All About Process
In theory, how these creatures get made is pretty straightforward; in practice, not so much. I shake up the process and the multiple techniques deployed all the time, mainly because I’m always going, “how the hell did I do that?”, looking at previous work.
L: “organic” model of CHIMERA/ R: “converted” model of CHIMERA
I start in the computer. I’m trained as an architect, not a character modeler, so there’s a lot of fumbling around to get something of interest, especially as one of the software programs I use, T-Splines for Rhino (now incorporated into Fusion 360, still a sore subject for some of us long-time Rhino users,) can be a bit cantankerous. It’s always a fight.
Once I get something reasonable, I split the fully organic single surface along its significant lines and reloft between the lines to get what’s called developable surfaces that can be flattened, cut, and curved to recreate the form IRL.
See, easy! But then there’s the question of it holding up. All the curves and ridges help, just as they do in thin-walled natural forms: leaves, shells, organs. But as the forms get larger, looser, and more open, which is what I’m after, they can quickly balloon out of shape without some sort of rib structure holding them together. I’ve experimented with a number of approaches, some difficult to retrofit after I’ve settled on a form. One way that works more often is shown below:
L: WOLF sliced to make interior ribs/ R: pan sections of LION-SNAKE connected to corrugated polypropylene rib with removable plastic rivets, the kind used to hold model rockets together.
Larger heads are sliced into sections and given a flat flange along the cut line which creates a kind of pan section not unlike those used in fiberglass molds. Where two pan sections come together, the two flanges back-to-back form a rib.
Still larger heads have their flanges reinforced with a substructure cut from corrugated polypropylene that the paper pan sections are attached to with removable plastic rivets. It can be quite tricky getting my hand into some of these cavities to adequately press the rivets into place without crumbling the paper. Why the hell am I using it?
In fact, for even larger heads, like a full size costume twice the size of twisted SKULL, I’ve experimented with EVA (basically, fun foam) thinking it would be more forgiving, which it is but of course has its own set of quirks to wrestle with. Once the pandemic ends and I regain access to a laser cutter, I’ll wrap that study up and see what we get.
L-R: slices of CHIMERA shown with flanges/ far R: doubled-up flanges form a rib where pan sections come together.
By themselves the pan sections look quite abstract and interesting. Why don’t I stop there?
L-R: flattened surfaces of WARTHOG numbered and arranged on sheets to be cut with digital die cutter.
I’m a careful hand cutter, but I say let robot work be done by robots —it’s way more precise and it saves my hand for more finicky tasks, like taping and gluing.
L-R: sections of WOLF taped and ready for glue.
100’s of pieces of paper are taped together edge-to-edge and glued inside and out to form a tight continuous shell. Seeing the forms snap together is magic; removing the thousands of teeny tiny tape pieces is decidedly not.
L: the caverns of LION-SNAKE/ R: the caverns of CHIMERA.
What I can’t yet get across in photographs of the finished pieces is how you get intriguing glimpses into these inner caverns and body cavities by peering into the open eyes and mouths of these creatures. May help if in the future I put all the color on the inside and/or left some obvious peepholes.
Have to say, after all this, for my upcoming series of heads I’m going back to forming ribs and reinforced structure more integral with the forms instead of gridding it up as I’ve shown here. Still, it’s a technique that has its place.