Universal Finals

Finals week arrived. Which, for me, was a pretty uneventful week as I neither had classes nor exams. So I actually had time to enjoy the blooming flowers on campus.

And time to go to Universal. Me and Mireira had decided to go and was walking into the park when a guy handed us a map of Wizarding World, saying that it was open today.

We freaked out a little but decided to walk around a little before entering Harry Land. But when we got to the gates we just couldn't resist...

So we entered, 24 days before the official opening.

It was really weird. Because it was a surprise soft opening, none of us were sufficiently hyped. Naturally, it was magical. It is Harry Potter, after all. But the park wasn't filled at all, Hogwarts was basically empty and there was not really any fans present + the staff wasn't completely ready yet.

I shot some footage from our trip.

We decided to leave Harry for a little bit to go explore the rest of Universal. And since it was a Monday, there were no lines. I enjoyed the decor in the Mummy attraction, but it was almost to wild for me, haha. The drop in the Jurrassic Park scared me big time before going on, but turned out to not be bad. And we didn't even get wet!

We had filled out a survey coming into the park which gave us a fast-track to the studio tour, the only thing with a crazy line. So that was really nice!

I did enjoy the tour, but we quickly went back to Hogsmeade to dine at the Three Broomsticks. The food was actually surprisingly good. Leaving the establishment.... we saw Steven Spielberg. So that was pretty damn exciting.

I spent the next days relaxing. Baking and sleeping in. And when midnight came, I participated in the finals week midnight yell - a campus tradition. Everyone lives to close to each other, so we can hear everyone.

I even had time to do a bit of editing! Before packing for Spring Break and San Francisco.

Stop Motion Puppet WIP

Here is my rundown of how I made my Witch puppet!

We started by making the armatures - these were pretty simple wire ones made of aluminium and steal bound together by string. The arms were secured onto the body with epoxy putty.

We then used cotton pads and athletic tape to build up some muscle!

And Suzy and I met up for a crafting afternoon of muscle work and sculpting with Sculpey. Her puppet is the slender one!

I was working off of my scaled design drawing. I am very satisfied with my sculpt. Only problem might be the very small mouth-area - but it works for this specific project as it is without dialogue. Still, I had to make quite a few mouths. And pupils and eyelids... It feels so weird to spend so long on a miniature product.

And how the sculpt looked with some acrylic paint and a few of the replacements applied with wax!

Then came hands. Smaller wires with more thread. And then balloon latex mixed with acrylic. It was really tricky to get a colour that looked like her face - the latex dries darker!

Testing for colour combinations and then after some sowing on the machine I borrowed from a friend of the family!

Then came hair. I started with a spongy white core and then started gluing the embroidery thread on top, starting with the darkest colours and moving my way up my nuances. I used Joanne's for the appliance and then a coat of Elmer's to stiffen everything up when I was finished.

Then I made the final (so far) touches - sowed her witch hat and glued some jewels on her underskirt. 

Finished! Maybe. Her cape is difficult to animate with, so I might have to change it.

And a group photo with everyone's puppets!