Bob the Alien (Giger inspired Alien)

[Leigh]

Thank you Ray

OMG Leigh! This is just crazy!.. :eek

Been following this thread for a couple of months now, and you keep amazing me. Each update is like christmas.
Your talent and eye for detail is just mind-blowing and very inspiring. :thumbsup

Giger's Alien design is such a perfect and beautiful one, my absolute favorite creature design ever, and to replicate that is not an easy task, but you have succeeded sir!

I like how you've been faithful to the original, but also adding some subtle detailing and texture allover to make it your own. Can't wait to see it all finished up, with the dome and everything..

Congrats on finishing the headsculpt and thanks for an awesome thread..


Here's my take on how he could look like with the dome and tendons applied..

:eek SankaraRaider,Thank you so much for taking the time to do that That is exactly how I want him to look!!
Its great to be able to confirm that the dome will look how I want it too before I've even made it. I've been struggling to visualise it & this is confirmation, I'm very
Your pic is now on my desktop
thumbsupthumbsup

Clutch, It seems from reference that it did wrap right over the back at some point during filming. Theres that pic (I cant find it) of the Alien leaning out of he's hiding place on the Narcisus with his head upside down, it looks as though it wraps right round on that one.
The pic you've shown looks to me like it stops half way but its hard to tell with that particular pic. :confused
H R Giger portrayed his Alien on the cover of his book 'Giger's Alien' with a wrap around dome & Sano also sculpted his Bigchap with it wrap right round.
To me it would seem thats how its meant to be & thats how I intend to do it
I dont think it'll be possible to vac form the entire dome in one peice due to the large undercut at the rear. Mine will have a join like Clutch's pic & a second peice that fits underneath the rear & the intention will be to blend the join so that it cant be seen.

 

[JunkSabers1138]

Very nice. I'm digging the proposed shape. But dont you think the front end of the dome sticks out a little too far from the "nose"? seems to be a bit more extended than most shots Ive seen

 

[Leigh]

Very nice. I'm digging the proposed shape. But dont you think the front end of the dome sticks out a little too far from the "nose"? seems to be a bit more extended than most shots Ive seen

Thanks

Your point about the front sticking out a bit far is something I have put a fair bit of thought into. My first thought was the same as yours & I considered moving the tube back a little. The lips shouldn't hug the gums tightly, they stick out a bit too. With the lips fitted the profile will line up nicely & will appear to flow from the front of the dome down to the tip of the chin.

Heres an example of how far the lips can stick out:



HTH

 

[Alan Castillo]

:eek SankaraRaider,Thank you so much for taking the time to do that That is exactly how I want him to look!!

And 2 of these from me :eek :eek

Fantastic !

 

[SankaraRaider]

Thanks Leigh!! Glad you liked it.

I'm just happy to be able to help visualise your vision

-

And yeah I believe the look Giger wanted was a dome that wraps all around the back of the skull. Thats how he painted it.
But production-wise it seems like a two-part dome was done, and then blended together - on most of them, it seems.

Would love to see a wrap-around dome Leigh, but as you say, that doesn't seem possible with the vac form-method. I'm sure it will look great anyway.

Thank you Ray



:eek SankaraRaider,Thank you so much for taking the time to do that That is exactly how I want him to look!!
Its great to be able to confirm that the dome will look how I want it too before I've even made it. I've been struggling to visualise it & this is confirmation, I'm very
Your pic is now on my desktop
thumbsupthumbsup

Clutch, It seems from reference that it did wrap right over the back at some point during filming. Theres that pic (I cant find it) of the Alien leaning out of he's hiding place on the Narcisus with his head upside down, it looks as though it wraps right round on that one.
The pic you've shown looks to me like it stops half way but its hard to tell with that particular pic. :confused
H R Giger portrayed his Alien on the cover of his book 'Giger's Alien' with a wrap around dome & Sano also sculpted his Bigchap with it wrap right round.
To me it would seem thats how its meant to be & thats how I intend to do it
I dont think it'll be possible to vac form the entire dome in one peice due to the large undercut at the rear. Mine will have a join like Clutch's pic & a second peice that fits underneath the rear & the intention will be to blend the join so that it cant be seen.

 

[SankaraRaider]

Very nice. I'm digging the proposed shape. But dont you think the front end of the dome sticks out a little too far from the "nose"? seems to be a bit more extended than most shots Ive seen

Thanks Ian,

Yeah after I looked at it, it seems the dome sticks out a little bit further than it should, not much though.

I've tweaked it a bit, but it can't really be shorter than this, because of the tube, which it now wraps tightly around. I've also tweaked the lips, just to see how everything lines up.

Thanks

Your point about the front sticking out a bit far is something I have put a fair bit of thought into. My first thought was the same as yours & I considered moving the tube back a little. The lips shouldn't hug the gums tightly, they stick out a bit too. With the lips fitted the profile will line up nicely & will appear to flow from the front of the dome down to the tip of the chin.

Heres an example of how far the lips can stick out:

Leigh, I think you're right. And I think the profile will line up perfectly as you say, when everything is added to the area. Can't wait to see the real dome get made!

SankaraRaider,Thank you so much for taking the time to do that That is exactly how I want him to look!!

And 2 of these from me :eek :eek

Fantastic !

Thanks!! :$

 

[Leigh]

Thanks again SankaraRaider Awesomeness!
Yeh it would hug that tube at front very tightly
thumbsup:thumbsup

 

[Clutch]

The reason I believe the dome wraps in my pic is because the small hose that runs around the skull is covered.

The only thing that really sticks out on yours now is there is the skull is taller now due to the spines?

 

[JunkSabers1138]

This is kinda what I was talking about Usually when I think of Gigers Alien, I think of the head appearing as it did in the Brett Death/Reveal scene and the shot of it approaching Lambert after killing Parker, and a few other scenes. Here the dome was flush with the lips and continued on smoothly. Looking at the original suit and his artwork, this is how I have always pictured him imagining it to be.

However, there is a tendency for some to have the most frontal area of the dome poke out a bit and create an obvious "lump" where the dome meets the lips:

You can even see the original suit having deteriorated over the years showing the dome a little off the lips. (about 9:25 and forward in this video, contrasting it with the scenes where the dome was smoothly incorporated into the heads shape)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q1RwOeVP1Q

So thats kinda what I meant. maybe a tiny bit is ok given that you are choosing to go over the tube, but dont make it stand out as a "bump" on the aliens face

EDIT: Sankara, your second version looks MUUUUUCH better very close to the original B&W prop photos in others' posts. Leigh, if you pick any shape, go with that one! Though I must also agree that the spines may be a little "tall" for the correct dome shape. maybe a little trimming would be in order?

 

[vaderdarth]

I love the rendering, but when you sculpt the real thing, don't leave the hump in the center when viewed from profile. It should be a nice even curve from the face all the way to the very back of the head. The clear dome is literally touching the tops of the spines and that will fix most of the hump

 

[Nwerke]

The reason I believe the dome wraps in my pic is because the small hose that runs around the skull is covered.

Look at the front nose/lips area in that pic too; if the dome *doesn't* wrap over the tube, I'm a monkey's uncle. I have never ever noticed this before. Huh! Always thought it was trimmed to rest on top of the tube but at least this head wasn't. And if it *can* wrap around that tube it must have been intended to, even if not all of them were trimmed that way.

Leigh, a quick thought about moulding. How strong is your sculpt? When you clay up (or whatever) and start adding silicone you will be adding a fair bit of weight. Support it well!

 

[Clutch]

It's so easy to sculpt in Photoshop. :lol This is close to what I think it should look like. Most people put dip in the dome behind the eyes that follows the shape of the skull. I do not believe this is correct and it should be 'flat' in that area, not dip in or curve out.

Here, I've lowered the spines a little and pushed the dome out a bit in that area behind the eyes and on top. There are also some 'flat' looking areas in front where the dome pushes out just a bit from the face starting from the lip and then angles back across the eyes.

 

[JunkSabers1138]

It's so easy to sculpt in Photoshop. :lol This is close to what I think it should look like. Most people put dip in the dome behind the eyes that follows the shape of the skull. I do not believe this is correct and it should be 'flat' in that area, not dip in or curve out.

Here, I've lowered the spines a little and pushed the dome out a bit in that area behind the eyes and on top. There are also some 'flat' looking areas in front where the dome pushes out just a bit from the face starting from the lip and then angles back across the eyes.

Oh my god.... that is PERFECT!!! Just gets better and better

 

[Shinigami18]

oh u mad genius u!!! this is insane!!

 

[G17RDY]

WOW, just picked up this thread tonight, after watching Alien again (been a long time), all i can say is (and to echo numerous comments already) this is incredible!

 

[vaderdarth]

Now we're talking. Nice rendering clutch, I agree on the lack of dip. Love it.

 

[Leigh]

Well, I'll say I'm happy with all 3 of you who have done a render Its all good stuff.
For me its just a relief to roughly see that a dome will work with what I've done so far.
I will take a milimeter off the top of the spines as I can see they could do with a little shave but I'm not going mad with them.
I sculpted the spines as they were on the original before it was moulded & cast. As a result of lots of searching I now believe the spines were made up of a dog vertebrae & tail, the vertebrae tuned round.
I also strongly believe that the tips of the spines on the head castings used in filming were either broken during removal of the mould or didn't cast properly for some reason, which would explain how there are inconsistencies in the spines between the original head's.
Its because of the inconsistencies that I chose to sculp the spines as they were intended originally.

Here:



With regard the top of the dome I believe it should touch the tips of the spines in the middle as Dave suggested.

The front of the dome (as I see it) wraps over the tube & is proud of the gum by a few milimeters. There is a slight bump over the nose & there is a change in angle just above the brow.
These can be seen here:





We'll see what happens when I start to shape up the dome
For now I'm just happy to know that I dont need to make major changes to what I've done so far

Thanks

 

[Bryancd]

WOW! I have never seen this epics before, thanks for posting. :thumbsup

 

[Nwerke]

Leigh, sounds good. I think the dome very nearly contacts the top of the forehead of the human skull, too, but I'm sure you've spotted that.

You know what I'm looking forward to? Seeing one of these painted up in the original classic Giger grey-on-grey colour scheme. No brown. The brown was just exposed latex where paint had worn off, and came later in filming. Look at those shots above - it's a Giger painting brought to life!

 

[Leigh]

Leigh, sounds good. I think the dome very nearly contacts the top of the forehead of the human skull, too, but I'm sure you've spotted that.

You know what I'm looking forward to? Seeing one of these painted up in the original classic Giger grey-on-grey colour scheme. No brown. The brown was just exposed latex where paint had worn off, and came later in filming. Look at those shots above - it's a Giger painting brought to life!

Indeed it is very grey :thumbsup its with pics like these without the fancie set lighting that you can see this.
I think the other thing that gives people the impression its got brown in it is the cover of the book 'Giger's Alien' The picture he painted there has mostly brown shades. For me there is one thing about the painting on the cover of that book I'd like to try though.

When I look at the book cover theres a real metallic depth to the image. It doesnt look as if he used any metallics but I'd like to try mixing some of that "real chrome" (the car stuff that actually looks chrome) paint in with the grey shades. the real chrome stuff has much finer metallic particles than regular metallic paint & if applied right should make all the shapes really pop without taking away from the originality & it wont look like it just been painted in metallic, if you get me

I should have some funds in place around this weekend so I can then order up the silicone & get on with this

Can anyone tell me the expected average shelf life of unmixed silicone???