Julio Bashmore ‘Hands of God’ Stopframe Props

This set of hands for Blinkink, to be used in Julio Bashmore's music video for the single 'Peppermint', were cast in various positions, allowing a range of actions such as dropping, pouring and clapping. The video was animated by Noah Harris whose website this link leads to. We used a member of our own staff as the casting master, whose hands were considered close enough to the proportions of classical sculpture to be used in this project. The moulds were made from Alginate, chosen for its relatively quick curing time and the level of detail it captures, right down to individual pores and creases within the skin. Our propmakers have lent their setbuilding and sculpting skills to range of stopframe props and animation projects over the years, including hundreds of cast Creme Egg props for Aardman and the Goo Games, and a set of hand-painted Russian dolls for an Eircom…

The master for this Pandora's Box prop was carved by hand, and cast in a number of different iterations - a hard hinged version for closeup shots and a stunt-safe soft foam variant. We are able to offer a comprehensive propmaking service, taking initial concept sketches and artwork and translating them into fully realised models, props and setpieces. We use a range of techniques in creating props and can create objects that fulfil a range of needs, from large scale set decoration to stunt-safe soft prop weaponry. We can incorporate intricate armatures and metalworked components within these objects for internal supports or location points for other fixings.

Our prop weapons and other objects have most recently been featured in the BBC fantasy drama 'Atlantis;' these props in some cases had to be soft and stunt-safe. Our advanced vacuum casting facility allows us to cast props in a range of hardnesses and materials depending on their application, all with the artworked material finishes of metal, wood, plastic, skin and almost any other material required. While we can quickly take casts of objects supplied to us, we are easily able to create props from drawings and sketches.

The stone rat sculpts can be seen in Medusa's cave as a grisly foreshadowing of her petrifying abilities. Our props team sculpted a pack of five rats, and artworked them by hand to high levels of realism to replicate the texture of both fur and stone. We have provided a number of other props, sculpts and set pieces for the BBC fantasy drama 'Atlantis,' including crumbling ruins, the rusted hull of a submarine and various soft prop swords.