On this blog i'm showing the process of building a stop motion animatable monster i was asked to design and produce.
I had some experience in making silicone molds, but this was a challenge.
This puppet is part of the developement of a television series, if the project of director Douglas Boswell goes through, it's possible i'll be adding more detail, like replaceable eyelids and more texture and color to the the skin. . we'll see what happens.

To see the process from step one, click here and scroll all the way down. Then slowly scroll your way up, and hit the back button. Yes, we're doing this thing backwards.


( back to i turn white )

...and there you go. the first 'slens' to walk the earth.. or crawl, or what do slugs do?
well since it's not mine to play around with, i will only know when some animator puts life in it..


cleaning up the seams

there's two little air bubbles, one in it's tail, and one in it's arm, i can fix that, injecting those with some silicone with the same pigment color ofcourse..



i had to cut off the lump of silicone from where the bottle was. leaving a nasty scar, but it won't show, since it's on it's belly..





..there he is

hello little fella




this is looking pretty good so far



.. next day, the silicone did drop more then last time.. that's a good sign - i already knew the mold got filled up pretty good, i could see the silicone coming through the escape routes..

ok, this is typical, i accidentally dropped the master sculpt, which was already broken, but to make it worse, i stepped on it too.. so now it's really beyond repair. lucky i have the mold now :)


fixed the armature in place, and cast it a new.. hoping everything goes right this time.


i've sanded down some parts of the armature, where it came to close to the edges of the mold where as the skin got too thin


... removing the skin, so i can use the armature again
tearing the silicone from the parts with foam, so i have some repairing to do.


...too bad, but, i'll just have to cut little escape routes through the urethane, and drill some tiny holes for the next casting


i guess the needles weren't sufficient for the air to escape.. the silicone couldn't get to the end of the limbs and tail. Even his head din't fill up..


the next day..

i'm using injection needles that go through holes i drilled in the plaster, and trhough the urethane mold, so the air can escape when it fills up with silicone.




... the new armature is in place,

Next up, the final chapter; casting the puppet.

The master is beyond repair.. I'm happy the mold looks okay. So i shouldn't be needing the master anymore.



The bottle goes right through the stand, straight onto the belly of the beast. This is where i'll pour in the silicone around the armature, attached to the stand...

...and there we go... casting the final half.


Loosening spray, very important...


replacing the master sculpt in the first part...


fixing the outer mold.

Cutting off the edges, and fixing the plaster mold which cracked again when opening... argh, i'll have to do that every part of this process? It'll crack open again and agin untill i can't fix it anymore... damn..

The first part of the urethane rubber. I'm a little surprised the stuff got all the way between the plaster, but that's ok. I only have one little airbubble, but i know how to fix that. Takes another 24 h curing time, but that's ok, I'm happy with this result. ..