ahhh latex
July 4th, 2008 by mikes

We had a great day with models yesterday. You start with a clay model such as this and at the end up with a fully working animation model.
Having seen and even used latex for years, I had never actually been involved in making it, from first principles. It is amazing stuff to work with, and very very precise to make. So precise that the instructions from GM Form require a certain model of Sunbeam mixmaster - so you can mix it with exactly the right settings, mix 7 for 10 mins, mix at 4 for an additional 3 mins etc. And given how much the ammonia comes off during the mixing stage, I may not need to do it very often, even with the extraction fans, feel sorry for anyone who has to been in complex latex applications daily.

Still it is great fun to actually bake a mould and pop the latex figure complete with animation armature, it is the birth of creative stop frame animation process. After all these years in visual effects, I think I have really found the mad scientists in the back room - nice guys - just a tad high on fumes !

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 4th, 2008 at 6:13 pm and is filed under phdnews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “ahhh latex”

  1. Paco Garcia (pgarcia0) Says:
    July 8th, 2008 at 6:24 pm

    Hi Mike,

    I’d like to make some stop motion tests. Do you know which SLR camera is better for working in stop motion?.

    Thanks,
    pAco

  2. Andy Carr Says:
    July 30th, 2008 at 11:44 am

    I tried Googling “GM Form” and found nothing. Is there a web site for this?

  3. Mike Seymour Says:
    July 30th, 2008 at 3:51 pm

    SLR camera: most people use the Canon 5D or larger as it has a full sensor, but with nikon lenses.

    re GM Form yes all that information and every packet of stuff is documented in the class coming up

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