do just that,  a LOT.

Another good thing- the material (as mentioned earlier) is cheap, and easy to find.

We like it so much at Mad Lab, we just had to create a little something out of clay!

Go ahead- let 'er rip!

Just click HERE.

EXCLUSIVE Frankenweenie Promo Pics

Lots of pictures at the bottom of this posting!

Mad Lab was strolling the aisles of Fan Expo yesterday, and one of the classiest and neatest things we found was a promo display for Tim Burton's upcoming stop motion feature, Frankenweenie.

There was around 4 sets on display, encased in glass, and on those sets were a variety of posed puppets. The displays allowed interaction. For example, in the lab set, you could turn switches to activate elements within the set.

Now having seen more of the character designs in person, and more of the set pieces and art direction, there's a true warmth and humour to the project that might see the film really succeed. It shares a visual style with The Corpse Bride, to be sure, but with a readily accessible sense of humour. The project feels FUN, and truly charming, as opposed to ultra slick, and cold. I think the pic of the
"Sea Monkeys science project" (very bottom) says a lot. That visual gag is funny, evocative, and intensely charming.

And the homage to Vincent Price in the teacher (?) puppet is wonderful.

This display was a real hit- tonnes of crowds, all peering in, taking snapshots. Very classy, with helpful Frankenweenie reps on hand to answer questions and to keep things fun. Very impressive. Surprisingly WARM and full of heart, for something that a first glance seems cold. Sort of like a resurrected family pet?!

Will Frankenweenie win hearts more effectively than Paranorman, the other "creepy but fun stop motion feature" of Summer 2012? Guess we'll see!

How To Make A Miniature Severed Arm

1. Find a very tiny person. Rip his or her arm off. VOILA! Or- get some armature wire from an art supply store. Craft a simple arm with fingers. This will be like the skeleton for the arm, on to which you will add "flesh" and "skin". And since the wire is soft but strong, it will allow you to pose the arm when you are done.

2. Glue foam (even a kitchen sponge works) on to the arm in the shape of a long tube. This is the "flesh". Trim the foam down till it's "arm-like" in its proportion and shape.

 3. Tint liquid latex (available at art stores- get Burma brand, it's the only kind widely available that works). Tint the latex with acrylic paint till it's the colour of the skin you want (careful- it dries much darker, so do a test).

 4. Paint the latex on to the arm. This latex is the "skin" that is on top of the "flesh" (sponge). Keep applying coats to the arm and fingers, allowing it to dry between coats.

 5. Add little weird bits of latex on the end of the arm, or anywhere you want a "wound". Tint some more latex blood colour, and use that to glue to the bits on, and to give it a nice gory look.

6. Sculpt some bone bits for the end from Sculpy, and attach it with hot glue. Add some gory bits of latex around the seam, so it hides any mess from the hot glue.

 You now are the proud owner of an awesome severed arm that is capable of being posed however you want. Animate it! Scare your sister (or brother, or dog).

When the therapist asks you why you spent a week making a tiny severed arm, mutter something about "the voices told me to". The additional therapy sessions will be a great way to get out of school/work.

It's All In The Details

Click this pic to enlarge.

Today's topic is creating visual interest and richness through detail. This image is from the set of our upcoming project (news flash- this project is NOT about zombies. Shocking, I know).

The road is a sheet of white plastic (you can see at the bottom of the image where the paint runs out- don't worry that won't be on camera). The sidewalk is hardboard. The building's stone and brick elements are pink foam. The doorway is a combo of foam core and illustration board. All held together with hot glue.

In other words- the materials are very humble. It's the effort put into what is done with the materials that makes it fly. A picture is worth a thousand million words (or something like that), so by studying this image carefully, you can learn a lot about how to achieve similar effects. But I will say:

Photo reference at the start, keep that in your mind... then go your own way. Check back with photos later, or when in doubt. Take direction from that. Then carry on in your own mind's eye of what you are going for. Too much adherence to a photo will only result in, well, photo realism.

Textures and finishes are key. Always remember it's the last layer on something that the camera sees.

Build colours and textures up, by starting dark as a base.

Don't be afraid to be a bit bold with colour- check out how nice the blue door works with the brick. 

Dry brushing means DRY BRUSHING. A really dry brush, with very little paint. VERY LITTLE PAINT. And you need contrast in brightness between the undercoat and the coat you are dry brushing, to get a nice effect.

"Flicking" paint as the the last addition to a paint job is awesome. You can see it here especially on the road and sidewalk.  It looks cool (the tiny round shapes offer a great but subtle contrast to the bigger square shapes that are the bg), and for some reason it feels really satisfying to basically "splatter" something you've worked so long on! A final way to show the piece who's boss? Win-win.


We directed our intern, Jason Burch,  to go for a "cartoony but realistic" look as he crafted this. By that we meant realistic proportions, details, materials (meaning stone should look like stone), and realistic finishes... but let it be fun at the same time, maybe a little "balloony" (meaning a certain bit of puffy to the shapes), let it be fun, with nice energy, and let the colours (while staying realistic) "pop" a bit.

He nailed it. We love it, it's going to look great on camera, and it's now served as a nice little teaching tool. Win-win!

How To Make A Simple Silicone Mould

Mould Star 15 is a nice general use silicone. Follow instructions carefully. The RICE is used to for when you need to test volumes of material (silicone or plastic). For example, if you are trying to figure out how much silicone you need to make a mould, you can cover the object you want to  mould with rice, then pour the rice out and measure how much rice it took. Then use that volume to figure out how much silicone you need to mix. You can also do this when you have a mould, and want to know how much plastic to mix. **This is a great way to make sure you aren't wasting materials, which can get expensive over time. Just make sure you've shaken out all the rice before making a mould or pouring in plastic!

Work on a piece of clean, smooth, hard board. Cut dam pieces out of foamcore. Hot glue the pieces into a frame. Make sure there are no holes for the silicone to run out. Just use lots of hot glue for this. You can also always pack a bit clay on the outside of the mould, if you notice it is leaking.

The dam height is about 1 inch higher than the logo being moulded, so as to not waste silicone. By the way, the original sculpt is from Super Sculpy (use the grey stuff if you can find it, the peach stuff sucks). It was glued down with a bit of hot glue but not much, because you need to pop the sculpt off later.

With the silicone mixed, start with a detailed coat, being sure to cover all bits with silicone.

The further away you are as you pour, the better. This allows for any bubbles to pop as it makes its way down. Pour carefully and slowly, keeping the silicone in one place and letting it fill up.

You now have an above ground swimming pool. Set the mould somewhere level, and where you can leave it undisturbed while it dries. Bubbles will rise up, pop them by blowing on them with a straw. Don't inhale. No need to put this in a vacuum pot, provided you follow the instructions carefully. After it is dry (follow the instructions), break off the dam walls, use a long blade to carefully cut under sculpt to separate it all from the board. Carefully start peeling the mould off from the sculpt. There you go! Start with something simple, and small, with no undercuts. Don't expect the first one to turn out great, but learn from it, and try it again. If you have to.

You will then be able to pour liquid plastic or plaster into the mould, and make cast after cast. Use a bit of baby powder in the mould to help it release nicely from your casts. This cast is plastic, and is tinted with a green "black light" paint, that glows like crazy under the right light. So you can have lots of fun making coloured casts. As for the zombie, he's a Mad Lab employee who was happy to help us out on the photo shoot.Thanks to the incredibly talented DANIEL BAKER, master of all things monster-making,  for schooling Mad Lab (so that Mad Lab can pass it along to YOU, dear reader).

Little Aluminum Pieces

Aluminum is a great material. It's basically like a really, REALLY hard wood. You can work it with basic hand tools, and basic power tools, into custom shapes that are very strong. Then you can "tap" it, which means "put screw threads into it", so that you can connect puppet parts. Now, if a puppet part breaks, you can replace just that ONE broken part.

For anyone serious about making their own armatures, aluminum is a good material to focus on. You can get very good, durable, effective armatures (the block kind), but you don't need massive equipment or super specialized training.

These are bits for our current stop motion project. They came out pretty sweet.

We'll be posting in more detail about the project as time goes on, so be sure to check back.