Re: started a puppet building blog Posted by Andrew on Jul 25, 2011
It's very cool to stumble across this thread! I enjoyed checking out your blog Jackofspade.
I've been working on a large project that has involved casting a lot of silicone puppet heads and we've used Smooth On products extensively, or rather we did.
Last fall we were lucky enough to have a couple veteran SFX artists who have worked on major Hollywood movies help out on the build and they strongly recommended against using Smooth-On products.
While they are OK for general applications, we ran in to a lot of problems with them. In some cases the Flex Foam It (we were specifically using the Flex Foam It III 3 pound flexible foam) wouldn't expand properly inside molds during the casting process. The other problem I've had is with their Smooth cast plastic, which we use for virtually all our puppet eyes. We found that Smoothcast sometimes doesn't cure properly when casting very small molds.
I am not suggesting that Smooth On products don't work, but they do seem to be temperamental and not as consistent as some other (more expensive) brands. I was looking through my notes tonight to see what we replaced Smooth On with and I can't find the brand name or remember it, but I'll try to post it later this week.
This is a quick shot of some early prototype silicone heads. They were cast in silicone, but the foam inside the head is Smooth On Flex Foam It and the eyes were casting using Smoothcast plastic.
I started working this way about a year and a half ago with the help of a couple special FX artists and molding and casting puppet parts, while time consuming a little expensive - can definitely help take your work to the next level. Unfortunately, I'm not able to talk about the project I'm currently doing yet, but it's been extensively documented with photos and videos. After the film is officially announced later this summer or early in the fall a web site is planned that will include a lot of tutorials explaining how this kind of thing.
I've been working on a large project that has involved casting a lot of silicone puppet heads and we've used Smooth On products extensively, or rather we did.
Last fall we were lucky enough to have a couple veteran SFX artists who have worked on major Hollywood movies help out on the build and they strongly recommended against using Smooth-On products.
While they are OK for general applications, we ran in to a lot of problems with them. In some cases the Flex Foam It (we were specifically using the Flex Foam It III 3 pound flexible foam) wouldn't expand properly inside molds during the casting process. The other problem I've had is with their Smooth cast plastic, which we use for virtually all our puppet eyes. We found that Smoothcast sometimes doesn't cure properly when casting very small molds.
I am not suggesting that Smooth On products don't work, but they do seem to be temperamental and not as consistent as some other (more expensive) brands. I was looking through my notes tonight to see what we replaced Smooth On with and I can't find the brand name or remember it, but I'll try to post it later this week.
This is a quick shot of some early prototype silicone heads. They were cast in silicone, but the foam inside the head is Smooth On Flex Foam It and the eyes were casting using Smoothcast plastic.
I started working this way about a year and a half ago with the help of a couple special FX artists and molding and casting puppet parts, while time consuming a little expensive - can definitely help take your work to the next level. Unfortunately, I'm not able to talk about the project I'm currently doing yet, but it's been extensively documented with photos and videos. After the film is officially announced later this summer or early in the fall a web site is planned that will include a lot of tutorials explaining how this kind of thing.
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