Zombie Day 5th February 2013; Staffordshire University Animation Department 'intervention days' #1.

Though every students work schedule here is very important, it is often good to step back from set projects and take apart in something totally different from time to time. Focusing on one thing for too long can impair you ability and wear you down.

We have themed intervention days that encourage all three levels of both BA(Hons) Animation and BA(Hons) Stop Motion Animation and Puppet Making to stop whatever they are doing and take part in something that they might not normally do.

So far we have had a Zombie Day and a Clown Day. Both Days start with us all assuming our own characters, then we have a mix of character expression and performance, and finish with life drawing (or undead drawing).

So it begins...

Are you feeling OK?

This lot didn't even use make up!

Don't let him in!

Must have been a lovely wedding!

The one thing a picture can't capture...the smell of rotting flesh...

Down to the business of life drawing!

They're all dead...but not for long!

Give us a smile

Why are you looking at me like that?

"I can cure Zombies!"

Next post, Clown Day.

B Movie update

Here are some more images for my B-Movie film. These are rough sculpts of one of the human types that will be made in Maya. Unlike Super Hands (who, incidentally, is now called 'Diesel') they start life as physical sculptures.

I am sculpting them using aluminum wire armatures and New Plaste clay. When complete they will be scanned with a laser to turn them into detailed files that I can work with in Maya.

Each human character has a normal state, and an emaciated, zombie like, condition. To save on sculpting time I am doing this as a single sculpt, then duplicating each side to make whole figures. See the Photoshopped images at the bottom for an idea of how they will look (need wider hips on the zombie type though).

 This is supposed to be a mechanic / workman type. The kind of guy usually seen flying backwards over some barrels in a James Bond film as the secret base blows up at the end...

 And this is the basis of his less-than-healthy counterpart...

There will be a female version, also male and female business types in suits.

Diesel the Robot is changing slightly. The main difference is his head, which has to be more expressive; still working on that. Plus his head has to have more of a non-symmetrical, almost home made look compared to the rest of his body.

 I have deliberately gone for a cine-camera look to the head, with the eyes looking like the turret mounted lenses on the front of my Dads clockwork powered Viscount Double 8mm cine camera. That camera, somewhat surprisingly, was able to take single frames, ideal for a young animator.

I will post more work as and when it happens.