My first maquette
For animation class, the latest project is to create a maquette of our upcoming short film’s main character. This maquette, or clay figure, will be used as a 3D reference when animating our film so that it would be easier to draw in different angles. My short film has been changed, I am no longer doing “Dream” because the story for that seemed pointless. Instead, I will be animating a tale about a bird. And here is my creation! More details and pictures below the cut.
I forgot to take pictures of my work-in-progress so I have no pictures to show what it looked like before I added clay. Basically, I used 1/8″ armature wire and bended it into the skeleton of a bird (head, neck, spine, legs, etc). I drilled two holes into the wooden platform and dropped the ends of the wire through it, then bended it on the other side so that the figure would hold upright. For the body parts that require large masses of clay (the head, and the body), I wrapped foil around the wire and shaped it into a ball shape for the head and an egg shape for the body. Then I added Super Sculpey on top of it.
Super Sculpey is easy to work with compared to clay because it is not messy. It feels like play-doh except you can bake it in the oven like normal clay. It says on the box that it’s non-toxic but just in case, wash your hands before eating! Another advantage to Super Sculpey is that it does not harden (but it’s recommended you complete your figure as soon as possible). It took me two days to complete this. The next day, it was still as soft as it was the day before. Here’s another picture.
My major hassle was smoothing the bumpiness. I was really caught up in it and almost ran out of time adding the beak and eyes. Even now, it’s still not perfectly smooth because even if you lightly touch it, you’ll leave some sort of fingerprint or bump. I really like the beak but had immense trouble with the eyes since I only have a thin amount of clay in that area and right underneath it was the foil. After that hassle, I no longer felt like working on the feet so I just left it like that. 
If you didn’t know me, I actually hate ceramics and crafts with a passion! I’m really bad and clumsy with my hands. But to be able to make something that resembles anything like a bird is a miracle for me. Comparing this bird to my fifth grade clay sculpture of a kind-hearted monster (which I won’t even attempt to show the public) is like comparing a semi-shiny quarter to decomposed matter, so I’d say I’ve immensely improved (but am still not good).
Anyway, after this, normally one would take this into an oven and bake it for around 15 or 30 minutes. But since I have an ominous feeling that something would break or fall off (just like clay did in the past because they’re evil like that), I won’t be baking it. Maybe I will someday after I finish animating my film.
