Workshop

During my time on the FMP module, I managed to get a job in a workshop that specialised in making props and costumes for stages and film sets. This has helped me so much with my work for my FMP because I had learnt how to make many new things.

The first thing they had taught me was how to make mold for resining. It was my first time doing both of these techniques but the outcomes came out better than expected, and I was told that I was already a pro at making things out of resin. I plan to use this new skill towards my final piece too because you can make very lovely things very quickly.

My boss Gareth showing me how to mix and pour resin into the moulds.

The outcome of the things I made out of resin.

Alongside the resin stuff, I learned how to make many other things along with techniques such as plaster mould, fibreglassing, and carpentry, all at a beginner level.

Here is a few other things I helped make in the workshop.

The 10th Doctor, Tardis

A steam punk styled street lamp

And we are currently building out own version of the Narnia wardrobe.

Guide to make things steampunk.

I started researching into how to give normal things a steampunk style, because I favour the ageing rusty iron and gears look over the polished style. Plus I think that learning how to create these things will help enable me to incorporate it in the future with my superhero's side of the project.

Initially, the best I could find was a few online tutorials on how to make corsets and skirts in the victorian style, but then I found a channel called "Lost Wax' on youtube [https://www.youtube.com/user/LostWaxOz] which taught you how to make steampunk styled props out of foam, but making it look like rusty old metal.
I found this very useful to reference to, and will use his tutorials in the future when making things but changing it to work with a superhero costume.

Steampunk - novels and videogames

I read a few short fictions for research, the most helpful coming from H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine", along with Jules Verne's "Journey To The Centre Of The Earth".
H.G Wells' book The Time Machine (which was later on made into a movie) was set in the Victorian era (circa 1890) allowed the reader a greater understanding of people in the steampunk world; steampunk as a genre is coined by the "anachronistic victorian" setting, and in the book's setting, H.G. Wells had similar thoughts when it mentioned designs. The time machine itself was hand-made with basic mechanical principles to further its construction; despite this only being a simple bicycle design, the common ground in the mechanics of it are very similar with steampunk.

Along with the books and movies, I also discovered a few video games that were set featuring steampunk themes; these included  Bioshock infinite, Dishonoured, and Fable were very useful to look at when it came to analysing clothing and architecture.
In a similar stance to the "Batman Arkham..."series, looking at the games from a first person perspective in the game really helps you immerse yourself in that universe and understand how it everything ticks.

Steampunk - Exhibition

looking around for exhibitions based on steampunk, considering its niche level demographic, proved to be tricky. i did strike gold finding the "Longitude Punk'd" exhibit in Greenwich.
While it wasn't entirely correlative with the interests in my project, i found the exhibits to be quite interesting, especially considering how many of the objects involved in the pieces had no immediate link to what i know as "steampunk".
I was also impressed with the mechanical aspects of some of the pieces, particularly how the individual gears and cogs interlinked to form a finished piece and this is a feature that i want to carry over into my own project.

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Steampunk Community

While researching the topic, I discovered that in the UK especially there is a very big steampunk community. I know this due to there being a very useful Facebook group called Steampunk Tendencies [https://www.facebook.com/groups/steampunktendencies/], where the community posts about various artists and designers, and in general things that relate to steampunk.
Through this I have discovered many new things to research for the steampunk part of my project.

Anything can have a steampunk version. I have noticed that there are a few recurring materials that often come in steampunk creations; this includes leathers, irons and rusts.
Often steampunk is portrayed in either a post victorian style, or a western style, but overall anything can be made steampunk.
I really enjoy the rusty iron look because in the steampunk universe everything is powered by steam instead of electricity and I am planning to use this somewhere within the project.

Superheros - Video game research

Due to the massive popularity of certain characters such as batman, spiderman, and deadpool, their own franchises were established which included very popular video games.

I found the video games to be a very good form of research; they place you in the position of the hero and let you play out the experiences and events of the characters first hand, and i felt this  helped me considerably in putting myself in the best position designing the costumes for the superheroes.
In video games there is a huge variety when it comes to the clothing; with the constant focus being on the main character, the attention to detail in their outfits needs to be at such a high standard, considering modern game quality, and this give the players an opportunity to set their attention on the smaller aspects of the character's appearance.

Within the Batman "Arkham..." series, I found a few characters particularly interesting to analyse. This included "The Joker", "Harley Quinn", and "Catwoman", not just because they are all completely normal people with incredible skills, but also because the attention to detail the concept artists put into their designs was incredible.
One example of this was how they designed Catwoman to have metal claws, in order to help her climb up buildings with ease.
Another point of this was the costumes reflecting the main themes presented in the batman games; there is a very dark ambience/atmosphere throughout the game, and the final costume designs for the villains and heroes accentuate this brilliantly.

[http://arkhamcity.wikia.com/wiki/File:Arkhamcity-armored_catwoman.jpg]

Superhero - Movie Research

Both Marvel and DC comics have used their popularity to make their comics come to life through movies and cartoons. The cartoons took a more childish and comical approach towards the superheroes, while the movies were aimed towards a teen+ demographic.

I have watched a lot of the superhero movies made to this day, and re-watched a few such as the avengers films, including the sub-stories of the avengers, the most recent batman trilogy set, and the superman movies both old and new. I also started watching the justice league cartoon show because it showcases more of the less popular superheroes and their abilities.

My favourite part of watching these movies for research was looking at the outfits, analysing how they looked a real-world design, and imagining how simple or complex it could be to make a copy.