Thursday, January 21, 2010

Mini Dober Ship Production Shots

Hey Guys,



Shel here with some progress pics on Dober's Mini Ship. FUN, FUN FUN!! I am making mini ships for the space battle that will open the film (we'll be shooting this sequence last, and I tell ya, it's going to be very EXCITING when we get there!!!).

It's been so fun make the small ships after having learned on the big versions, and I am grateful to Jeff Set Master Cross for all he taught me when we made the big ones.


I started with taking pics of the big ship and scaling them down in photo shop to the size we want (about 12" across). Then I could take my measurements right off the print outs:



1/4" plywood base structure, hot glued together.....


Blue foam glued on and shaped....

Brass tubing for connecting to the rig:

The Garage is all about HOT ANIMATION SETS right now, so the Workshop is on the porch, the kitchen table, the living room, etc. (my sisters in New York and Virginia got FEET of snow this day, so it was especially fun to tell them I was working outside in a tank top!):

Fitting together the various wings and engines:

Sorting through "Greeble":

GOOP!:
Sanding (fine white dust all over the living room!):

Ready to assemble:
My new cordless DREMEL, which I love with all my heart (awesome x-mas present from composer, yaughtsman, etc. Robert Litton and invaluable art assistant Bridget Dash)

Bridget helping to paint the engine cap doodads:
Practice flight:


Now I'm working on the BUCK for the windshield.....lots of trial and error here, I watched Justin's brother Todd make the bucks for the big ships and he made it look so easy .... ha! I'll post about that when I've figured it out.....we need the windshield to come off and on easily so Justin can animate the little guys inside, which is just the kind of puzzle that makes my brain very happy.

I've also got a great start on the Flea's ship and will post those pics soon.

In the meantime Justin is making MOVIE MAGIC in the garage most nights......before we started this film we said we would try to make sure he slept this time, but he's just way too excited to sleep and last week pumped out 15 seconds! (5 seconds OVER our 10 second goal per week.) He did decide to take a week off animating after this sequence is done (1 more shot!!), so he can focus on organizing the garage (untangling cords and figuring out a more ergonomic computer configuration), figuring out the pipeline for the 3D part, and getting the shots onto my editing computer so i can start editing ........and maybe sleep a little? we'll see how that goes.....

17 comments:

Alonso said...

lookin sweet! but that last pic, it looks like your doing it wrong, shouldn't your lips be in "pew! pew!" shape for a test flight ;)

I can tell the dogfight is totally gonna have the Star Wars feel to it, awesome!

Shelley Noble said...

1,000% coolness seeing these step-by-steps, Shel! How adorable are those tiny ships?! Oinch! Painfully cute.

I simultaneously love and hate how friggin organized you and Justin are.

"...5 seconds OVER our 10 second goal per week."

On one hand it's so sensationally impressive that you've got each aspect mapped out to such precise progress on a timeline. On the other, it pulls me up that that kind of action is the only way to get things like this done.

Either way, you guys are thoroughly inspiring to watch work your movie magic.

Utile Dulci Estúdio said...

Hi... I don't speak english (i'm brasilian) but I see your blog every posts... since the "gerald's last day"... yous great!! hugs! Ramon

Ken A. Priebe said...

Ah yes...I can relate...book writing also causes much sleep deprivation.

I slept through my bus stop today on the way home and missed dinner.

Good stuff guys!

Yaz said...

I love the workshop all around; porch, kitchen table, living room... Mini Dober Ship looks great.

MT said...

looks beautiful!

Shel Wagner Rasch said...

ALONSO: excellent observance (pew! pew!) but at that moment the plane wasn't firing, it was on a fatal crash course descent into justin's spaghetti dinner (fortunately it was able to pull up at the very last possible second....whew!).

SHELSTER: thanks! i don't think it's the ONLY way to get it done, but justin and i are both so goal oriented that it definitely keeps us truckin!

UTILE DULCI ESTUDIO: Abrigato! Thanks for stopping by. Hugs Back.

KEN: is it possible your particular sleep deprivation also has something to do with some cute little munchkin that's much cooler than a book? I can't imagine writing a book with an infant about, talk about impressive! Either way, i'm glad you could catch some extra ZZZs, but sorry about the missed dinner!

YAZ and MATTSON: thanks. your encouragement is priceless!!

Emily said...

Looks amazing! I love how well you mix work and fun - it's really inspiring.

Ethan said...

Super-cool! Nice work!

Ken A. Priebe said...

You know, it's funny, everybody thinks I'm sleep deprived because I have two kids. They actually sleep pretty well most of the time.

The truth is I'm sleep deprived only because of the book.

But I took a nap today! Huzzah!

Sean Galloway said...

manomanoman!!! you all have the pad of all pads! i have to tell everyone here that i had the best tour anyone could have had. my pal hwang and I was so lucky to look into the lair of Rasch family. What an inspirational one it was. Talent runs in the family like crazy, and you can feel the love in what they do and for each other. thank you for such an amazing tour today! i can't wait to try out the mountain climbing area again after my elbow heals! HAHAHA

Anonymous said...

I second Cheeks on that. It felt like we was visiting Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. Thanks guys

Mexican Viking said...

This is fantastic! Thanks for putting up all the details on how you go about making this. Gives me very many "ah ha!" moments.
This is magic in the making.

Josh said...

Wow - inspirational work - really enjoying seeing what you guys are doing!

Colin Jack said...

Wow wee! This is a really cool blog very inspiring stuff !

Patrick Schoenmaker said...

Wow, guys! Your work is looking great! Stop Motion is such a difficult thing to manage, at least in my experience. It's the most fun and un-fun at the same time one could have. It tried but failed so I appreciate all the stuff you show on your blog. Beautifull models and characters. And you have the Kong Premium Sideshow and Don Bluth cells on your walls! If I wasn't living in the Netherlands I'd hop over right now and kiss you.

amoebaboy said...

yay! nice work shel, i wish i could knock out a ship at this rate, it takes me weeks to make a door handle.