Stop-Motion Puppet Fabricator
MIME: LE CHARADE
* Art direction by Erika Totoro
Responsible for all head fabrication, polycarbonate armature fabrication, and silicone mixing, paint-ins, injection and shoe repairs. Body and hand sculpts done by Dahlia Kressler. Hand armatures and silicone injections done by Thaddeus Varness.
Polycarbonate Armature:
The Mime's armature is made out of 1/2" polycarbonate and 1/8" wire. Rigging ports were drilled into the pelvis, one on each side, the front and a sitting rig on the back. Side and front ports are tapped to recieve a 10/24 bolt and the back port has a brass tube that receives a ball and socket "wedge spike". The chest has a brass tube key that can be used for posing.
Armature design and mechanical drawings done by Thaddeus Varness.
Silicone Cast:
The Mime's body was injected with GI 1100 silicone and colored with Smooth-On Silicone Pigment. I was responsible for all silicone mixing and color matching, as well as injecting 5 out of the 6 bodies along side Thaddeus Varness and Paige Meakin.
Color: GI 1100 Silicone was colored using Smooth-On Silicone Pigment. The Mime's hero body color was mixed to match the Fresh Croissant paint sample by Behr.
Paint-Ins: Silicone paint-ins for the shoes were done using a small detail brush. Ultra Fast Catalyst (UFC) was mixed into the silicone allowing it to set up before injecting the body silicone.
Inject: Before injecting, the Mime's body silicone was degassed to remove any air bubbles. For injecting, one person held the injection tube and the other injected silicone with a syringe. Assisted by Thaddeus Varness.
Open: After curing for roughly 16 hours, the mold was opened and the body cast removed. The body was cleaned and left to rest for 24 hours before proceeding with cleanup and necessary silicone repairs.
Silicone Repairs:
The Mime's shoes are rarely seen in the film Le Charade, but there are a couple of shots where his shoes are in camera. After casting the body, there were ares along the shoe seam and the heal vents where some of the body color was showing through. For repairing these areas, the silicone was cut, removed and filled with the matching silicone color. Silicone primer was applied to the areas being filled to adhere the fresh silicone to the cured and UFC was used to speed up the curing time. I used a needle tool to smooth and re-sculpt the areas being repaired. Just before the silicone fully cured, cornstarch was dusted on top to remove any shine and leave a matte finish.
Before
After
Long Arm Fabrication:
Responsible for long arm fabrication, final mock-up, rigging and animation. Costume and backdrop fabrication by Lilianna Martinez. Lighting by Will Macuch.
Arm Injection: For this shot we used latex hose as the base for our long arms. When mocking the shot up initially, I was not satisfied with how the hollow hose would kink when bending it to a 90 degree angle. To prevent this from happening, I injected the tubes with GI 1100 Silicone. For injecting the tubes, I ran each end through a C-stand clamp that gripped the hose enough to hold it in place, while keeping an opening large enough to run an 1/8" wire through it and for the silicone to flow through smoothly. To speed up the curing time, I used 20% activator and 5% UFC. This caused the silicone to set up in less than an hour.
Mock-Up: Once the silicone cured, I mocked-up the shot to make sure the hose would bend without kinking and create the shape I wanted. After mocking-up, the arms got passed over to our costume fabricator. I also realized that the shot wanted a third arm to better frame the mime and make him appear more claustrophobic.
Set Dressing & Rigging: Everything except for the hands, were secured to L-blocks that were bolted to the table. The long arms were bolted on the left and right side of the L-block to prevent any swaying. The head was attached to a latex hose with roughly 3 inches to work with when animating. Hands were set up on winders for up and down movement. One winder was secured to the table, while the other was suspended on a C-stand.
