Puppet Head Sculpt- Mail Man Part II

Today I'm going to continue going through the Puppet head sculpting process which I started HERE.

The Mail Mans head has been roughed out using Super Sculpey firm and all the removable face sections are working correctly. The next step was to clean up the sculpt to make it more presentable and aestheticly pleasing. I sculpted the head working from a large collection of referance images and maquettes I had close at hand displayed around my desk in order to capture the right details for the character.
Below is a picture of the sculpt with more detail added to the hair.

I roughly sculpted the character's mouth in a smile in order the get the correct positioning for the teeth. The upper set of teeth need to stay in a fixed postion while animating the characters lip sync. Only the bottom row of teeth would move when talking because of the way the jaw is hinged. Once I was happy with the positioning of the upper teeth, I removed the lips and carved out an area around the mouth. I then added datail to the upper row of teeth and eye areas. The sculpt ws then ready to bake to harden it.

Above is a picture of the final head sculpt. Areas of the face have been sanded to give the seams of the replacement parts a flush finish and to smooth the sculpt. I know the character has a goofy grin now, but later on I will be able to add lips and the lower set of teeth to resin cast copies of the mouth pieces in order to give the character different expressions and mouth shapes. The same process will be used to change the characters brow.

The sculpt is now ready to be moulded in silicone.
The first step was to plan how each peace of the sculpt will be moulded. Small cones of Sculpey were glue gunned onto each part to create pour spouts. These spouts are where the resin will later be poured when casting.

Next, The mould boxes were made using panels of foam board, glue gunned together.

For the moulds I used RTV silicone. Before pouring, I painted a layer of the silicone onto each part of the sculpt with a brush to make sure all the datails are captured and to reduce the amount of air bubbles.

I then filled the moulds with silicone using the 'bombs away' method where you pour the silicone from a height creating a thin stream. The fact that the stream is so thin causes any bubbles in the silicone to pop, reducing the amount of air bubbles in your mould. Air bubbles can be created when mixing the catalyst into the silicone rubber and can cause details to be lost. The best way to avaoid air bubbles is to put the silicone into a vacume chamber to de-gas. When pouring the silicone it is also important to pour the silicone into the corner of the mould box, not over the sculpt, and to let the silicone slowly flow up and around the sculpt.

Above is a picture of the three silicone moulds cured and out of the mould boxes. The sculpt has been cut out of the silicone using a scalple blade. I have cut around half of the mould in a zig zag pattern so that they snap shut and lock back together in the correct position. I chose this meathod of moulding opposed to a two part mould because it's quicker and creates less of a seam line.

The next stage is to start casting out copies of the head in resin.
I used Fast Cast resin because it cures quickly and is not too expensive. The resin is mixed in two equal parts. Below is a picture of my first casting. The pieces came out quite niclely. It actually looks like white chocolate!

As you have probably noticed, it looks like my character has been in a fight with those missing teeth. An air bubble must have been caught in the mould when casting. This problem was easily fixed by angling the mould differently while I poured the resin. The next set came out fine. And the next set, and the next set...

This is how many sets of faces I've cast so far. There will be two Mail Man puppets made for the film so only two Hair/ear parts where needed. The pour spouts were cut off using a rotary tool and the seam line were cleaned up. The moulds were cut in a way so that the seam lines are on the back of the masks and won't be seen.

The next stage will be to sculpt the different brow and mouth expressions for the replacement parts and to paint each head. But I think this post has gone on long enough so that'll have to wait until part III.
Until next time...