2019 Early Man Exhibition, and a visit to Aardman Gromit!

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In June 2019, I went to visit Bristol for the M-Shed "Early Man" exhibition, and whilst I was there I was invited by Merlin Crossingham to have a tour around the Aardman studio, I even took the half finished XT-Rex puppet with me to show Merlin and get some advice and pointers on it before I applied the skin.
Early Man Exhibition

The main reason for attending this exhibition was to take a close look at the armature designs and sets used for the natural environments, luckily they even had the Ray and Harry puppets on display, next to Ray Harryhausen's Ceratosaurus and Triceratops hard models.

When you first entered the exhibition, you saw the dinosaurs models on display. Nick Park was heavily inspired by Ray's work growing up and wanted to have the same feeling of awe and inspiration to other young budding animators as they walked into the exhibition. It certainly worked on me.







As you walked round the corner you found the forest set with all the cavemen puppets, it was really nice to see the vegetation, trees and shrubs being held together with hotglue and the types of artificial plants used to fill out the environment. I also found the attached information card a very useful aid in my own project!




As for the armatures, it was wonderful to see these up close and personal rather than just from photos in a book or blueprints.







It was also really interesting to see a "Model makers" desk on display, revealing some details that you wouldn't always find in any making of books, such as the Tacky Wax used for securing eye balls into the puppets heads whilst allowing them to rotate easily with a pin.









Aardman Tour
 

My tour with Merlin was wonderful, sadly most of the animation spaces weren't in use sadly but looking around the model shop was a real treat. I didn't want to take any photos on this tour as I was more focused on Merlin was telling me about the spaces. Also whilst I didn't see him, Richard Williams was in his office on the grounds during my visit too, its a shame I didn't get the chance to shake his hand while I was there.
When I showed him the XT-Rex puppet he seemed quite impressed by it, I was just gutted I didn't have the time to apply the skin so he could see it in its finished state.


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