Before working on manOman I didn't have any hair punching experience. I didn't have access to a proper hair punching tool but was able to make my own with a popsicle stick and a needle. Using wire cutters I just cut the end of the needle off and hot glued it to the popsicle stick. I will use Alpha as an example on how I made the wigs.
The wigs are all made with felting wool. It's available in a wide range of colours and textures. The wool I used was all bought from www.worldofwool.co.uk
Mixing different colours of wool together means that you can easily create new colours. To mix colours I layer them on top of each other and gently pull at both ends and layer on top of each other again... similar to shuffling cards.
Repeat until desired colour is reached!
To put the hair into the silicone I take a small piece and lay it across the area I want the hair to be and push the needle through the hair and into the silicone.
I brush into the direction I want it, not worrying about length for now as it will be trimmed later. I found it's better to concentrate on getting all of the head covered first and then style it.
It's not really necessary to put hair into the back of the head if you can cover it with the length of the top few layers. It saves on wool and time.
To style the hair I used basic hair gel that sets hard.
It was a fairly spontaneous and last minute decision to burn the car. It was to be part of the montage scene, and was encouraged by pretty much everyone because of all the agro the car caused, and we all wanted to see it burn to the ground. On a very cold December 2nd night we burned it to the ground! There was a lot of heath and safety to worry about but we got Chris Dubock from the visual effects department to help. He is the guy you go to in Beaconsfield when you want to burn things or blow anything up. Puppeteering in front of massive flames in the freezing cold was a little challenging. As the other puppeteers had already left by this point, I puppeteered Manny with Paco. Terry the composer and Terry the animation student who puppeteered with me over the summer, were on Glenn. Rehearsing the shot. There was a lot of pressure to get it right first time, as there is only one car. One take.
Chris rigging the car up to burn. As far as I know he was using fabric soaked in lighter fluid and putting it inside the car. None of us were sure how well the car would burn because of all the different materials on it.
Making the embryo took two tries, but what we got looks so good! Simon made me a mood board and we discussed the design quite a lot. He also drew me an image on top of the man womb (that has already been filmed) of how he wanted it to look. It was going to be a round tumour like sack that will be filmed on a green screen and composited into the man womb. A lot of stress on 'gross' and 'hairy'...
I was quite on my own for this as Simon had to go straight into the edit with Paco. I was unsure how to make a balloon like gross hairy lump, but started with a balloon and some polystyrene balls cut in half as a test. I then covered this in a layer of silicone, hoping to build it up with more layers and eventually popping the balloon underneath to give me an empty fleshy sack to work onto. I stupidly forgot that latex stops silicone from going off, and applying silicone directly onto a latex balloon was setting myself up for total failure. Luckily I didn't use up too much silicone as I was conscious this was a test. Round two, i covered the balloon and lumps in clingfilm before applying the silicone. I was using platsil gel 00. I did two layers but wasn't sure that it was working well. I was definitely sure that I was totally winging it and didn't know what I was doing.
After realising I definitely needed help, I got a tutorial with Andy and was recommended a Stan Winston School dvd on monster making with plastic.
... despite the insufferable presenter, the dvd was extremely helpful. Over the weekend Simon and I started work on this using a plastic bag, soldering iron and a sheet of paper. The technique was basically heating plastic together into a new shape and using water and slime to create the round gross movement.
It did work how it's supposed to once we had finished it, but unfortunately it just wasn't right. It's definitely a technique I'd use in the future though, its very cost effective and fast to do. In desperation we looked back at my weird balloon test. I popped the balloon inside and surprisingly it actually seemed ok. It definitely needed a lot of modification but the basic idea was there. On Sunday we got a bigger balloon and used clay instead of polystyrene balls to make the lumps.
This was then covered in clingfilm. We mixed up a pot of platsil gel 00 and spread this on quite thick. After three layers we turned it upside-down and did three layers on the underside and around the cup to make a sleeve so that it could be puppeteered with hands on the inside or a tube could be put inside to blow air through and make it look like its pulsating. I put a small amount of green and flesh pigment into the silicone. A final layer of silicone was put on without any pigment, and I applied red string before it set to look like veins.
Once it had completely set I used baby powder to matte down the surface and make it less sticky. I then popped the balloon!
I did some tests with hair punching, seeing if doing big clumps was better or spreading it out thinly.
When held up to a light it looked really good, but the veins were not very obvious. I tried turning it inside out and using silicone sealant to make thicker veins that might show better with a light behind.
The sealant didn't work so well. It didn't bond to the silicone very strongly and it wasn't very visible with a light behind it. I peeled all of that off and mixed some platsil gel 00 in a cup with thinner and blue and black pigment added. I used a small paintbrush to apply it onto the embryo. While that was setting I made a fleshy membrane to stretch over the top of the embryo. I used platsil gel 00 again and added red, flesh and black pigment. I poured it over a mirror and spread it out thinly with my hands (wearing vinyl gloves) and patting it as it set to create a texture. Once it had set I peeled it off the mirror and poked small holes in it with a needle and ripped them to make larger holes and 'stringy bits'.
Simon decided that he preferred the 'pulsating' look so I attached a plastic mixing bowl to a short length of scaffolding borrowed from the main stage and glued it on. This fits inside the embryo so that it keeps its roundish shape and there is an opening to blow air into it.
Veins worked well and it looked wonderfully gross with the membrane!
I dry brushed some acrylic dark red paint onto the embryo to give it a more fleshy colour. I then punched a lot of hair into it.
We filmed on the 30th November on the main stage. It was just myself, Simon and Steve. we had the embryo on a long scaffolding pole with a thinner pvc tube inside to blow air through. A green screen was put behind it, which was a pain to put up because we had to get it smooth but we needed to get the pole through it. As it was Rob's personal screen, cutting a hole in it was not an option. Once we had it as smooth as we could manage we called Rob to come and check that he'd be able to work with it as it is. He gave the ok and left. I covered the embryo with a lot of vaseline and then a little more vaseline and hair. I was up a ladder behind the green screen blowing down the tube to make the embryo pulsate. It was pretty tiring but we did short takes with time for me to catch my breath between.
