“Thomas”
A solo stop motion project created over the course of 10 weeks. The process consisted of creating an industry standard puppet through sculpting, moldmaking, sewing, etc. The set was hand painted canvas to create an illustrative look. Animation was done using dragonframe over a two day period.
CONCEPT
Thomas is a character roughly inspired by the novella “The Forty Fathom Bank” written by Les Galloway, 1984. I took inspiration from the intense moral conflict the narrator debates with himself throughout the story. The concept of rationalizing the death of a human but not being able to fathom the death of a seagull became an extremely alluring concept that I wanted to depict further. This short animation depicts an ambiguous character and only shows a particular moment in time where a person is faced with a confounding moral quandary.
FABRICATION
Final Turn Around
Responsible for every aspect including armature, sculpt, injection, hair, paint job, clothing
Final Sculpt
Fabricated with Chavant oil based sculpting clay
Armature And Test Animation
Fabricated with 1/8 aluminum wire, 24 gauge annealed steel wire, plumbers epoxy, 5 minute epoxy, zap a gap and thread.
Mold Making and Injection Process
This process consisted of making a two part plaster mold, using water based clay around the sculpt. The mold was then injected with dyed silicone after a paint-in.
Last Details
After injection the puppet was cleaned and trimmed, edges were cleaned up with a dremel. Head replacements were made with plastic molds. The head was painted with acrylic paint. The hair was sculpted with propoxy and then layered with modge podge and brown felt. Removable eyebrow replacements were made with the same felt used for the hair. I adjusted the clothing to fit the puppet, made and sewed on buckles and small fabric patches.