I've just spent a day working on armatures for the lions in my animation short. I also made a start on the set, well there'll be a few sets but the one with the main characters will be the biggest. It had me puzzled for the last few weeks as to how I'd create a grassland scene.

 

This was how the model for Leroy looked in the last post. There were problems with the clay splitting at the shoulder and hip joints and also in the middle of the torso when it's bent forwards or backwards.

 

I had to strip the clay off - again - and I removed the layer of cling film (I don't think I'll bother putting that on again, seems to be more trouble than its worth). I removed the centre section and replaced it with two large beads, for more flexibility. I also trimmed the back sphere as it seemed to be too big.

 

 

For the three lionesses I discarded the back spheres and just used a row of beads to keep the back end small and the torso flexible. I realised that I'd have to drill through the end bead to secure the wire for the back legs. As these beads are only 13mm wide and made of wood drilling them was a fairly delicate operation.

 

 

As I mentioned earlier I use plastic rawl plugs to keep the limbs rigid - with breaks at the joints. I also taper the ends with a pencil sharpener so they don't grind off each other.

 

 

 

The front legs use two sections of plugs each. I threaded the wire through two of these and then through the front sphere, then adding the second pair. The rawl plug sections were then glued into place to stop them from swivelling on the thin wire. By the way if your using hot glue on parts that you have to hold, prepare to get burned - many times.

 

 

 

The same procedure was used for the back legs.

 

 

 

Several applications of glue were needed to secure the wire to the back beads as the wire is so thin.

 

 

 

I trimmed down the torso of the buffalo again as it was still fairly big, and sanded it into the final shape. It looks like a big lump of cheese at the moment. I think if it didn't have all them holes I might just paint it matt black to save about three blocks of clay. Anyway I've given it a coat of PVA glue to try and seal it and I'll see what I can do when that dries.

 

Before starting on the sets - which will be fairly big as the buffalo character will end up around 300mm square - I have to tidy up my studio. When I built the garage at my house I included a loft space, which was intended to be a studio, but not surprisingly ended up being a store room. So I have to clean it up now as I've nowhere else big enough.

 

 

My unused studio space, before I tidied up (though it's not much different afterwards)

 

 

I experimented at creating the grass by inserting dry grass stalks (folded in half) into a hole I made in a piece of expanding foam that I'd cut off when shaping the buffalo torso. I had got some stiffer marsh grass stalks (must remember to wear wellies next time) but they were mostly green and would have needed to be painted. But after trimming the natural grass it works quite well.

 

 

The next thing was to get a base similar to the expanding foam. I have strips of Aeroboard in between the rafters of my garage, not to insulate it but just because I had nowhere else to put them. It's 2 inches thick which is ideal for making holes to take the grass clumps.

 

 

A fairly blurred photo of the marsh grass stalks that I'd spent ages collecting and sorting into usable bits. Anyone want to make St. Bridget's crosses?

 

 

The regular grass, needs to be untangled.

 

 

This is how the first clump of grass looks on the Aeroboard.

 

 

I placed the lion armature beside it to check the size.

 

 

Spot the lion? I think this method will work. I'll make a perimeter of grass clumps around where the action takes place. I was also lucky enough to find a bag of sand that was destined for the kids sandpit, in the greenhouse (of all places) and it was even dry which saved me that job. So when all the grass clumps have been fixed to the Aerobord base I will cover the Aerobord with PVA and then spread the sand on top. Then I'll add a few pebbles and maybe some bunched up twigs as bushes. Thankfully the landscape I'm recreating is generally flat.

 

 

Found this today and thought it might work as some buffalo innards when he blows up. It's actually a balloon that's shrivelled up with age. It has a kind of organic texture and with some more tones added could be really effective. Next on the adgenda is a trip to Art Mad for more clay. I'm going to try making the cubs without armatures as they're only secondary characters, but I still need loads more clay. Having Claymation characters is turning out to be quite expensive, hopefully I can make the rest of sets with found objects.