Sculpting Puppet Feet

Now that pre-production is complete it time to move on to production and start building the characters.
We've decided to make the puppets first since they require the most work and detail. Sets and props will be tackled later.
First up on my long list of model making is to sculpt the Mail Man's feet. I'll be sculpting the feet over the puppets metal foot armature so that once the final foot is cast in rubber I'll know that the armature will fit inside. You can see how these feet armatures were made on Nathan's blog by clicking Here.

To sculpt the shoe I'll be using plastiline so that once finished, hard resin molds can be taken from the sculpt. Once molded, the plastiline is then removed from the metal feet armatures so they can be used again when casting the puppets final silicone feet. In the picture below the basic forms of the feet are being roughed out in grey plastiline.

The grey plastiline is good for sculpting with because it can become soft when warmed by kneading with the fingers but also holds details well once it cools and hardens. Below are a few images of the final feet sculpts.

Although the Mail Mans baggy trousers cover a lot of his shoes I decided to sculpt socks just in case his heels are exposed during one of his running scenes. Holes were also included so that real shoe laces can be punched into the silicone later on. The feet are now ready to be molded.