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Makeup designs, writing on myself, ya know...the usual...

1/27/2018

So I am still working on my Aoifa costume. I need to fix the sleeves. A friend suggested I make them out of chain mail. I think that might work. I don't know the first thing about how to construct mail, but it looks doable. I just need to learn how to construct, and decide what it is I need to construct.

I still wanna do a cool makeup thing for her. I have been watching probably way too many tutorials and people doing fantasy/cosplay makeup on YouTubes. I have decided I want to incorporate skulls into it.

One day I was cruising around Amazon, and I saw that there are several fairly cheap liquid eyeliner pens. those would be perfect for drawing pretty and intricate designs n my face that incorporate skulls and nature. So I grabbed a couple. I kind of suck at it right now, but I figured if I practice on my arm I may eventually get ok enough at doing it I may be able to do my face.

Now I am addicted to writing on myself. It is kind of zen. I still suck, but it is kind of calming in the doing of it. so here are some pics of what I have been playing with, and the pen I have been using.

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Puppet build and tests

1/20/2018

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So I needed to test out my theory on how to make my puppets work for my next video. So I built a head, mouths and eyes. The point is that the face can be more expressive, even if I am not syncing to dialog.

I started with an alluminum foil ball as a base.

For some reason I didn't get any pics of the next few steps, but I did Periscope it if you wanna go to my channel at teaweaselstopmo and watch me build it. I put an outer layer of clay on, then I marked where I wanted the eyes and mouth to be. Then I built it up a bit around those areas then sculpted the face. I think it looks a little bit like Armin Shimerman, the guy who played Quark on Deep Space Nine. Symmetry is not my strong suit. The ears ended up unbalanced. And I made the chin way too long. I needed to move the mouth down a bit, further away from the nose. Otherwise not bad for a first try. As I used SuperSculpey, the next thing I did was bake in the toaster oven. It is brand new for this purpose, so I burnt his head a bit on the top.

Next I made the different mouths. This was the difficult part. I just didn't feel that sausage mouths were the right style, but how to make them without the heavy lips? Well, I tried...

So then I wanted to test it out, see if it worked. I did 3 tests, then I painted it and did one more. Here are the videos:

Then I did some painting. Yeah, it is a bit creepy. Needs some eyelids. And hair or a hat. And eyebrows.

So overall I think this will work, I just need to practice it so I get better at it. Just for shits and giggles, here is the test video I did in color. I didn't bother with sound though.

See? Creepy without eyelids, huh. Well, when I get further along I will share more of my epic fails. :)

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Testy McTesterson Testing

1/19/2018

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So now I am working on playing around with what I got. I tried making a proof of concept for the mouth idea I had. The clay I used was way too heavy, and didn't work very well. So I ordered some Supersculpey. It came in last night, so I decided to play a little bit with it. I made a short video with my phone in the Animate It! app. I didn't really care for how poorly it was centered, so I decided to use this opportunity to figure out how to fix it in Pinnacle. I did one just without doing anything but adding credit cards. Then I did one with just a static zoom. Then I did one with a animated pan and zoom. I think it is ok. I still contend it is better to do it right in camera, but it is fun to learn how to do things in post.

So here is the original unedited one:

Was kind of fun. I shot about 2 seconds worth and manipulated the length in the app.

Here is the one I did with the static zoom:

A tad flaily, but otherwise not bad. It did not get as mushy as I expected it to.

Here is the one with the animated pan and zoom:

It didn't hit exactly the points I wanted it to, but I am putting that up tp my inexperience. I added a couple of keyframes and it did basically what I wanted it to.

Always fun to learn new things.

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It finally arrived!! Now to see what it does..

1/11/2018

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So my lighting setup finally got here. It didn't contain everything I thought it did, but enough that I don't care. The umbrellas are very fragile. I accidentally sat on one of the black/reflective ones and the post broke clean through. I don't know how I will fix it yet.

Of course I had to play with it a bit. I set up the background frame, clamped a bedsheet to it, tacked a black foamboard to the table, set up the lights and played. Here are pics of the rig/ setup.

Here is the resulting video. It isn't great, but not too bad. I don't like the color of the bulbs that came with this setup. Too blue. I want something warmer.

I shot this video on my Android phone using the Animate It! app from Aardman. I love this app. I like Osnap for my ipad, but for my phone this is the best one out there for free. You can pay for $5 add-ons. But it allows you to lock focus, white balance, and exposure. It also includes onion skinning in the standard app. And if you pay for the add-on package you can shoot in 4k. My phone acts weird when I check 4k option, though. It will take one picture normal, next way too overexposed. Even if I have exposure lock on. May be I need to do something I am not aware of yet. I will play with it more later.

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Happy New Year...and shit...

1/10/2018

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It has been a few weeks so I thought I would do a post. I don't have a lot to post, except that it is now 2018, and I feel more behind in my life than ever. Jan 1 I went out photogging at the creek down the road. I really did not get anything spectacular, but some of them are ok. I enjoyed it, and I Periscoped it. Had 2.6k viewers, which is higher than any other broadcast I have done. Then when I got home, within an hour my throat closed up, my fever shot up and I started feeling sick. Then I was flat out for a week. I am still sick, but not as bad as that first week. My voice still comes and goes. I get tired really fast. Drainage is still happening. And then there are the hives and the angioedema. I be tired and annoyed and itchy and drainy. And nightmarey. I took benedryl for the hives and angioedema a few days ago. Then I had the worst nightmares of my life. I mean, flow blown terror freak out nightmares. Last night I did not take any benedryl, thinking I would avoid it, but every time I turned the light out I freaked out. I am so tired.

I am trying to motivate myself to get some more stop mo done. I found a lighting set online that includes 2 white diffusing umbrellas, 2 black/silver reflecting umbrellas, 4 stands, 4 light attachments with holes for the umbrellas, a background frame, 4 clamps and a case. It was $40 off, so I decided to go for it. I think that will help with 2 things. I will be able to light the sets better. Then I can put the adjustable background frame over the table and use it for the backdrop. It is made for full sized photo and video shoots, but I think I can adapt it. We'll see. If it ever gets here. According to UPS it was supposed to be here yesterday. then it was supposed to be here today. Thier site says residential service ends at 3pm, so I doubt it will be here today as it is after 5pm now. Though the site has not changed the information to reflect that. They must be having issues. It is annoying to me, who is impatient to get going with things.I have a couple of things in the works that I want to try getting going. A couple of competitions I want to try for. Maybe. I don't know. It depends on if my insecurity gets a hold of me.

I got myself some armature wire and have ordered square brass tubing, and I have air hardening clay. I intend to build some new puppets. When I do I will post pics. May even do some Periscoping of it.

So, there ya go. My elaborate plans, which may or may not happen.

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Makeup designs, writing on myself, ya know...the usual...

Puppet build and tests

Testy McTesterson Testing

It finally arrived!! Now to see what it does..

Happy New Year...and shit...

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