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CreativityTranscript
00:15I'm Sean Cusick. I'm a modeler here at Blue Sky Studios. What I do is I take the drawing that
00:22comes from the character designer after it's approved by the director, and then we start making it out of clay,
00:27and it looks something like this.
00:30What we're going to do is we're going to take some of these elements here, and then we're going to
00:34make it into a really cool character that looks something like this. You can get stuff like this at your
00:39local arts and crafts store. It's just clay, things like armature wire, and then these are the sculpting tools we
00:45use.
00:45Kids, you can use stuff like popsicle sticks or a spoon or anything else like that that helps you push
00:51the clay around. And you can get clay like this, which is what we call Super Sculpey, or you can
00:57get stuff like Play-Doh or any other really cool clay that they sell at your local craft store.
01:01Hmm, I didn't know that.
01:03We start like this. Take a piece of wire, set it up in an armature. Just get some coat hanger
01:09wire that's cool or anything else like that that works for you. Start trying to get the basic shape of
01:14what Sid looks like. It kind of looks a little bit like a sock puppet. It's got a thin neck
01:17and then a big lumpy head.
01:20Hey!
01:21And then this is where I start using the tools. And you can use anything like a plastic knife or
01:28a popsicle stick. This one we use is a stainless steel tool. One of my favorite tools.
01:37The great thing about Sid is he's kind of got this mushroom head with these two light bulb eyes that
01:42kind of stick off the side of his head.
01:44So what I'm going to do is I'm going to cut this off and make basically two balls of clay.
01:49Take anything else, just take this and roll it up into a little marble.
01:55So you can see we're starting to get this basic shape going. He's kind of got this flattened part around
02:02his nose, so we want to start putting this on here.
02:07Start smushing that together. I'm going to use this other tool. It's a little bit finer.
02:12It helps blend the clay together. It's sort of like you're sewing it together.
02:18I'm going to take this big tool again. Start smoothing it out.
02:26Trying to get something there. I'm going to start to put his nose on now. Roll up another ball of
02:31clay like this.
02:32Fingers. Smooth it out a little bit of your thumbs. Then I'm going to make two little nostrils there using
02:38this tool.
02:40It's almost like a little finger. Use it to push into the clay. This way and that way.
02:50Then I'm going to start to stitch it together with this tool again so the clay holds to itself and
02:55doesn't fall off.
02:58The thing about Sid is he's got these ping pong eyes with very little lids that come around.
03:05So I want to take a thin piece like this and smooth it out.
03:09Put it up over here around the back. Bring it around the eye gently as not to squeeze the eye.
03:19Down the front a little bit. Fill that out. Use my finger again to smooth out the eyelid.
03:25So it looks like the ball is sitting in a pocket of clay.
03:29I'm going to start filling it out around the lips. He's got this little bit of a tube of clay
03:34we're going to put here to get that upper lip to look that way.
03:37So I'm just going to cut off some more clay here. And then we're going to take a smaller piece
03:45and roll it out.
03:46It's almost like a big thick piece of spaghetti.
03:52We're going to start bringing it around like this.
03:56We're going to start to blend this into the rest of the head.
04:00A little bit more. Push it up. Smooth it into the rest of the face.
04:04So it doesn't look like a big blob of toothpaste there. Start shaping it a little bit more.
04:09Somebody here likes Sid.
04:12He's got the lower lip tucked in with his teeth over the front.
04:16So before we do the teeth, we want to take a little bit more clay. Tuck it underneath here.
04:24He's got like this little pouch under his chin. He has no chin.
04:27So we want to push this big piece of clay in here. Start smoothing it out.
04:32And again, we're going to blend this into the lower lip. You see the overbite.
04:36You can see he's got a really wide mouth. It almost touches his eyeball there.
04:40So we're going to take this and start pushing it around and up a little bit.
04:44A little bit of a smile. Get that goofy Sid grin.
04:49Like so.
04:52I'm going to use this tool, which is, we call it the clay rake tool,
04:56which is basically a loop of wire with some little ridges on it.
05:00But you don't need to have something like this. You can use actually just a piece of wire wrapped around
05:04a stick.
05:05And then what you do is you pull it across the surface.
05:08And it pulls the whole thing together. Start cleaning up all the shapes.
05:12This is what we call the roughing out phase.
05:14So if you were raking leaves, you just kind of go across the surface.
05:17Back and forth.
05:19And start getting rid of all that lumpy bubblegum look.
05:24Don't press too hard because if you do, you'll make a big gouge in it.
05:28So you want to go really lightly across the surface.
05:36You can see it's starting to take a little bit more shape.
05:39A little bit more like Sid.
05:41Just keep blending and smoothing and pushing the clay around.
05:46For me, this is where it starts to get to be a lot more fun.
05:50Getting close.
05:52So we're going to give him that beady eye look.
05:55Just take a pointy tool.
05:57Put it in there.
05:58Spin it around.
06:06A little bit more of a goofy smile.
06:08Take the side of his face and push it up a little bit.
06:11Get that snicker.
06:14And then we're going to add his teeth.
06:16The great thing about Sid, he's got one tooth that's bigger than the other.
06:19Just kind of shape that out a little bit.
06:21Push it around with your thumbs.
06:22Take another one, maybe a little bit smaller.
06:28Tuck that behind the other one.
06:32And I'm just going to make a little slot here to put his teeth in.
06:35So it doesn't fall down.
06:39Smooth it out again.
06:43Start to see the familiar, goofy-looking face that Sid has.
06:50Usually from this point on, we start to clean up the model some more.
06:54It takes a few more days to get that final look that the director is after.
06:58After about 40 minutes of working on Sid,
07:00start getting basic shape of what he looks like and his characteristics.
07:04And then taking about eight more days, then you get something that looks like this.
07:08It's a more refined model.
07:10You can see all the detail that's in here.
07:12You can see the fur and the claws and the eyes and the teeth.
07:18I've always loved working with clay.
07:20Ever since I was a young kid, I started with Play-Doh.
07:23And it's really a lot of fun for me to take a drawing and start to see it come alive
07:28as this sort of 3D character.
07:31I'm lucky enough to do that every day at work.
07:35Basically how you get started on sculpting.
07:37You can spend as much time as you want.
07:39You can push it around.
07:40If it starts getting messed up, it's okay.
07:42You can start all over again.
07:43Just have fun with it.
07:44By the way, I can do it.
07:50It's okay.
07:52It's okay.
07:56I'd like to have fun with me.
07:56You can do it.
07:57I can quit.
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