Ay dogs.
So this is a process I'm using for building these hill-y sets. It pulls from a lot of really cool tutorials I've seen relating to the fantastic world of model trains.
This dude was my first inspiration for this process. A lot of these steps are going to take from his video/s, and I recommend them to anyone looking to make their own process. Mine... is not as good. But! Mine is also cheaper. and faster. Which is good for one person making an entire stop motion project.
- I've started most of these with two main ingredients. hope. and love. No none of those, actually it was just a large 2' by 4' project board (something like this) and a roll of chicken wire (something equally cheap). Good! now you've spend like 20 bucks for your main land mass, cool deal.
You shape the chicken wire over the board in the desired length/form:
I used a handful of screws tightened into the board to wrap various edges of the chicken wire down. this will be a messy process, so don't try and be super specific with how you want this thing to lay. You can really only emphasize main areas, and the chicken wire will bend as it wants. It's ok though, as long as you make sure you have areas you can work in potential shots with, you'll be fine. Nature isn't perfect either.
- Once you've gotten that tightened down, you'll want to snag some thin-ish quilt batting, like in the video. Lay that baby boy into place and cut off the excess. You can leave a little extra if you're a stickler and want to fold the fabric underneath the board or something.
- Now do as the man commands and get yourself a nice. fresh. dank. bottle of Mod Podge. This part is messy too, and you're going to have to deal with a lot of glue you brush on simply falling through the holes. OKAY. So, lift back the batting and brush on the mod podge to the chicken wire. Don't worry, enough will remain on the wires to hold down the batting. You're wasting a lot of glue, but we're not going to think about that. Make sure to focus on areas where the chicken wire is level with the wood, because you can really slather it on there for the batting to hold down directly to the board.
I don't have any pictures of myself doing this, because nobody reads this and I didn't care enough.
Give that juicy project a rest while that glue dries, maybe fill out a couple of full time job-applications so that you can finally move out of your parents home, but don't get your hopes up too much! Remember, stop motion isn't a skill anyone cares about anymore.
- Now it's time to pick out your color. The one in the video, the tan-ish brown, works really well - and you won't really have to get anything mixed for you, as a lot of these neutral tones are readily available on the shelf, at places places like Walmart, where you can buy brown paint and tomatoes and a dvd and nobody will look at you weird.
Here is how my end result looked when I went with the brown (and later added the green dust mentioned in the video.)
This is, of course, jumping ahead to the finished product. However, I didn't have any in progress pictures of the brown being applied.
-Now if you're me, you might be working on something weird. The hills I'm currently putting together are going to look like they are far off in the distance. Now if you think like a painter, you'll know that the farther back something is, the more the colors will resemble the sky's. So now you have blue hills, I hope you're happy.
-When you get paint mixed at the hardware store, you can get away with getting the cheapest quart available, because this ain't no deck. A quart turned out perfect for this panel. I honestly used every last drop, and got the entire thing covered. Worked out super well.
Anyways, this brings us up to current times. I'm going to be using a dusting of light-brown ground foam. Woodland Scenic works fine, and you can order various quantities, depending on how much you think you'll need for a project.
It's a hoop dream, but I'm aiming for a set as varied and colorful as this:
Note the obnoxiously blue hills in the far back. Mine will not be as green, but you get the idea. I will update as I finish the second set of hills. Until then, stay fresh to death
