Mike Tharme, Continuing the Snowball.

Until recently, my only knowledge on mould making was basic, rules such as not having undercuts to allow easy removal of a casting and using mold release. I also only had material experience with plaster and silicone, I was aware of fibreglass mould's, but I had never used it on any job or hobby project to date. I have recently discovered a material that the industry also use whilst I was employed at Telegael in Ireland, which is called Aluminium Resin (I refer to it as Alucast for short). It's stronger than plaster, but just as light as polyresin, it's virtually odorless, it can be sanded with a file or a belt sander, each casting cures in about 30-60 minutes and it can be used for silicone and foam latex casting. If you're working at home making your own stop-motion film, you can make your mold's in whatever fashion and material feels comfortable for you; However, if you are looking to work in the industry, they expect a level of skill that demonstrates...

When I was a child, I was introduced to modelling clays like plasticine (normally the thin strip types) and Play-doh. I fell in love immediately with the material, I didn't have many toys growing up, but with this stuff I could make anything, from Dinosaurs to characters from my favorite cartoon shows. A pack not to dissimilar from this, was a staple gift in my youth. This Play-doh set was one of my first introduction to modeling clays From 1993 I started to get more adventurous with my models, learning to make dinosaur legs more realistic by adding muscle shapes and scales on the feet and adding details like scutes on my crocodiles, but they were still a long way from anything I would call "professional". It wouldn't be until 2002 when I would touch plasticine again. Upon starting my university BA Animation course I was introduced to the product Newplast, the same, if not a very similar product used by Aardman studios. A selection of ...

I first came up with the concept of Wildlife on Mars way back in 2004 during my BA Animation Degree at the University of Central Lancashire. I wanted to make something new, that hadn't been done before but still held a loving homage to the stop-motion creature effects of my idol, Ray Harryhausen. So, after many ideas ranging from generic comedy spoofs to "art house" film, none really felt right for me and I decided to follow my instincts and stick with what I knew best...Dinosaurs! I started to think a little more outside the box, thinking to myself "Mars was always a good source of science fiction in the past, could it work for me?", and at the time news of evidence of frozen water on Mars and the possibilities of "life" on Mars were in all the papers. Dinosaurs have always been popular in the public eye, Jurassic Park 3 was the most recently released film from 2001 and Peter Jackson was tackling his own passion project for a remake of King Kong....