Snail Rider Toy

This is the Snail Rider! She was concepted and created with the idea that she could potentially be transformed into an articulating toy.

However, due to the lack of materials (Thank you Ms. Rona), the articulation of her joints was not able to come to fruition. But, it's still a pretty cool sculpt if nothing else.

So, Without further adieu, let's get into the process of making the duo.

These are the first silhouette concept studies where I tried to figure out the eventual shape language of the rider and her snail. I knew I wanted, not only, a plausible action figure, but an "environment" that added to the "toy's" narrative.

I knew I didn't want the Rider to seem 100% human, so I gave her an almost a big-cat-like nose, separated the eyes, shrank the mouth, sunk in the chin, and exaggerated and played down targeted aging signs.

Here are the final turnarounds along with some posing options. Though, I had pretty much known from the get go that I wanted to pose her sitting on the snail. Hence the duel-hump of the snail's shell.

After, I created some scale buzzetti sculpts. I decided on a 5" silhouette. This proved to have it's ups and downs. This meant that, while it would keep the Snail to a relatively manageable size, it would also make the Rider's face ridiculously tiny.

Now Let's talk about articulation. This would have been it. (And Very Very Expensive)

Were this to be created again, as an articulating toy, the idea would have been to create a resin body with actual fabric draped over the body. (Again. very expensive). The snail would be a hard plastic that could have opened up to reveal storage space.

Initially, I wanted the snail to wind up and race forward like a wind-up car.

Theoretically, this could still work, but, for this time around, the sculpty proved to be too heavy for the springs I was using.

For a second I played around with buying a motor to propel the snail forward, but... motors are expensive. So, I ended up creating a skateboard out of plywood and ball bearings to go under it.

Now, back to the actual sculpt, which in actuality has absolutely no articulation!! Yay Rona!!! This is the armature I used for the Rider. I probably would have benefited by bulking it up a bit, but c'est la vie - that's life.

Here are some prop concepts, but more importantly, where I tried to figure out the sizing of the snail so I could begin on it's armature.

The Snail's armature was much more difficult to figure out than the Rider's. Initially, I played around with creating A GIANT BALL OF TIN FOIL. But that was stupid, too heavy, and I didn't have that much tin foil. So, instead, I created this thing ^.

Once I had the base armature, I wrapped it in aluminum foil and began the sculpty process. This allowed for a lighter, and more efficient sculpt.

After getting the base shapes down for both the Snail and the Rider, I needed to figure out textures for both. The Rider's drapery was mostly trial and error, which is not the best and most efficient way to work. Eventually ...

I sucked it up and made some unflattering references using similar drape-y clothing that I had.

I knew that I did not want to go in by hand and create all the textured patterns required for the Snail. So I made a texture ball!

It's super cute, I love it, and it saved me a bunch of time. For the shell's texture, I tried creating some lines and ridges using dried sponges, but the didn't show up great. Latter down the line, I ended up creating them by hand.

Now back to things that didn't happen! Where this (very expensive) toy to be some-what mass produced, I would been a box. But I don't like single-use packaging. BecauseClimateChange. So, I tried to create milti-use packaging. This one turns into a planter

This one is boring and only acts as a display case. But it's less expensive.

This one (the best one) turns into both a display case and a planter!

Here it is fully rendered.

These are some other fun Ideas I had during the project.

This is a close up of the Rider before baking.

And here is one after. I promise This will be updated with a fill turnaround video once I can get this thing spray-painted.

But for now, Here's my Lizard, Nibs.