Neil Ellis - Props, Models and Costumes: April 2015

WALL•E

Using drawings from ‘The WALL•E Builder’s Club’ I built this replica for a collector in Japan. The body is made from MDF and styrene. The eyes are built from acrylic and ABS with real camera lenses. The arms are made from ABS and acrylic tube and chemiwood. The finished piece is painted in acrylics and weathered with iron powder and vinegar which was then sealed with a cellulose lacquer.

Work-in-progress photos

The laser-cut acrylic eyes, with real camera lenses

The body finished and in primer

Detailing the eyes

Building the arms

Rusting the rear end

Darth Maul's Lightsaber

Commissioned by Dorling Kindersley and Lucasfilm, I built this cut-away Darth Maul lightsaber for The Phantom Menace Expanded Visual Dictionary, published to celebrate the release of Star Wars: Episode 1: The Phantom Menace in 3D.

It was quite a nice little job and I had 5 days to design, build and deliver the prop, with some very loose art direction from the author of the book. The guts were made with mainly stainless steel found parts, that were sourced from the same company that provided the original Phantom Menace prop makers with parts. Some parts were custom made in aluminium. These were fitted into a Master Replicas saber.

'The Doctor'

This project was part of the final year of my degree programme. The Doctor was designed and made for a movie called ‘The Children of Cradle Grave.’ I pitched to supervise the creature fx on the movie by running through the script, identifying the shots and calculating a top-end and low budget solution for them. I had the sequences storyboarded first to check that the producer, director and I were clear on what I was quoting for. The fx head pictured was created from a life cast of the producer, Mark Pegg. It was cast in a Platinum Silicone and finished in oil paints.

Storyboard for the proposed scene

Work-in-progress photos

Starting to work on the plasterline life cast

Sculpting the wound and adding texture

More texture and claying up for moulding

Fibreglass mould and claying up the core

Painting in silicone for the would and injecting for the skin

Demoulding the silicone bust and painting with oils

Halo CQB Armour

This project was part of the final year of my degree programme. The patterns for the armour were sculpted by hand in polyurethane foam and then vac-formed in ABS and styrene. The helmet was sculpted in oil based clay, in 2 halves over a real crash helmet. It was then moulded and cast in fibreglass to create vac-forming patterns. The undersuit is made from customised biker leathers and BMX armour. The boots are dressed ski-boots.

The armour was designed for a background character and once the patterns were complete could be produced quite quickly. It was fitted to a 6’3” mannequin, but ideally it would be worn by someone who was 6’5” or taller.

Work-in-progress photos

Dressing the ski-boots

Sculpting the helmet to made fibreglass vac-forming patterns

Drawing up the thighs

Sculpting the thighs

Sculpting the cod piece

Vac-formed belt detail

Sculpting the forearms

Detailing the helmet

Sculpting the chest

Detailing the vac-formed back piece

All the parts completed

Grace 2.0

This project was also part of the second year of my degree programme. Grace 2.0 is based on a design by Swedish 3D artist and animator Par Tingstrom.

The skull panels were sculpted in plasterline around a blue acrylic skull. It was then moulded and cast in fibreglass. The pieces were then assembled around the skull. The chest and back body panels were made the same way. The hips were vac-formed over patterns carved in polyurethane foam. The arms were machined in chemiwood, moulded and cast in polyurethane resin with encapsulated aluminium rods. The spine was cast in resin from a hand carved chemiwood pattern. The pieces were then assembled over a steel armature that had be formed to the shape of the spine and welded to a steel base. Much of the detailing was fabricated from found parts. The hands and human face were adapted from a vintage mannequin named Grace. Some basic lighting and controls was included for some interaction at my degree show.