Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Shakey Ground - Intern FIlmaker

Hey guys,

Been a bit Crazy at work{my day Job} this last week.....Our projects Unexpectadly on shakey ground and I have had to think of new options....
this has made a shifting in priorities and I have been a bit distracted.

Even though....I continued work and have managed to get 3 good shots out.

Dober's starting to work on the engines first.....welding away....I used a mini flash light to do the
flashing effect illuminating the engine{sparks} area as I animated. I started with a white type of light but then realized that it took on a bit too close to the blue screen color.

I then put an orange gel on the light to make sure my KEY didn't get confused....this worked nicely. This was a 10 second shot and got me through this last weeks Quota.

After a few nights of fixing and maintaining Dober's Heads....{they are all beat up and I have been putting it off}....hes been back to acting and telling our story.

I also had to do a P.O.V camera move that worked out pretty well with my trusty Manfrotto geared head. With some eyeballing and Dragon Stopmotion software I was able to do the animation fairly cleanly.






Shel putting the first Hole in the fleaship for upcoming shot.In Proving that GLD still has legs.......I'm glad to announce that GLD was accepted to its first London festival as well as Its first Russian{Moscow} fest. This is very cool to me that its reaching so far. We are Planning a weekend at Lake Arrowhead Film fest in a few weeks as well. This should be fun!

in our continuing stop mo adventures -

We took a trip over to our Intern's {Justin Connelly}FIRST FILM production over at USC.

Justin Connelly has had an Incredibly Hard deadline to make over the last weeks and has been working Nonstop to make it. He created 2 foam latex puppets One clay cotton puppet for gang of kids leaving school.
Eyebrows, eyelids and replacement horns-bells...a Full Set and lots of props on his way to telling a one minute short.
We were very excited to see his set and Puppets Painted and the very begining of the first animated shot. He is also geared up to when finished get his film scored by our own Robert Litton. I have to say that Robert has 3 stopmotion short films he is scoring soon and he seems to have cornered the market in Stopmo Music!

Its exciting times for all involved....and Its really thrilling to watch justin walking on his own in the early parts of his stop motion Journey.

Shel's Still working the Special features and We are getting CLOSE...

more to come.

jriggity

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

4 minutes and Dream Chasin!

Hey Guys!

We have passed 4 minutes and I'm back in full swing now that the TOY is finished.......

I'm also back at work now and can resume my online status which has been inconsistent lately.{Late reply's on emails and such.}

so......Here is Shel's awesome Dober Space Manual.......in action



Shel is very close on the Editing of the Special features and seems like she will make her deadline. She's been focusing on Editing so we can send out GLD into the world properly.

It will be the closing to the GLD chapter of our journey.....what a ride!!

so last week Shel gave Bridget the job of creating a MINI Dober puppet for the Mini Dober Ship
This will be the first MAJOR element from our film that we are giving out and another leap of faith and lesson in sharing....ha! It will be a fully functioning MINI Puppet. ....and I feel confident Bridget will do a good job.

....... most of the animation will be leaning or head turning as he flys. but.....I do want a cool figure-puppet that is able to do it all if needed....... Ya never know if somewhere down the animation road I find a spot I could need him in.

Intern- Justin J. has started filming his USC Stop mo film this week and we are all wishing him luck!!....because he is CRUNCHIN to make his deadline.

So as part of making our Dreams happen we went out looking for a building a few weeks ago to house our {Future Feature Animated Film}
One of the steps to making our Dream Manifest seems to be taking steps-Mental and Physicaly towards it. This always brings us closer just by putting the energy in the Air that makes it more than mere thoughts.

One of our wishes is to have it down the street from us near Aedon's Future school....as well as to shoot in L.A. with access to all the talent and supplies we would need to make it happen.

here's a pic of the Place....6,000 square feet....High ceilings with 4 offices
{editing-post production-story room - and our own biz office}.....

....... a LARGE main area for The animation stages {12 in total during production-lots more room if needed}

we would have a puppet fabrication section to the side of the main area ..... a completely separate area for the Shop in the back of the building....for all manufacturing of Sets and other machined items.

This visualization was thrilling guys!!

I really could see it.....I could hear the camera clicks....... and smell the smells. It was just magical to imagine a bunch of artists all working on our film-story.

From Imagination to paper to Film....Dang!!!

I cant freakin wait!!!

......Our Daughter Aedon created a new stuffed animal for her collection. Its a Chicken pillow and I used it as a pillow the other night in its maiden voyage. Its comfy and I'm very proud of her having made it.and last bit of news.....to celebrate my ankle recovery I am posting a Bike trick my ever healing ankle landed recently.Yes.......

jriggity

Friday, March 5, 2010

Justin the Toy Maker.....

Hey guys,

Anaglyph shot to check out...on request. Red and Blue glasses required. Click on it...it gets bigger.

sorry about the delay on posting.....

been Home for almost 2 weeks from my day job...... I have been building a PROTOTYPE Toy for my works latest Video game project...This was my first pro Toy making job and I was so honored they came to me !!

so......I get to work from home for 2 and a half weeks and its just plain Fun!!
The only part that is not perfect about the situation is that they want alot and Fast....ha!
Doing this TOY of course put me off course a bit on the films production....but....I still got a couple shots in.

Dober is in full repair mode.....as is Flea....the sequence is well on its way.

Here is Dober's Toolbox
here is a piece of the Raw shot from Flea Throwing his tools around.....I did not paint out the wires yet so theyll be shaking in and out.....




and yes......that is Gerald's Rubber Ducky making a Cameo....it all makes sence in the end...ha!!

We had a visit last weekend from our Friend-Animator and Sponsor Kevin Maclean...
He came over for a tour of the studio as well as to pick up his Gerald Sculpture reward for the donation on the film. It was super cool to hang out and he sent me this picture after he got home which made me very happy!

Gerald's in there with such good company......and I was very proud that Kevin gave Gerald such and awesome Home.

Shel has been editing her brains out for the GLD special features.....she has a Personal deadline and the last step is inserting some personality into the information. We are going to be doing that this week.

She Has managed to sneak a few hours on the ship here and there........

Justin Our Intern has finished his second sculpture , Mold and Foam puppet. He has to paint them and hes ready to animate. Very exciting! ...........And one more bit of cool news for Justin Is that hes going to have the World Famous Composer Robert Litton on board for the music accompanying his film.

How cool is that!!!

.... back to the ska8 park...... I am Landing tricks again.....Im not 100%.... on my way.

jriggity