New | Hybrids in Films | Harry Potter

Lord Voldemort

Lord Voldemort is most comply known as 'The One Who Must Not Be Named'. But right from the start he was known as Tom Riddle which makes his first appearance in the second film. Tom was an orphan just like Harry Potter, however Tom Riddle was a powerful wizard who dabbled in the dark arts and learning more and more into the dark arts, he manages to split his soul into eight pieces, which are known as horcruxes. With each piece spilt from his soul his appearance started to distort. Eventually Voldemort was ripped from his body, although he was unable to die he could not regain a permanent and physical body.  Although he wasn't dead his horcruxes were keeping him alive. Voldemort went to a forrest in Albania, where he waited for his faithful death eaters to find him however some had believed he had died and the others were in the prison Azkaban. Voldemort gained physical form by inhabiting snakes, thought he disliked doing so as the bodies of these animals were not up to standard to perform magic, and because his possession significantly reduced their lifespan, as non of his hosts ever surveyed for too long.

Below is a video of how they created Lord Voldemort, with the help from CGI.

Merpeople from Harry Potter 

 These creatures are also found in Harry Potter where students are contesting for the Triwizard tournament. These are the creatures that stops Harry from saving two people. Merpeople are half human and half fish hybrids, however they are not actually half breeds. Like all humans merpeople come in all shape and sizes, although colours that are uncommon in humans appear to be widespread in these creatures, as the majority of the Black Lake merpeople colony (the ones in Harry Potter) they have green hair, yellow eyes and grey skin and all the traits that would be very uncommon, for a human to naturally possess. As you can in the image below of the sculpture of the merpeople, they have yellow hair at the moment but when on screen and have been filmed they have green hair. These creatures are also a lot taller than humans as they can be up to seven feet which is not a usual height for humans.

Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a3/Lordvoldemort.jpg [ Accessed 20th November 2015]
Image: http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/harrypotter/images/8/82/Merpeople-pottermore.png/revision/latest?cb=20140331190636&path-prefix=ru [Accessed 20th November 2015]
Image: https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7200/7012157713_bed51901f1.jpg [Accessed 20th November 2015]
Internet: http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Special:Search?search=lord+voldemort&fulltext=Search [Accessed 20th November 2015]
Internet: http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Tom_Riddle [Accessed 20th November 2015]
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2FbjH6lQ-0 [Accessed 20th November 2015]

New | Week 8 | Creating My Hybrid

When I got into class I set up as usual, and starting to apply my prosthetic pieces, however before I actually applied my first one I spent a little bit of time working out which would be best to do first. I chose to do the gills on first as I knew I was having trouble will releasing it from the mould, so I thought that I would spend time on the gills, as they were so delicate from where I accidentally put too much deadener in. Before I applied the piece I had to cut away some the edges and this was difficult as it was so slippery and bendy and trying to cut it without ruining was quite nerve racking.
So it came it actually applying it now and I thought cutting it was hard! When applying pros aide to my piece it was flip flopping everywhere, the sides were sticking and it was so horrible, I decided to then just try and stick the edges of the piece to my hand so that at least the sides wouldn't fold in and make it impossible for me to bend it. When all the pros aide was dry it was time to stick it on to the skin, obviously I knew it would take a while and it would be difficult as I stuck it to my hand, but saying that with me worrying about it, it actually came off my hand really easy, and it was a piece of cake. When blending this piece it didn't take long at all, I literally couldn't believe it wasn't taking as long as I thought it would which made me feel a lot more confident, especially as it gave me more time to do the rest of the look.

Once my gills were in place, stuck down and were blended perfectly, it was time to try and place the horns on and this was a struggle, trying to put pros aide on to the piece was extremely difficult as again the sides would fold over it also didn't help that my hand was still sticky from the other piece that I had just applied. I managed to stick one on fine and then it just started to go down hill really. Sticking on the second one I thought I was doing fine and when it was stuck down and complete it was odd, the application was even and everything was okay with that it was just that the horn was facing the other way, but it wasn't a massive difference, when it came to blending in the horn its was so easy apart from where I had got some silicone mixture on the baldiez so I couldn't blend it in perfectly to skin. Of course it wasn't much of a big deal, because I was just going to cover it with make up. Also it doesn't matter as it is a hybrid so I can and will change my idea of a hybrid. The next part of doing the make up was fine and didn't take me long at all. I had a general idea what I wanted my hybrid to look like however I did change a few things on the day just because I felt like something needed more and also some things didn't go to plan so I had to change a few things.

New | Week 8

Week 8. The week where we have a chance to create our hybrids a week in advance incase anything did go wrong. Although I was happy that we were able to create our hybrids again incase it went wrong, however it did mean that I still had a lot to do for it and very little time. I was fortunate enough to come in on the Monday during the other classes special effects to be able to create the baldiez mixture which would make the mould come out easier. Our first attempt at it was not so good in fact it is was so hard to get the mixture right especially if you have never done it before. The mixture came out watery and we both knew that was not right as it is meant to have a thicker consistency. We then tried to make a another mixture and it went a lot better than the first although I think there was still room for improvement for it as it was a little bit watery still not a lot but enough to affect out moulds when pulling them out, which I will get too in a minute.

Once that was dry the next thing to do is make the silicone mould, which when I made it was fine as I have done it before so I was not worried about it at all, however I wanted to make my horns what and as I squeezed some of the pigment pot quite a bit of it came out white, which was a big deal it was just annoying at how white they came out as I didn't want them that bright. Because I made my horn moulds in the last lesson before all I had to do was add the silicone mould to it and let it set. I didn't have enough time to make my gills mould, so this is something I had to do today, regardless of what time it was I needed to get it done. It was all going swimmingly, the silicone cast thing had set I removed the sculpture fine, then I put on the baldiez mixture and it wasn't until I had finished applying two layers that I realised that I forgot to spray petrol-ease on the mould so that it would be easier when taking it out. So I had to start again, it wasn't that big of a deal as it was just a baldiez  layer that needed to be taken off, then I had to make the silicone piece. Measuring out silicone A was a doddle. Then it was time for silicone B, by the time I was ready to measure that out the scales had turned off and when it was back on it was reading a different number so I tried to measure out the same and I think I got it right but then it was time to add the deadener to it, which I think I added more than I should have, I didn't have time to let it set so I had to leave the studio with the piece half set and half not.  

When I got home I left my mould on the side to set as if it kept moving it would disrupt the mixture. It had been left to set for about 4 hours by the time I got round to looking at it again, I thought it would be okay to remove and it was apart from it was quite squishy from the deadener which made it a bit more difficult to get out so I just had to powder it more and make sure that the edges didn't fold over otherwise that would have been another big problem.

New | Costume for My Hybrid

In a previous post I was talking about how I was going to create this coat for my hybrid. I was planning to use the hot glue gun at uni however when I got there, there was none left so to over come this problem I went and brought one myself which I didn't think would be much a bad idea as I will always have one and will not have to reply on either using someone else's or even going in to uni to borrow theres. At first I thought it was going to be easy just sticking them down, but when it came to actually trying to glue the first then place it on the coat I just ended up burning my fingers and getting the glue stuck to my hands, I then thought about placing the glue straight on to the jacket then adding the shells on, which was a lot quicker but I also had to work at a fast paces because they glue would dry so quickly. Although this way was a lot simpler and I didn't get so much glue on me however every so often I would stick my finger in the glue on the coat by accident. I also had some butterflies in my box of all sorts which I am sure everyone has a box of things that they think can come in handy. In the end after finishing the coat I ended up using 6 sticks of glue and I am so glad now that I did buy it and didn't use all of the uni's supply as I would have felt so bad as others students were using it to making sure their sculpts had a barrier around it. Below is an image of coat that I will have my model to wear, as I used a wax jacket it was already quite heavy and placing these embellishments on top made it a lot heavier, so when it comes to shooting my hybrid I will ask my model to put the coat on at the last minute and as after a while it can become uncomfortable.

New | Practising Scales

Because my hybrid is half sea creature, I wanted to put scales on to my hybrid and I wasn't to sure how to without drawing them on myself, so after looking on the internet I came across a women doing ti with fish net tights, so I tried it for myself at first I used eyeshadow and it did nothing so I tried water colours and it worked well, apart from sometimes it smudged so for my hybrid I think I will only do small patches then there isn't a risk of it all smudging and looking like a complete mess.
Here are the photos of how I tried to create scales.

New | Research of Gills

Gills are the organs that allow fish to breathe underwater, they absorb the oxygen from the water and use it for energy. Funnily enough gills are similar to the function of the human lungs. The only main difference is how much they are able to absorb, which is smaller concentrations of available oxygen, whilst allowing the fish to maintain an appropriate level of sodium chloride (which the salt from the sea) in their bloodstream.
Gills work pretty much the same way as lungs do. In the lungs there are small sacs called the alveoli which are 70% capillaries, these carry deoxygenated blood from the body. As oxygen and carbon dioxide pass across the alveoli membrane, the capillaries take the newly oxygenated blood back to the body. Just like lungs do gills have the same layout just that they are in rows and columns and are specialised cells grouped together called the epithelium. The deoxygenated blood in the fish is supplied directly from the heart to the epithelium vis arteries and even yet smaller arterioles. As sea water is forced across the epithelium membranes, dissolved oxygen in the sea water is taken up by tiny blood vessels and veins, while the carbon dioxide is exchanged.

I have researched into gills and how they work as my hybrid is half land creature and half sea creature, so for the sea creature part I wanted to add in gills, as this will allow my hybrid to breathe and live in the water however there are only gills on side of the body.

Image: http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100613132354/h2o/images/3/35/Gills.jpg [16th November 2015]
Image:http://s34.photobucket.com/user/ojiji/media/Joyous%20Cascade%203/20Aug2011_UnI24.png.html [Accessed 16th November 2015]
Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifFdaZM81gd4ZRr5wAQiekRBzej38xepdP0VtTKm4u5xNJ_j5i6mXs9x2iHpXNuFJGc4kruQCTSLTToZIdcPkyCtgIGlzaESgOWqysc8lD0nRj1AgdpMqX5EozoAJIGkEk4Cy-a1LdWu0/s1600/Fresh+Gills.jpg [16th November 2015]

New | Creating My Character

After creating my pieces for my hybrid, I thought how I could enhance my hybrid even more with the use of a costume, at first I wasn't too sure what I could do as my hybrid is a cross between a woodland creature like a faun or a ram, and then the other half is a sea creature like a merman or some sort of fish. SO I thought about maybe doing some sort of fish tail with some pitch fork with a crown, so that he was some sort of underwater king. Then I thought about maybe doing something on the bottom half that represented the woodland creature with some leggings with crepe hair over it, then it came to me that with either of these designs it wouldn't make much sense.

When I was looking at images for inspiration I came across one that has a man in jacket with sea things on it, which I really like the look off, so I thought I would recreate it some how. At home I have an old wax jacket that I am going to use, I also went to the beach at the weekend to collect a lot of sea shells. It definitely was not the best trip to sea I have had, as soon as we got there I needed a wee badly and it was so windy that as soon as I opened my car door it blew shut, eventually I got out the car and the wind and rain was just so much by the time we collected the shells we were soaked. I am pleased at how many shells we managed to get and my boyfriend even found a shell that had pretty pink and purple shimmers, which you can see in the images below.

The next part I have to do now is attached them to the coat somehow, hopefully with the help from a hot glue gun will make them stick, I also want to try and see if fullers earth will stick to coat which hopefully will make it look old. I will also have some fish net tights which I will add over my model then dust with powder to make scales on the skin, as my model as a hairy chest I am using this to my advantage for the effect of a woodland creature I may also add in some crepe hair to make it look more hairy or maybe try and paint on the effect of hair.