SHIPS week 9 (deadline schmeadline)

hi.

shel here: chug chug chug......making progress steady and sure.......

i really thought that once we got to the painting stage it'd be a downhill ride and i'd finish up in a week........ but wow........i am continually blown away by HOW LONG EVERY SINGLE PART OF STOP MO TAKES.......and by how opptomistic i still am.......HA!

so i eagerly prepped, and gooped,

and we sanded, and painted, and painted,and second coated, and (sigh) repainted the colors that weren't quite right, .....and cleaned up edges, and cleaned them up again, and dug grooves to paint inside of for depth (even though it takes forever and they kind of don't show once they are painted, i just have to trust we'll be able to FEEL the groves and it's worth the time since we want texture, esp since we're shooting in 3D now.)and (groan) some days it feels like i've actually moved BACKWARDS!!! in that i've come up with more new things to do then i've gotten done.

this is where i can't tell you how grateful i am for DICK KANESHIRO who's been so steady in his intern-ness (i truly hope he is learning as much from this process as we are benefitting from him!) and Bridget Dash, who's been an inspiration and huge help on Tuesday nights.....because even tho i keep finding new things to do (or to re-do) to add to the list (setting us back), they keep moving forward. Dick's daily progress is salve to my (what feels like) antiprogress!

(i know this "antiprogress" is part of the progress process, and in the big picture i'm cool with it.......but this week i have to admit i got a bit disheartened.)

to which justin gently reminded me that the deadline is not what matters, what matters is that we enjoy the ride (this is what we do for FUN after all!). which is very funny cuz that's exactly what i try to convince him of (and earnestly believe) in regards to his deadlines......but i want to MAKE my deadlines!!

black paint for Flea Ships's primer:
grooves dug in and painted,
purple top coat with spray paint......exciting to achieve the base "eggplant" color i've been dreaming of.......
Todd artistically playing with rivet color options purple wing cap doohickys

aedon and i will go on our anual mother/daughter dance festival vacation up in berkeley this week, which will be a welcome break from the garage, and when i get back this is my mission for week 10: BALANCE.....deadline-schmeadline.....enjoy the ride......

Bridget's got it!

SHIPS!! progress weeks 7 & 8

shel here with the latest ship report.....

We've been so BUSY building ships (all our amazing helpers and i) that i skipped a whole week of reporting, so here's the week 7 and week 8 update combined......

AMAZING HELPERS: (L to R) Todd Ferrand (Justin's brother), Bridget Dash, Dick Kaneshiro, Jeff (Set Master) Cross

Hey, isn't that.....even brilliant composer Robert Litton couldn't resist pulling up a booster seat and grabbing a brush!!

I'll let the pics tell the story, but if you have any questions.....throw down a comment and i'll get back to you.......

WEEK 7

Flea ship interior....

The Steering handle column is animatable (on an armature wire--so the brass channel there is in case the wire breaks......then we can just swap it out, and won't have to make a whole new steering handle (thanks Jeff).

(That cool little radio was build by Cam Leeburg)

WEEK 8

Flea Ship Exterior

the EXCITING GLUE IT ALL TOGETHER stage!!!

Prepping for the GOOP stage by filling in the big gaps with PATCH N PAINT

Aunt Jenna was here this week to not only keep Aedon (our youngest) company while i obsessed on ships, but (lucky for us!) to also handle the dental emergency that came up with Aedon's retainer......(It was fun cuz Jenna's dental licence had just been processed that morning......and she did sanitize that sculpting tool before she went to work....in case anyone from the Colorado Dental Board stops by our blog!!).

Aedon checks out Jenna's brand new Dental License (No really, it's legit......Congrats Jenna! and thanks thanks thanks!!)

The SUPER EXCITING GOOP stage (Joint Compound)
Finished first coat

Dober's Ship Progress:

Jeff Cross's fancy removable wing (for animating)

Dick Kaneshiro carving out Dober's Ship's MINE LAUNCHERS

Jeff and I as human glue clamps....Jeff's new hood ornament (as we're running out of room in the garage already!)

Since the ships have progressed to a stage i can handle (and we've maxed our ship budget), we bid farewell to Jeff this week, with many many thanks for all the skill, experience and knowledge he's lent our project....the ZILLIONS of things he's taught me are going to come in handy for many projects to come......THANKS JEFF!!!

I'm off to the garage now to GOOP up Dober's ship....

Tomorow (week 9) we will sand and TUESDAY = PAINT yay!.........we are very close to finishing, possibly by the deadline--end of June (at least with one of the ships!!!)

Also, this next week Justin sets up the camera and starts doing animation and 3D tests......i suspect he'll have some cool walk cycles to post soon.......

Story Boards Done!!

MILESTONE BABY!

The entire Film is on Paper......big step. Had To Post.

jriggity

Ships Takeing Flight - week # 6

Hey Guys,

another week goes by way too fast....... but big progress on the Ships. Shel and the Crew are moveing forward toward a {1 last week} Goal of having the Ships to a skining level by next Monday...........

Skinning as in Put on a plaster like substance that will act as the hard skin in which we will detail for final painting .

This means the ships all have to be built except maybe small greeble stuff for the cockpits....we are trying to get that stuff done too though .

Battery part for fleas ship in the cartoon.This is a very optimistic goal {one of our many character traits} but we are shooting for it reguardless....our ships are scheduled to be done in 3 weeks exactly....makeing room for begining work on the Planet surface that the majority of the film takes place on.

so......this last friday I took{brother} Todds finished SPACE window shapes to a place called Plastic Depot in Burbank ca..."Bucks"-{slang for shapes to be formed upon}........I am convinced everything you ever need to make a stop mo film is on San Fernando blvd in Burbank. {Its all just minuets from where I work}I take it for granted how lucky we are to be in the middle of all required to do the art we love!

Plastic Depot -Chris- warmed up the vacuform machine ...and grabbed the "Bucks"he heats up a flat sheet of plastic which is then pulled over the "Buck" and Sucked with a powerfull air tank.......untill it fits perfectly....very cool process.And I got to see it in action......

The Windows were a puzzle we had no idea how we were going to solve ....so watching it happen was very rewarding....and One more seemingly impossible-unknown task Conquered.

after he pulled our 2 pieces- I took them home where Shel cut them out and started working out the fitting into the ships.....some problem solving but manageable.

One of the things that I did last week was alot of drawing of assets for the film......there are a series of items the characters collect through the story....and I had to deliver concept art for all of them to the guys for construction

I also had to show shel what I was looking for the skin-out terrior of the flea ship. I always saw the fle ship as a Flying TANK with rivits....and heavy steelWHILE Dobers ship was more clean Star Trek Plastic smoothe.

I missed my deadline with the story boards....dangit! but am in the very last 2 Shots...so I will have the Entire Film boarded this week. YESSSSSsssss!!!!!

I cant tell you how tired my brain is of story boarding. Its like Ive been doing crossword puzzles for 4 months now and my brain is TIRED of the thinking so much

we do have a plan to take the finished boards -film and do a FUN RUN on it......where we go back over the whole story and add in DEPTH to our characters....and give the kids some laughs and Gags through the telling. Im looking forward to this part

Dick and Cam did some backup armatures for Dober Last week -and they are working on small bits of the Ships - assets for the deadline

Jeff started on Dobers Steering colum and Him and Shel worked out the attaching and mobility of the Steering for both characters

I also drew all the Greeble for the ships Interior - Dashboards .....for both ships...pictures at home....?

In GLD NEWS.....we are going to be part of a HOTEL pay perview showing in most MAJOR HOTELS through the US. These include Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, InterContinental, Mandarin Oriental, Rydges, Hyatt, Novotel, Wynn Resorts, and many more. Films will be part of an Independent Film Collection available to guests on demand. We could gain TONS more exposure in the Showing at the Hotels across america. Great for our Future in Filmaking

We also just found out we Won another fest {BEST Long Tail!} Award at the Pet Flix Film Festival!.....very cool!

and Just because I LOVE my Monkeys so much I wanted to post some pics and videos from our House....My daughter broke her POLE VAUTING record this weekend and made DAD bubble with pride.

Stunt Puppet Pictures - LEGIT -

Hey guys,
Big Big Big things have been going on in our Stop mo universe lately and the Biggest STEP yet Toward our DREAM has been had............. HUGE STEP.......

We were contacted about a month ago by a Fan of our Film who had seen it on DELTA Airlines. This fan then was interested in our Next Short film in which we -SHEL - presented a Full package to him with all aspects of the NEW films Production. From Budget to Schedule......with pretty pictures ta boot.

This was enough to convince him to Invest in Us and our Film. .....so freakin Cool!!!!

IF ANYONE OUT THERE DID'NT HEAR our SCREAMS of EXCITEMENT when he said YES!!!!!!!!!...... you must have had your happiness mufflers on.....cause we were STOKED!!!! You have to understand the HUGENESS of this event......H U G E N E S S !!!
Getting Funding for a Film is HARD....Getting funding for a short film is Damm near IMPOSSIBLE!!!

just a few short months ago Me and Shel were at the Sonoma Film fest and we went to our first Panel on getting investors for you projects. We were walking in the park after the panel ....our minds turning towards making it a goal not just for the feature but for our Next Short Film first.

We would get our feet wet and try to make it happen now on a smaller scale before going Big League.

Well just a few short weeks after we put it into the Collective World Energy-Consiousness. It happened........... WOW! Hard Work, Positivity and GoodLUCK!! is the recipe for sucess.If you Buid it they will Come!! We are now official - Stunt Puppet Pictures - is on a RocketShip to our Dreams! So........we are looking to finish this film in May of 2011......and its looking like its gona be another AMAZING Ride!!

In other NEWS.........Diving into the 3D filming universe......we were looking at many options and trying to figure out if it would be worth it.....-finding equipment- experts in the Stereography....

complication of shooting a Garage -Indie -3d Film of Quality?

so....we went to a 3D club last week thinking there would only be a few guys there and were suprised to see MANY.....very passionate and very friendly lovers of the 3D process....They all offered us Advice and pointed us toward people who could advise us in our 3D Adventure.

After meeting with our 3D advisor {Jason Goodman , 21rst Century 3D} Who also contacted us via DELTA Airlines........we decided it all comes down to the Slider equipment we will need to aquire.......if this piece is affordable and precise enough?? we will go for the Massive undertakeing of learning to film in 3D.

after all........ it will give us Much More marketability in selling the film in a couple of years as the need for content will be higher as 3D becomes home entertainment. It will also be Incredible experiance for us as Directors and another reason for HighRolling Investors to believe in us.

Well.....we found the piece we needed with some help from Dick Kaneshiro....{thanks!} and its on its way to our home for some animation tests I am scheduled to do in the next months.

Another BIG News and step toward our Feature is personally .........Letting go of some of the aspects of production. This is somthing that has in my past been challenging....But I am at a point now where I am going to embrace it in certain areas with open armsStop motion is such a Laborous and slow process.....having help will just allow us as storytellers to get to the storytelling that much faster. Its also helps us practicing for when we are directing many people on our FEATURE.

Our first move in opening myself to help was getting INTERNS to help us meet our deadlines.

Luckily we have been contacted by many eager artists who would love to learn some of the stopmo process and are willing to exchange work for that Knowledge. AWESOME! ......

Our very First Intern is - Cam Leeburg - I first met him Interning at {Shadow Machine-Robot chicken}.....and he said he was interested in helping out. After we got going on this project we asked him if he was still interested......YES...... Shel is totally Running the shop {Art Direction-Construction-Organization} and cam is learning to work with new materials {blue foam} and is doing a GREAT job!!!
Starting Tuesday Cam Will meet our 2nd Intern {Dick Kaneshiro}.......he and Cam will be learning - Armature - Foam Latex Puppet Construction- painting {Creating Backup Flea Pilots and Dober's}

....and if they wish to work on their own art....we can advise......at our facility -GARAGE

I also will be supplying them with some animation education as part of our payment for their help. I hope to do some videos with some ideas and basics on the fundamentals of animation occasonally....and will always provide Critiqs for any work they would like.

I am not there during the day when most of the garage work is happening so the videos hopefully will work. Plus they can keep them to look at anytime they wish.

Ships progress Week 5 - Shel started Mystery ship 3??Secret?? - Todd { my brother}.....has been brought in as a metal expert/helper and is working on the Ship Windows { Vacuform technology }....for our Transparent Cockpit Windows - He used to work in the FX industry years ago but has always been more on the Mechanical side of things . Animatronic puppets.....and Industrial Design.

We both went to Art School together and started in the same Program- Industrial Design FX- I switched to CG -Animation while he remained in FX. He has alot of experiance and tons of ART mechanical Gifts. He will also be makeing the Landing Gear for the flea Ship out of metal for us.Jeff is around less lately and is takeing on more of a consultant roll.......

All together this tuesday we will have 4-5 people in the garage working on our Film....WOW!!

All of this is so exciteing and fills me with energy while I'm at work....I imagine shel running a small scale shop like she will one day do on our feature.....makeing artistic decisions and organizeing tasks for all involved.

I have to stop myself from picking up the phone every hour to ask what happened ??? I wana be there too!!!! bottom Line- is I'm super proud of my lady and really excited about Life!

In GLD News- We were accepted to a few more fests- and we were denied by a couple too - ....Ill fill you in on those soon...

ohh yeah....Go see UP.It was a perfect Film!! I LOVED It!!

jriggity

SHIPS week 4 - Flea Ship

Shel here with Flea Ship progress:

made some big jumps this week and am super excited.

THIS IS A PRETTY TECHNICAL POST so just scroll thru the pic if you're not interested in what kind of glue i used!

and TAKE NOTE: i've been at this for 4 weeks and Set Master Jeff has been around alot less the past two weeks as other work calls him, so i'm BY NO MEANS an expert at this......none the less here's my process this week.

BASE STRUCTURE

For Flea Ship I started last week with a 1/2" PLYWOOD base structure for foundation. I used ELMERS GLUE with HOT GLUE reinforcement to put together the base box and then glued (Elmers again) 1" BLUE FOAM to the box and shaped the main engine compartment which will support the rest of the ship

and then i made a smaller 1/4" wood frame for the top of the fusilage, and glued 2" BLUE FOAM onto it for shaping (shown drying above). [warning: i made my box a bit too tall though and am now having to sand through wood to get the curved shape i want--not ideal.]

then i shaped the top of the fusilage into general roundness and built a 1/2 " WOOD frame for the ships "jaw" and started attaching 2" FOAM for the bottom of the fusilage.


SHAPING

after my first pass of shaping i wasn't so happy with how "boxy" the ship was looking so i started rounding more agressively......blue foam is very much fun to sculpt cuz it's so flexible in it's response to the SCRAPER.......i scrape and it seems to say "did you mean sort of like this?" it doesn't matter that there's not much room for going back, because it takes it's form so gently, it's pretty intuitive. until i get impatient and start in with the BOX CUTTER (razor blade) and even the JIG SAW......then i have to be careful! but as long as i peel little tiny bits at a time (not much my style i must admit) it goes great.

below, left side still boxy, right side getting rounder.....

CANNED FORCED AIR is very useful for getting the blue foam dust off my face, mask and glasses (when i forget to wear the glasses, the foam dust irritates my eyes)
Starting to work on the ship's Brow......and using my beloved DREMEL (a rotary tool with tons of attachments for carving, sanding, sawing, buffing, and many things i don't know about yet.....very useful for miniature work!). here i'm using it to carve out an indent in the foam for my box structure (takes a steady hand cuz it carves through foam like a hot knife on butter).
making the 1/4" PLY box for the Brow (the wood extends further back than the foam so i can HOT GLUE it to the top of the fusilage frame). jeff continues to stress the point that in STOP MO you want EVERYTHING SECURELY ATTACHED to the main frame and the main frame able to be securely attachable to the ground. (so a foam brow without a wood frame attachment would not be secure enough....and i need the ships to be extra strong because justin is not a light handed animator! he works the puppets and sets HARD for all that beautiful squash and stretch!)

GLUE

this time i used LIQUID NAILS instead of ELMERS GLUE to attach the box because the foam surface is so uneven and the Elmers is too thin to connect, whereas the thick pasty Liquid Nails substance can fill in the holes......it' not so good for attaching foam to foam if you want to sand though (as it turns out) cuz Liquid Nails dries rubbery and doesn't sand well.

eventually we will glue/with hot glue the top of the fusilage to the foundation wood structure--but for now we are keeping them seperate for ease of shaping.

ATTACHING THE WINGS

it was pretty scarey carving into my fusilage (it's been fun, but i'm SO not interested in making a new one!)......Jeff keeps saying it's the Z axis that gets you!! but with his encouragement i dug in bit by bit and was really pleased with how well it worked out.

ATTACHING THE AFTER BURNER THINGYS (these are made from 2"BLUE FOAM glued together and shaped down)

imaging the cut......taking the plunge..... it fits!!!

Flea Pilot Gets FIRST Animation TEST.

Hey Guys,

Well this test is a long time coming.....I've been trying to get my paws on this puppet since he first was painted.......

BUSY!!!

So after not animating for a good few months and shel's going camping with Aedon and some of her friends.....I took the opporotunity to shake the rust off the hands and give this puppet a work out.

I found out.......... I can still animate....Phhfffffeeew. Funny how quickly I doubt my stopmo animation skills. It really is like rideing a bike.....you dont forget the craft.also......NEVER shoot with a tripod that is broken.....your just asking for Heart ache. I had more to this animation than I'm shareing but my tripod Dropped horribly in the last leg of the creation of this.....

I had to quit....and will have to finish the last bit of this piece on a later occasion....consider this the first 2/3 of the piece.

hope ya likes it....its been way too long since I got to post some animation on our blog.

jriggity