Bulking out part 2

 In order to create the main bulk of my character, I started with a large piece of soft foam which I then spent..... an undisclosed amount of time cutting away at with a pair of nail scissors. I find these scissors work best as you can get a high quality, smooth finish if you're willing to take extra time. My floor (and majority of my house) is currently covered in tiny pieces of foam I have traipsed around (apologies to my housemates)

 

 One the foam is cut to an acceptable (but unfinished) state, I attached it to the armature. I do this when it's not quite finished because one side might not be hollowed out as much as the other, meaning the foam will not be symmetrical and will have to be cut down again, making it too small and adding more work.
 The UHU glue I'm using requires the two pieces you're sticking together to have glue applied to them, then once slightly dry, be pressed together, more of a contact adhesive. In order to save time and move on to working on something else, I chose to wrap string around the foam whilst it was drying. I'm sure there is a far more conventional way of doing this, but this way seemed to work just fine.

The moobs are really an afterthought. After looking into how the fat suits are made for the upcoming Hobbit film, I have tried to replicate the design as best I can. As i didn't plan these pieces, I didn't think to make them animatable. Luckily i will need to do this ALL again on the other armature so I can factor that in when I get around to doing it.

 During the week, I also spoke to Tim Allen, an incredible stop motion animator who, after graduating from Glamorgan, has worked on Corpse Bride, Fantastic Mr Fox, The Magic Piano, Frankenweenie and SO much more. After looking at my design he said that I should try and hollow out the blue foam more, but keep its shape. Meaning that if my character has to scrunch up, the body will allow this.

For Shoulders, I am plannin on bulking out the arms individually, to keep them replaceable, and then building the shoulders around them, kind of like shoulder pads of an american football player. This will all be determined on my ball and socket armature though.