Ray
Well-Known Member
Guys,
Here’s the promised second part of the figure SBS, it’s a little shorter than the first as there is less to discuss in it. I’ll be posting new installments when completed, probably something later in the week or next weekend depending on how things progress here. As always please feel free to comment, criticize or question if the urge should strike.
At this stage when you are basically satisfied with the armatures pose it’s time to start building up the fleshy parts of the long bones and middle torso. For this I like to use common A&B putty, mostly because it cures faster than Magic-Sculpt, even when heated, but also because it is somewhat stiffer and plenty sticky enough to adhere to the wire forms of the long bones. You’ll note in the photographs below that I haven’t covered the long bones completely, leaving small gaps at the major joints. This is to give me one more chance to correct or alter the pose without resort to the razor saw and hobby knife. If you leave the large joints free like this, the figures pose can be altered by simply bending the wire slightly. This is a technique I observed in one of Quang’s posts and I find it to be very useful, especially as the figure looks very different with some meat on the bones, which often seems to change the center of gravity necessitating a change in the position or bends of the long bones. Also note that I have not added any putty to the arm bones, and indeed haven’t even added them to this armature, preferring not to at this stage as fleshing out the upper torso often changes the relative position of the arms, and it is a much easier thing to work on the upper bodies details and clothing without having the arms fixed rigidly over the work. The last item of note here is that I also haven’t added any putty to the neck. The reason for this is that if there is a need to reposition the legs or torso it may necessitate a repositioning of the head as well, and there really isn’t enough room to add putty and still leave the neck free to bend.
Unfortunately the figure pictured is not the one I will be working on for most of this project, but is the sample figure made from blobs of putty without any casts bits other than the head and feet. The reason for this is that I’ve newly discovered how the control the color of the photo’s I’ve been taking, as well as some other improvements, (but only after moving on to the next step with the original armature renderring it useless for this portion of the SBS ), which renders a much superior photograph, so I deleted the shots I had already taken of the original armature, deciding to fill the visual void with this sample armature in place of assembling and posing another. The differences between this armature and the other are not very great so it serves well for the purpose. In fact now that I’ve done so much additional work to it I’ll probably go ahead and use the thing on a future figure, as yet unknown.
Ray
Here’s the promised second part of the figure SBS, it’s a little shorter than the first as there is less to discuss in it. I’ll be posting new installments when completed, probably something later in the week or next weekend depending on how things progress here. As always please feel free to comment, criticize or question if the urge should strike.
At this stage when you are basically satisfied with the armatures pose it’s time to start building up the fleshy parts of the long bones and middle torso. For this I like to use common A&B putty, mostly because it cures faster than Magic-Sculpt, even when heated, but also because it is somewhat stiffer and plenty sticky enough to adhere to the wire forms of the long bones. You’ll note in the photographs below that I haven’t covered the long bones completely, leaving small gaps at the major joints. This is to give me one more chance to correct or alter the pose without resort to the razor saw and hobby knife. If you leave the large joints free like this, the figures pose can be altered by simply bending the wire slightly. This is a technique I observed in one of Quang’s posts and I find it to be very useful, especially as the figure looks very different with some meat on the bones, which often seems to change the center of gravity necessitating a change in the position or bends of the long bones. Also note that I have not added any putty to the arm bones, and indeed haven’t even added them to this armature, preferring not to at this stage as fleshing out the upper torso often changes the relative position of the arms, and it is a much easier thing to work on the upper bodies details and clothing without having the arms fixed rigidly over the work. The last item of note here is that I also haven’t added any putty to the neck. The reason for this is that if there is a need to reposition the legs or torso it may necessitate a repositioning of the head as well, and there really isn’t enough room to add putty and still leave the neck free to bend.
Unfortunately the figure pictured is not the one I will be working on for most of this project, but is the sample figure made from blobs of putty without any casts bits other than the head and feet. The reason for this is that I’ve newly discovered how the control the color of the photo’s I’ve been taking, as well as some other improvements, (but only after moving on to the next step with the original armature renderring it useless for this portion of the SBS
), which renders a much superior photograph, so I deleted the shots I had already taken of the original armature, deciding to fill the visual void with this sample armature in place of assembling and posing another. The differences between this armature and the other are not very great so it serves well for the purpose. In fact now that I’ve done so much additional work to it I’ll probably go ahead and use the thing on a future figure, as yet unknown. Ray
