Friday, September 11, 2009

The BLUE MONSTER!!!! and stuff

Hey guys,

Thought I would do a quick update to let you all see the exciting progress in our world creation FAZE...
BLUE SCREEN? After discussing the design for some roof attachments.......Shel created a wooden train track lookin thing that made its way around the ceiling.Shel and Robert{Composer/Intern} then attached the Blue Screen Foam that I got at another cool store in Burbank ca. Its called {FILMTools} its got all things moviemaking . Pretty cool place.
By hanging the Blue Foam from the train blocks she put up......we now have 360 degrees of Blue screen comping capabilities.......Saaaaweeet! This is when I feel my dork hairs stand on end....
its really bueatiful and it feels super professional.....makes me feel like we are a real production.

We have also have finished the Clayification of the planet surface....its all covered and ready to go......The ships are all dug into the surface and they are in the process of being weathered....and snuggled.We are placeing all the broken and removed parts of their ships all over the playfield....in their previsualized postions.{MAJOR Part of the StoryLine}

Seeing the sets size and the scale of the world reminds me so much of my very first understood exposure to stopmotion....The ATAT sequence in Empire Strikes Back...... I saw behind the scenes on this as a kid and was completly mesmerized by the process and artistry. Here we are 20 some years later making our own alien Planet with cool stop motion animation about to begin.....Awesome!!We also are introducing a plantlife or crystal lifeforms jutting out of the ground plane...??hmmmm?? Last week the guys also surrounded the set with Clay Mountain ranges in a forced perspective scale.....this increases the visual illusion of space.With some pic experimenting its going to work perfectly.The crew has also been working on Puppet backups - cutting out foam characters and starting to propaste them before painting.....

They have also begun building props and assets needed in the story...Pics to come

We also have found moments here and there to Play in the Danger room....to balance all this fine motor skill work.


I have been BUSTING ASS at work and stressing over the layoffs my company has done in the last few months. I have lost 4 animators on our team and alot more artists at the company.

Its hard times out there...and I feel very fortunate in keeping my present job...but really sad for all without..

we also finally got to view that last test I did in 3D and it was really really cool!




I was jazzed to see what I did worked and that we really can make this happen for the entire film.

So next up is a small extension on the blue screen which will make sure we are covered for High shots..........and then Finishing the weathering and detailing of the scene.

Then its ready to be lit by our Lighting expert Alia Houser!!
Exciting!!!

we are getting really close to Animation KICK OFF!!!

jriggity

14 comments:

rich said...

oh soooo coool.

i never thought of using foam as a material for blue screen. that makes so much sense. okay that's it! I think I need to move to LA...home of the blue foam.

Set looks PRO and so are you guys.

Adam said...

D00d! Your set looks so clean and professional. LOVE those ships crashed in the alien terrain. I can't wait to see dober and mr. flea jumping around in there.

Emily said...

That looks amazing - the clay dug up around the ship is perfect! This is great work, must feel so pro walking into that room!

Alonso said...

that's too bad about the work stuff, hope your co-workers land on their feet soon.

very cool. So what was the solution for the tables being too wide to reach underneath for the tie downs?

are you planning on using clay to fill in tie down holes? Had the thought you could make a little footprint stamp, since the clay will be disturbed anyway.

so the foam can be pulled back, like a shower curtain?

looks like the forced perspective mnts (which look cool) are the same color, did you try out changing the color for atmospheric perspective, or was that un necessary, or look silly.

Anyway looking great, looking forwards to the next update.

Unknown said...

Foam as material for Blue screen is very intriguing. I can't wait to see the test of those shots. I wonder if that company ships across the US.
I have to admit it makes me both jealous and excited to see the progress of this project. The size and scope of the sets are amazing!
Thanks again for letting us in on the process.

JPierro said...

Always inspiring. Great work, love seeing it all come together. You guys rule over and over again. Justin, hope you weather the storm at work. Take care

JP said...

Go Go Go :)
starting to look incredible! where do you work btw?

Gregory Sesma said...

Way cool.

tonychauzer said...

I really do love reading a post on this blog and coming out more jazzed up to continue on my projects than ever. Thank you guys so much :)

Shelley Noble said...

Congrats on the bluescreen, looks terrific as does the 3D clip through the by-my-computer 3D glasses. This film will rock.

I feel a little sad for myself though at seeing your big progress. It's like you've moved on from garage artists to pro production company. Happy for you as I slave away.

Yaz said...

Wow! yes, really an exciting progress there. I love your blue screen and how you hanged that.

Hmmm... "Surrounding the set with clay mountain ranges in a forced perceptive scale to increase the visual illusion of space..." I have been thinking about how to get the enough depth in the background for my film. I will try something like this. Thanks for posting about this here ;)

I am sorry to hear about the situation at your company... Yeah, the whole world is going through some hard times. Hoping the things to get better soon so we can all concentrate on our art better.

jriggity said...

Rich} La does have access to some cool art supplies an artists.

Adam} thanks and me niether man....animation will take everything to a whole new place.

emmyymme} it really does feel like weve made somthing cool..

Alonso}yeah man....thanks...I hope all our guys get picked up soon too.

the solution for the tables was to plit them into 4 tables that surround the main LONG Table.

I can pull out any of the 4 surrounding tables to get the camera in or myself for animating.

Yes - I will be using clay to cover the tracks of the tiedown holes.

we did think about stamping footprints as the characters walked.....it would just become too much to keep track of and another step that will slow down my producting. We decided against it also for shooting out of order limitations.

foam shower curtain is a great way to picture it!

we have several ideas for adjusting the background in post ....including a cloration trick.....but we will have to test it first.

Nathalia M} Im sure they will ship across the states...they seem to be a LARGE company.

thanks for your support.

John Pierro}thanks brother! and I regularly eat up the inspiration you provide on your blog.....appreciate the support man.

JP} thanks man!! I work at a place called High Impact Games. A videogame company.....We have been doing animation for a bunch of Sony Titles. Our Latest is Jak and Daxter - The Lost Frontier

Gregory Sesma}thanks man!

tonychauzer}thanks dood - its really cool that our blog inspires people beccause I use all of your blogs to inspire myself to keep moving forward too. Making these films is and Incredible feat so....finding fuel to add to our engines is really priceless.

Shelley Noble}thanks Herself! One of our biggest steady streams of support!! we appreciate all your comments.

I hear you on the frustrating slowness of this medium...It really seems impossible somedays.

We move closer every week yet just today I was thinking about how truly FAR I feel from being able to shoot this Film. Sooooo much to do.....and even more to do If I wish to do it all right.

over whelmed as I get I have to take a deep breath and just say One thing at a time....and we will get there.Deep breath......Progress.

and as for being a Pro production I ASSURE YOU!!!! We are 100% Garage...filmakers

. We both have very very FULL Lives And responsobilities to attend to way before we get to do filmaking.Ha!

We cant wait for the day when we get to do this without distraction of work.

Stay strong! your on the way.

Yaz} - thanks ...and Im glad you got somthing from our posts to use on your own film.

I too look forward to being worry free in our work situation.

jriggity

joost said...

really cool!
love all the details .

the 3d test works great!

Kelly Shon said...

This is really awesome!!!