Son Character : Head Casting

Air bubbles in the resin means the nostrils wont be as deep 01. 02. 03.

Now that the mould has been made, it is time to cast the head in silicone. Image 01 shows a slight defect in the mould from a couple of air bubbles in the nostril area, these will be resolved further in this document. I started positioning the armature roughly where I wanted it, then using some wire I began to add some wire armature sections to the face.

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Here there is wire to make the eyebrows and lips move for animation. When I was happy with the wire part, I removed it from the mould and prepared the first batch of silicone to paint onto the mould.

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When the first layer of silicone was painted, I went about fixing the nostril issue. I figured that if I put a small piece of cocktail stick in the bubble area of each nostril, I would be able to remove it later on leaving a bigger, deeper nostril. By applying the temporary pieces while the silicone was wet, it acted as a mild glue to keep it in place.

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After the first coat, I placed the temporary eyes into the socket supports so Id be able to remove the temporary eyeballs later in the process, this means I have sockets to pop the animation eyes into when the head is set, and they would be moveable.

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I coated the mould with 3 layers of silicone. While those layers were setting, I constructed the bulk of the head from the same upholstery foam as I used on the body.

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While I was constructing the foam core to the head, I added some ear wires incase I wanted to animate them slightly during the animation.

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These images show my process in detail.

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Each layer of silicone only takes an hour to cure, so it didnt take long before I was able to test and shape the armature and foam to check it was fitting nicely.

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In the piece of neck foam, I cut a little groove as a snug space for the armature to fit into.

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With the foam and armature just as I wanted, I grabbed the contact adhesive so I could finalise the inner head.

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I glued around the armature to make sure the glue wouldnt interfere with the movable pieces.

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This is how the inside of the head looks from the front and both sides.

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I check the armature one more time in the mould, then I remove it, pour in some silicone, then place the armature back into the silicone, squidge it in and pour more silicone over the top of the foam. Also, I pour another lot of silicone into the back of the head.

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With the two halves filled with silicone and smeared around to all areas of the mould, I quickly placed the two halves together and placed a bunch of weights on top to keep the mould securely fastened.

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The silicone had cured in roughly an hour. These images show how the head looked as I pulled it from the mould.

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I removed the thin layer of silicone that covered the eyeballs. This was so I could pop out the temporary eyes and neaten up the seam.

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Once I had popped the eyeballs out, I decided to remove the stand-in nostrils and tidy up the area.

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Image 46 shows a soft brush dipped in talcum powder which I used to brush the inside of the eye sockets, this helps to make the eyes move around easier without the plastic of the eyes sticking to the rubber of the silicone. I also popped in the final eyes and tested the movement using a pin. I also trimmed off all of the excess silicone from the casting process.

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I needed access to the screw of the armature in the neck so I cut a small hole where I had left a cocktail stick. This meant I was able to remove the cocktail stick with some fine tweezers and the alan key could access the screw easily.

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With access to the armature I was able to remove the temporary neck bar and replace it by popping the head onto the body and tightening it up.

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