Maquette Workshop

The legendary Nik Neumetzler from Studio Nice visited us at the Filmuniversität Babelsberg for a Maquette Workshop. First we developed a rough concept of our characters, i tried to think of a dynamic movement with an expressive line of action. So we scribbled on paper first to get a good pose. We then stabilized a little aluminium pole into a wooden plate to bend the metal wireframe on. Next Step was wrapping aluminium foil around the wire to give it some mass. A good advice from Nik was to constantly check the proportions with the scribble. After that we cut chunks of Super Sculpey to form long thin „sausages“ to wrap around the foil. The next big step is to get the mass with the squashy material and working out details, which took about 2 weeks. I sculpted a big marching man in a suit. His character should imply roughness, a conservative approach but also compassion, thus i formed his appearance with a lot of „edges“ and concentrated on his face and hands. He is drawing a little person behind him. The boy should almost follow him „flying“. Obviously both characters are from my current short movie. Father and son on their way to an oriental bath house. Here are some pictures.

 

Next step is Baking the (almost) finished sculpture in an oven for about 1 hour to get the Super Sculpey hard. Delicate parts like small details should be wrapped in alu foil to prevent burnmarks. And the final step is painting, throwing some nice colors in the character should make it come alive….. IT’S ALIIIIVVVE!!