Mike Tharme, Continuing the Snowball.

Tackling the issue of turning the original 2013 sculpt of the Rex skull into a much smaller variant for the newer armature. Some of the process in this part of the blog will be new and untested to me so should make for a interesting process. My first task was to address the requirements of what the skull needed to be... Light weight Paintable Robust/ High  strength under pressure Highly detailed If one of these factor was not met, it could compromise the overall result of the skull. RESCALING Original 2013 X-Rex skull made from Plastazote and Fimo The first thing I needed to do was to reduce the scale of the original skull of the 2013 resculpt. The shape and overall design was there but the scale was far too big and was quite weighty being made from Fimo. Instead of taking up time resculpting a new head from scratch I'm going to attempt 3D Scanning the original head to 3D print a core design for me to work from. I'll be using a photographic process t...

When I first heard about the film, the first thought that entered my mind was "I hope they will put Dinosaurs in it!" even in a kids film, Dinosaurs and cavemen have been a hand in hand relationship since the dawn of early cinema, the very first quite possibly being Willis O'Brien's The Dinosaur and the Missing Link: A Prehistoric Tragedy in 1917, that's over 100 years ago! Whilst the film is based in the Bronze age (so a majority of the animals featured in the film are from the Cenozoic era) there are some nods to Dinosaurs, especially the opening scene; featuring two Dinosaurs, a Ceratosaurus and a Triceratops, battling to the death which resulted in quite a comical twist. This was a loving homage and tribute to Ray Harryhausen, in fact the Dinosaurs are actually nicknamed Ray & Harry (wait until the end of the end credits if you don't believe me), after seeing this scene in the film and knowing what Ray's sense of humor was like, especial...

I decided that the short film required a introductory senescence , to set the audience up with the notion that the creatures they are about to witness  are not from earth and are from our solar  system.  Gerry Anderson's Fireball XL5 I ideally would prefer to have made this scene with practical effects, going down the route of kit-bashing  model space crafts together  to create a "Gerry Anderson like" craft that  would tap into nostalgia  for adults but engaging children in  plausible   future  machines that spark imagination. However due to the fact that I do not have time to make the two models and a space scenery as well as martian terrain  I decided to opt for something in CGI. One Million Years B.C 1966 This also plays on a idea I had from watching Ray's 1966 remake of One Million Years B.C. under  Hammer Film.  Ray used a real Lizard and Spider to highlight the flaws of using such animals as "pr...

In March I was lucky enough to attend the latest Ray & Diana Harryhausen Foundation exhibit at Valence House titled "Dinosaurs, Harryhausen & Me" which is focused on the amazing work of the foundations restorations manager Alan Friswell.  This gave me a great opportunity to see Ray's dinosaurs up close, study the sculpting details, postures and look for any hints and clues on the making of the models that will aid me in my own creature designs. Styracosaurus "The Valley of Gwangi" Gwangi "The Valley of Gwangi" Ceratosaurus "One Million Years B.C." Hydra "Jason and the Argonauts" These following models are also interesting to view but not a main focus to my studies Living Skeleton "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad"    Child of the Hydra's Teeth "Jason and the Argonauts" The Grand Lunar ...