Monday, June 8, 2009

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.











20 comments:

amoebaboy said...

nice work guys and so fast, i thought i worked fast but this is steaming ahead full speed.
you guys make a wonderful team.

Adam said...

Love that big ole' ship! Can I get a ride in that thing?

Gregory Sesma said...

Those ships are AWESOME!!!!! Keep it up.

rich said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
rich said...

that video of the windows getting made was really cool to see. thanks for putting that up. Grats on the hotel showing! Also the pics of the family jumping all over the house made me laugh. looks like the ships are not the only ones taking flight!

Season Mustful said...

I am amazed at the pace things have been moving for you! Being able to take care of work,family,and your own film,and still have time to blog? You should win an award for that! Every new achievement of yours inspires me to keep going on my own work. keep it up.

bRYEnd_of_the_schtick said...

(^ oh joy! the sound of little ones bounding down stairs is glorious. thanks.

(^ some day I'll get more personable instead of overactingive.

(^ the child's play is actually far mor difficult than the term "child'splay" leads one to immagine.
(^ but worth every step backwards on a timeline to cherish.
(^ thank again forr the reminder.
(^ now to get the back yard ready for juniper's 9th year of life on the 9th of '09.

Yaz said...

That window is looking amazing!!! I love that vacuform machine. I want Plastic Depot to be here too :( Seeing you guys skin the ships is another thing to follow for sure. I am curious about the metal plates you would be mounting. Will you be heating up metal plates to give that rounded shape?? Ok... let me wait for your post about skinning.

GLD in hotels across the US... Vaowww... another great opportunity to reach many many people. Keep going!!

And your kids :))) look like having a lot of fun. It must be very inspiring for you to have them around while working on your films. Say hi to them from our little girl Zeynep :)

toytheatre said...

Fascinating stuff! And congrats on another award. You lot are very inspiring to me and my little project - which I haven't even begun storyboarding yet. Somehow I think I am going about it all backwards. heh
DJ

Shelley Noble said...

Totally kewl. I never saw the vacuum forming process before. And I loved Aedon's laugh when she landed. Crazy wild leaping kid shots. Shel's are lovely, like dance. Tell me that's not really you guys swinging off of cliffs and on fire.

Alonso said...

you guys sure you aren't up for adopting a 31 year old :D

that's a cool machine doing the windows. Those ships are huge! I assume at some point both ships will be on screen at once, how are you planning on working with that? Paint a corner of the garage green screen? Are you going to make miniature's of the ships for action packed dog fighting scenes? Are you going to have to wear gloves so that you don't leave fingerprints on the windshield moving it every frame to move the puppet?

It's amazing you guys have an actual schedule when you're doing this on top of day jobs, do you schedule in down time and burn out time? Afterall you're doing this when you're supposed to be sleeping, do you plan in the inevitable rebellion of your body and mind when it demands more rest?

Good luck with the storyboards. Definitely a key part, cheaper and faster to work out problems and ideas in board and animatic then anywhere else, but I can see how it would get grueling.

Hey I've been curious. Gerald you used replacement heads right? Polymer clay? What about the rest of the cast, like Mr. Welthington, the "clone" dialogue test looked like maybe replacement mouths, but the eyebrow's maybe wire rigs in the polyeurathane? Looks like Dober and Flea are going to be all wire in the foam? Thanks

Keep up the inspiring work, and get some rest :P

jriggity said...

amoebaboy} Thanks man...We do make a great Team man....Perfect Chemical mix.

adam} hell yeah...you can ride it to the Rialto man....see ya there.

{Greg} will do...hope to see ya wed.

{rich johnson } yeah amazeing process for sure...and thanks about the hotel! Could be another big deal for us. No sir....we are bouncing at the house often.

Season}Ha.....yes ...lots of scheduleing and I work at a computer all day so....at lunch I can throw up a blog post.Glad to inspire your work...how cool is that.

bRYEnd_of_the_schtick}-happy b day to your little one...childs play come SUPER EASY for me....ha!!

Yaz}yes its a very cool device...
i was thinkg about you when i was there.....about how hard it was to get the parts you needed for your armature......

we are fortunate....but you made it happen....much respect!

yeah....kids are who we are makeing our cartoons for as well as the kid in US.....tell your little girl Zeynep ...Hey from the Rasch's too!

DJ Dyer}- your going about it....thats good enough for me.

thanks for the support.

Herself }Aedon's laugh ...yeah im in love with that monkey deep......and yes those pics are all us....Livin Life!

Alonso} Ha! the ships are huge!.....for the main section of the film....the ships will be planted on a planet set....

for the Dogfight sequence....we will be filming on a large greenscreen stage at our 3d Advisors buisness...we wont be filming the Dogfight-Intro untill the end of the process..

gloves....for the majority of the film the windows are up-retracted....so no worries on the fingerprints.

No miniatures for the fighting sequence.....we will be Using some of the same tricks as the early star wars films.

schedule- yep a schedule is super important.....being organized in our time-

FAMILY - OUR RELATIONSHIP - OUR personal time - and the Film {ART.}

This is another reason we are able to do the HUGE tasks so effeciantly.

Luckily- ART which is where I have pushed my body in the past is very therapudic....so I dont feel stressed by it.

so no burn out happens....and for the last year....I have been sleeping again 7-8 hours a night.

this should remain untill I start shooting later this year.And even then Im trying to improve my schedule ALOT from the last films.

as for the storyboards....Im just inches away from finishing the bunch.


Mr. Wealthington was....a complete foam latex puppet with animateable mouth....I combined the paste on mouths with the movement of his jaw flapping.

jriggity

Ryan McCulloch said...

You guys are on a ROLL!!! So inspirational!

JPierro said...

Wow! It just keeps getting better. Loved seeing the windshield being made. The ships are looking fabulous, and we already know the animation and characters are top notch. Great stuff man! Love seeing your monkeys in action too. -john

Yaz said...

And I am lucky to have friends like you!! Thank you :))

Emily said...

Those ships are amazing, I can't wait to see them all painted and plastered, they're beautiful already!

tonychauzer said...

Your work ethic is something spectacular. It's now my mission to aspire to it! Thanks again as always for posting the process it's such a huge treat.

Big congrats to the widespread exposure for GLD and getting an investment - great great news!

Kevin Harman said...

Hey, its Dick!

Vanessa said...

This looks AWESOME!! That plastic store looks fabulous, burbank huh? They let you use their vacuform machine? You didn't buy one did you?

Funkee Mommee said...

Wow! Shel really is supermom...she flies!!

And, was that Seamus on fire? It's just my opinion (I know you guys feel a little differently about all that physical stuff) but setting your child on fire is sure to get you a visit from DCFS, no??

My heart swells everytime I see you guys. I love you all sooo much! I am so proud to know you!!