rhiannayates-puppetry

[rhiannayates-puppetry]

Here is the final advert edit! its so amazing and it features my friends band Bandicoot as the backing track so its so nice to be part of this amazing collaboration. Im also really chuffed as my squirrel seems to be the main character and gets the most screen time! so im over the moon that they clearly loved it!

Heres the link to the post on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CaZkmE0FF_C/?utm_medium=share_sheet

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Here are the final photos taken by Trigger Happy Creative and im so pleased!!! They look amazing and the squirrel and the puffin go so well together. I think they last minute got the cow head as i wasn’t told about it but im pleased our 2 match perfectly like they asked. They also added brown hands to it which is slightly off putting but it still looks great. 

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I unfortunately didnt take any photos of the felt process as i was less confident with this process and had no time to waste.

I started by marking out the different coloured sections and put a flat base of each of the colours in their designated areas. Then i painstakingly cut strips of spikey shapes to build up the fur texture in layers, over each of those sections. I started with the red over the crest of the head from back to front, with very large spikey shapes at the nape of the neck to very small around the nose. This made it look more textured and the smaller sections on the more curved areas made for easier coverage. It was super effective but was very time consuming! I then made the ruff in the same way building up the shape peice by peice. I then added the disco balls to complete the look!

[rhiannayates-puppetry]

Final product images

I was worried they wouldn’t take any good high quality photos of the head for my portfolio so I did a little photos shoot of my own. Also I cant resists a moment in the spot light and i was very pleased with my creation so i wanted so fair well shots.  

When Sian came to collect it she was blown away and i was so pleased! Now i just cant wait to see the final advert and the other heads!

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Paper Mache Time!

After the Gaffa tape layer I did a double layer of gum strip to make it rock hard. Then once that was dry I used news print paper to start to build the details of the face. I love a project at this stage when the form comes together and the character is born. 

once the shapes were dry I went over those areas with gum strip to make them rock hard as well. I then covered the whole thing in 2 layers of weather proof wood glue to waterproof it further. (i wasn’t taking any chances)

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Here ive continued building the form in the same way and ive added the ears which took me ages to get right. Ive been concerned it might look too much like a cat or a rabbit this whole time and the ears of a squirrel are the defining feature as well as their arched bridge of the nose so im taking extra care to get these right. 

They were really concerned about them being robust and water proof to ensure they will last for future years. So when I was happy with the base shape i covered the whole thing in a layer of Gaffa tape. Also today the disco balls arrived so i tried them on for size.

The next stage I added the eyes. Its hard to see here as they are black, but i used a bottle to cut 2 domed eye shapes from and then painted the inside black and tapped them in place. 

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Building up the form

Once I had a simple front silhouette and i was happy with the size of the base structure I turned my focus to the profile shape. 

I cut strips of cardboard and formed them with my hands to build up a rounded shape, based on reference images of squirrels as well as my design. This built up really quickly and i was pleased with the progress. I had decided I would need at least 3 days to add the fabric at the end so after 1 day of sourcing materials id have another 3 days to build the shape and paper mache the details. After the first day of making I felt very much on track.

[rhiannayates-puppetry]

Beginning making

My plan was to build up the shape with cardboard around a helmet so it would be comfortable and sturdy to wear. I didn't know what they would be doing in the advert so I wanted to make sure it was as user friendly as possible. 

I started by using tracing paper to mark out how large the head would be on the wearer and used a piece of card board as reference to see where the helmet shape would be underneath. With this as my guide I started building the helmet shape.

I used strips of cardboard to make the basic shape then lined it with Gaffa tape to give me a flat sturdy surface to attach foam and fabric to, to make a comfortable base for the wearer. 

I then began building up a base structure around this helmet shape using cardboard and Gaffa tape, to get a solid form to build around.

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Costings for squirrel mask

I spent the next day just sourcing materials and making a costings sheet with all the evidence in one place to send to them for reimbursement at the end with my invoice. Id learnt from the monsters project not to do this bit by bit as i would forget what id done with the evidence or what they had paid me back for. By including this document with my invouce at the end id remove any of this unnecessary hassle. I also made sure right at rhe beginning to make my day rate clear to them when we were discussing budget in order to make sure im paid properly for all my time. Since the monsters project ive been working for The Bakehouse Factory in Bristol and i feel like now i know my worth and i made it clear qhat rhat was from the get go.

Unlike the moster project their was no set budget for materials stated when i aksed. The focus was on the speed of the outcome rather than materials. If more time had been offered i would have suggested ordering plasterzote and making a clay sculpt so it would be super light. But ordering foam and clay would have taken too long. Also its a one off and im very comfortable working in card and paper and knew i could build it up very qucikly and effectively. Also the shoot was fairly short and so they wouldnt be wearing them for very long and it would be fairly light weight regardless.

They also stated it needs to be extremely robust as they would be come the new mascots for the festival and will be used in future years promo. So i figured cardboard would be stronger then foam to sit in storage and transit.

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Designing the squirrel

I did these two initial sketches really quickly after our first zoom to send to them right away to see what they liked. They really liked sketch 2 after that was decided we started another zoom with the other designer Erin to introduce ourselves and discuss ideas. We needed to make sure the final outcomes were in keeping with each other and looked like they were made by the same person. As it was such a quick turn around time for the project ( 7 days) I was worried I wouldn’t be able to source materials in time if i needed to order them. We decided paper mache would work great and we would cover them in layered felt. This meant I could easily source the material as its very common, and I knew butterfly fabrics in Cardiff had a large selection of felts. They also wanted him to have a cool accessory and suggested including disco balls in some way.

 The second the Zoom ended I made my way to butterfly fabrics to see what colours they had on offer to use as part of my design. 

Once I ok’d the colours from butterfly fabrics with Sian, I then spent the evening making a more detailed design based off this sketch.

I traced the shape bigger of the basic sketch and added the ruff to connect him to the body and played around with the patterning. 

here are my 2 final designs with different colour patterns. Trigger Happy creative said they liked the second design. 

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Ive been offered a commission making a mascot head for the Urdd Eisteddfod for Triban festival. I found this work through the Monsters project with Adwaith. Trigger Happy creative are a videographer duo big in the Welsh music scene and have taken pictures for their past albums and filmed music videos for much of the South Wales music scene. They were contacted by the Urdd Eisteddfod to make a new advert featuring native welsh animals as characters. It was a quick turn around project so it became a collaborative project with another artist and we would each make a head to be featured in the advert. 

I was given red squirrel the other artist Erin Julian was given puffin. I was extremely excited for this amazing paid opportunity and now id had a trial run with a professional commission from working with Adwaith I felt confident on how to present my self professionally. 

I had a first zoom meeting with Sian Adler from Trigger happy creative that day to get a feel for the project she showed me Triban’s designer Niki Pilkington and we discussed entwining her easthetic in the design. She also sent me over a mood board of style references for the design. I then had few hours to quickly present some really basic sketches to see what kind of design they like before making a more detailed sketch. 

We decided together the bottom left hand image was our favourite to go with and so i started sketching with this in mind.

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here is a rough design ive done with measurement for the balance exhibition in June. 

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Here are some screen shots from the final footage as well as a test rendering from the videographer as an example of what the background is going to look like. Im really excited with how she looks its all turned out so well the band were so pleased with the trippy ridiculousness of it all. 

we had so much fun shooting and the rendering makes me think its going to look so good when she’s in the landscape!! 

I cant post any footage clips untill it comes out im just really excited to see it all come together!

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Music video test at home

Heres a small clip if us playing with her in the car after we did the test set up. We realised from this test we beed to make sure we had a table to put the car on that was the right size to take to the shoot. Im glad we figured this out before we wnet ir we would have been really stuck on the day.

She looks really funny and im really excited to shoot her professionally now.

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Behind the scenes of the final shoot.

Filming was amazing fun, we spent the whole day playing around and having the best time, before this i hadnt been able to see the full effect of her fully dressed so it was so exciting to see her come to life with 2 puppeteers.

Before this i also was only communicating with the band and the videographer via zoom so it was really amazing finally meeting everyone and brainstorming in person. They were all so pleased with the out come and i cant wait to see the final edit.

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Lastly i added the dark blue fur trim to her top and shorts to finish off her look. As well as making fluffy leg warmers. I also drew her on some eye liner and added an eye brow peircing so she look cool like the bands aesthetic.

Im really pleased with how she turned out!! Now i just cant wait to film it!!

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The next stage now the puppet was complete was planning out the shoot. I spray painted the car pink as requested by the band and painted the title of the album as the registration number.

Once that was done I hired lights and a camera from uni and bought lots of green fabric and 2 morph suits for the green screen effect. I asked my friend Jack porter whos a stage manager to show me how the lights worked and we set them up at home with the green screen to do some tests to make sure it worked. Once i was happy with the set up we were all set for the real thing in a weeks time.