The Tale of the Rancher & the Scorpion
Commission for drag performer Dulce de Leather (@dulce.de.leather)
Performed/shown at the Mosessian Center for the Arts
My favorite thing about animation is that it brings to life something that cannot exist on its own
Taking a material like paper, which can be so beautiful but usually only exists in two dimensions, and using it to create characters in a 3D world is nothing short of magic.
The trick with using a material meant for 2D applications is cheating the corners and rounded edges. A segmented creature (like a scorpion!) is well-suited to this because I could hide the seams within the places where the sections overlapped. Once I had the paper dimensions prototyped out, I was able to create an armature for the creature out of alulminum and epoxy putty, and then begin to give it a foam body.
Once it was fully covered in foam and shaped down to size, I was able to apply the paper skin. This went on in segments, to help guide where the movement would be while animating with it. The color palette for the scorpion was loosely informed by Dulce’s costume, but also meant to give some nice contrast with the background.
