Shooting YouTube videos of my model-making is something I've wanted to do for a good while now, and I finally started the process.
Upon reviewing the footage so far, I have come to the realisation that my filming angle needs to improve slightly for the rest of this project..
This is the very start of the process, where I used tinfoil as a base to get a basic shape for the head of this creature.
I bought my sister's DJI Pocket Pro from her for about 150 Euros recently, and I used that mounted on my Tri-Pod, with the head at an angle to get this slightly elevated looking down.
Off to one side, I had one of my Newer LED lights, set to 5600 Kelvin, to give it a cold white light.
I started to cover the tinfoil with a base layer of clay.
I broke out the tools when that was done and kind of showed some of them to the camera, so during the voice I can speak about the ones I tend to use the most.
I've noticed that of all of the tools I have, I only tend to use about 5-10% of them.
I never used to do this, but I'm going to start.
I used a bit of clingfilm over the model in order to mark out the guidelines on the face of this weird egg-shaped thing.
Next I carved out places for the eyes and the mouth.
Then I started to put a few layers of clay down to build up the brow and give a bit more shape to the face.
After building up the jawline and brow line I used this (ball on the end of a stick) tool to mark out the eye sockets properly.
I changed the angle slightly here and also zoomed in for this part, where I worked on carving the face a bit more and adding some minor details.
I don't like to detail the face too much at this point, because I like to wait until after it's completed before working on actual details.
I got distracted here and made something that looks like hair. It's actually meant to be muscle fibers. I figured that an alien with a jaw and mouth the size of this guy would have large muscles that wrap to the top of the head, similar to a dog.
I used to have a Bullmastiff called Cerberus, and I based the head muscles off of her. She was a good girl and a tank.
I changed the angle here slightly and zoomed out a bit more as I kept seeing that the model was going off-screen.
I added eyeballs at this point, and at this point, the face started to freak me out.
This is what I mean by the model going off-screen, or off to one side leaving the shot lopsided.
I shot this video at 4k, so I'll be able to zoom in, in post, without losing the detail of the shot. Typically footage can go grainy if it zooms in unless you're shooting at a higher resolution.
I wasn't happy up to this point. I felt that it didn't look alien enough, and what I kept getting was Thanos mixed with a Gorilla.
The camera died for the 3rd time before this shot, but while it was charging I started messing with it a bit more and had a eureka moment and started to really like it.
I accentuated the jawline, and wrapped it to the back of the head, giving it a bit of a triceratops shield thing going on. I also worked on the jaw itself to give it a few curves.
Now happier, I hopped on to make the bust for this guy to rest on. I only got to this section before wrapping up for the day.
It got dark by this point, and the lighting change made me realise that I should set up the other LED on the opposite side to give it more of a flat light. That way the sun going down might not change the lighting too much either.
This first day of filming made me learn a thing or two. The lighting will be better next time, I have a lot of lights for filming, but the LEDs are really good, and by using both of them I'll have much better lighting.
I'd love to get an overhead shot, but I don't have the necessary piece of gear for it. I'm going to have a look at what's out there and see what the price range is.
Other than that, I think I did pretty well on the first attempt. It'll take another day of shooting to get the final details on this piece, and potentially the paint too, which should be fun, and for me will be a major learning curve.
This has been a sneak peek at the piece itself, and I think the video will be pretty cool.