Mold Making Tutorial Part 1

[TheBadbl00d]

hey,i want to make a life size gremlin (really movie accurate) but i can't find ultracal 30 anywhere here in belgium.is there anything else i can use?please let me know

thanks

[7thdayanimation]

Why not work with gravity and lay the sculpt horizontally? I'm guessing it's because of the wooden base... is there some other reason? I just think there would be less to worry about that way. Nice vid though, really appreciate it! I love seeing other people's processes.

[animatorIsomer]

Sometimes I do work horizontally, if the sculpture permits it. This sculpture was top-heavy and the clay on it's ankles may have cracked if I did it that way. But you are correct, laying the sculpture down to make it easier to apply the plaster is certainly an option you can use.

If I remember correctly, I probably did that when I applied the plaster to the second half of the mold I made in this tutorial.

[7thdayanimation]

@animatorIsomer I see, thanks for the response. This is great stuff, more tutorials would be great. Thanks.

[dakellymon]

Great stuff

[calvinclimie]

Excellent work. Very helpful.  Thanks.

[jimcantbob]

Nice Jim Rose shirt!!

[Ibringthetruth1]

nice job

[broadkilltradingpost]

nice work - ridic!

[cecilteapot]

Yes, very helpful. It opened my mind up to an entirely new realm of possibilities, thank you.

[Moldiworp2]

Correct man this was incredibly helpful. YOu should post some more!

[animatorIsomer]

I should have charged money for these tutorials when I had the chance. You see how many viewings I've had on these things? Way more than the trailer for my movie! I can't tell you how many emails I've gotten from people about these tutorial videos and I've never gotten a complaint. I'm really glad I did this because apparently this was a real need people had, before shooting this, I searched to see if there were any online and couldn't find ANY that were any good.

[Rmir72]

Package it all together. From sculpting to mold making, to casting the latex, how you trim it, etc. In other words, a comprehensive tutorial of a stop motion puppet, from beginning to end. I can't see it not selling, if done as well as the mold making tutorial.

[stikfas23]

how do you make the wall structure

[animatorIsomer]

There's noting I did that was special in any way for the wall or didn't mention in the video, it really is just a sculpture that is made to fit around the sculpture and is made from the same clay (Kleen Klay) that I sculpt onto it that attaches to the sculpture I'm molding. Just build up big fat sections that are strong enough to support themselves and the clay you will add to them.

[stikfas23]

and also how to put the posts

[LizzyChan101]

wait, you used what kind of clay? How'd you spell that???

[animatorIsomer]

You spell it Chavant Clay and the other soft clay is spelled Kleen Klay. I'm sorry, I should have though to write those names on screen.

[LizzyChan101]

Thanks. ^-^

[stikfas23]

were can i get foam rubber and the two kinds of clay

[animatorIsomer]

There are many places to get the Kleen Klay and the foam latex. But I don't know where you live so I don't know what to recommend other than just doing a Google search for : Kleen Klay - Foam Latex Kits and Chavant Clay. You will get a lot of answers to these kinds of questions if you join my favorite website...

StopMotionAnimation(dot)com (I'm always hanging out there)

[stikfas23]

you should make tutorial how to sculpt the body for the mold

[earthchomps]

thanks a lot, these have been a great help

[kitebabe05]

very helpful video! thank you

[DeathMazk]

what is the brand of the clay can u plz tell me? i dont know if i can find that type of clay here at mexico thnx a lot and im very gratefull with u for posting this great video serial!!

thnx a lot mr. ron

[animatorIsomer]

The Brand of clay that I used for the sculpture is a brand called Chavant NSP. The 'NSP' part stands for 'no sulfur' which is important sometimes because some people are allergic to it and some rubber mold making materials react badly with sulfur.

The clay I use for the clay dividing wall is a soft brand of clay called Kleen Klay. (that IS how it's spelled)

There are several different hardnesses of the Chavant clay and it comes in two varieties, with or without sulfur.

[Deathcricket]

Very informative, thank you! I have a similar creature that I've made and am going to attempt to duplicate. I can see now that I will have to cut off most of his horns like you cut of your guys head to make this work. If you don't mind answering. I used super sculpey and baked it rock hard. Why did you use hard clay and not bake it? so you can reuse it later?

[Deathcricket]

Edit watched the rest and answered my own question. Haha, thanks again for the vids

[animatorIsomer]

I used a hard clay because it retains fine detail better and makes it harder to damage but, the clay you use for making a plaster mold MUST BE SOFT! Do not bake your sculpey before making the mold because you will NEVER get the sculpture out of the mold because the shapes will lock together. Hard objects should be molded in rubber materials like silicone, latex or urethane. In mold making, either the mold or the sculpt must be pliable or else you're asking for trouble... (more to come)

[animatorIsomer]

Making a hard mold from a hard object IS possible but, only with the utmost skill and practice. (I have never dared to try it) If you have already baked you sculpey sculpture DON'T PANIC! you can make a silicone mold from it and it's not any harder than making a plaster mold in most cases. I don't have a tutorial on silicone mold making but there are some here on YouTube that can get you started (although I could teach them a thing or three!) I may make a silicone tut in the future, stay tooned!

[Deathcricket]

Thanks for the reply. When I saw the 3rd video it make perfect sense why you did what you did. I already have some "firm super sculpey" for my next project. I had some difficulty getting good details with regular stuff. Purely on a philosophical level. Why do you prefer a soft model vrs a soft mold? My personal observations would be damaging the model during casting before you can get a good imprint. Also I liked being able to bake the parts of my sculpt I did like and be done with it. (cont)

[Deathcricket]

since this is my first time I'm asking purely since I've not done EITHER way yet and would like to avoid mistakes. As I gain more experience, I will of course form my own opinion on the subject. I really loved the video by the way! I'm definitely going to try this my next sculpt. :)

[CloudyChan]

I use the Klean Klay to make the actual model, im trying to find a way to make my model hollow with the moulding, would you have any suggestion as to what to put around klean klay?

thanks for making this, it makes it a lot clearer how to make half moulds.

[animatorIsomer]

Wow, if your original sculpt is in Kleen Klay then all I can suggest is cooling it in a refrigerator prior to building the separation wall so that you can work on a harder surface with softer clay. You said that you want your castings to be hollow and that requires a 3rd part to the mold called a core. That is made by laying a layer of clay into the 2 part mold in the thickness that you want your rubber to be in the end and then pouring Plaster into that cavity in order to produce that 'skin'.

[CloudyChan]

the Klean Klay I use is Extra Firm variety. I am actually making a Ball jointed doll, and also I want to final product to be made from porcelain.

(but I need to make the parts fit together before hand so i will make it out of something else first.)

someone told me about slip casting, that makes it hollow?

[animatorIsomer]

That's a casting that I've never used, sorry. That's done exclusively for porcelain and I never touched that stuff, I'm more of a rubber and plastics guy.

[jiidee]

I've never done any of this but i've read quite a bit..i recon he could use whats called a "roto-caster" thats basically a rotating rack that'll "swirl" the mold in both X and Y axis which thereby swirls the casting material around the inside of the mold resulting in a hollow cast. This of course requires a casting medium that fluid enough to be swished.

[monnie110]

Great video. I remember looking for a video like this last year when I began to play with clay and stopmo

[huninuk]

SAME!! i'm 16 years old, and had the same problem...thx

[hejsanhojsan]

Hell man! I'm 16 years old and I've been into FXing for approxo one year, and I gotta thank you much for this tutorial! It's hard to find good moulding vids. Very informative!