Stop MOTION Mission

KICK OFF - 4 Shots - and Vacation

2009-10-27T13:13:00.000-07:00

Hey guys!!! KICK OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am really really excited about this film......Last week was the LAST week of my 3 week vacation and we really put all our energy into Getting that first shot in the CAN.my weeks work on the film.

Right after a High Octane Dogfight in deep Space......Dober Awakens on a strange planet with his ship in need of repair!!! Can Ya feel It People!!!???

Shots 1 - 4 in the {Dober Awakens} Chapter - the computer display is temporary as we work out all the Display and lighting-effects hurdles.....but...... You can see where I'm going with it.

The world That is taking shape is THRILLING ....I cant even describe how vast and 3d it all feels. We are really taking it to whole differnt level on this.

So after our first lighting by Alia Houser

we discovered a few problems.......I was going to have to comp out too many lights in the background{trying to save work}......and our ship shadows would get cut when I split the tables for access . Alia graciously came over to do the NEW 2.0 Lighting for the set and We are very very happy with the results!!

Shes a very cool person and enjoyed helping out us INDIE stop mo filmakers . Highly reccomended!!

So.....Letting you guys know......I have set a pace of doing 10 seconds of Animation per week as my Goal throughout the making of the Film.

This will allow me much more sleep than GLD did and I hope to come close and sometime surpass the goal.

We as a studio got an incredible NEW Piece of equipment for doing professional Camera moves .

You can see the quality in the Latest shot.....and I will be using it often in this film.

Super Perfect smoothe slide - with a Sweet crank to roll as I Animate.

During my vacation I was able to connect with some of our ART assistants on Our Art Tuesdays. I have been wanting to hang with these guys for a while but gota go ta Work.... It was especially great to hear their personal passions and where there Interest in this artform came from. I Also got to hear what they would like to do with the craft {Films-Careers-Storys}......we hope to help them with some knowledge and Teaching anything we can to help them achieve thier stop mo Goals.

Shot in 3d and edited together quickly just to feel the cuts and get our first taste of the film to come.

Heres Shels latest Handywork - Flea Ships Cracked and smoked windshield ready to be Photographed tonight. {VACATION}- So One of the Things that I have been up too recently with my vacation has been to RIDE BMX bikes - I used to Be a FREAK for the sport.......completly in love with it.

Well .....I have started to ride again and am very much into relearning the Craft.

We have been spending every saturday Night at the Home Depot Parking lot......Under the 6 lane overpass. Covered and Lit....no one bothers us as we Ride, Crash and Laugh. Heres some pics of our recent Sessions-very fun!!!Nicky Building his first bike - My Hot Biker Chick!! Robert Litton - Composer -Intern -Yaghtsman - BMXer-

Me and Aedon got to do some Physical challenges -

We went Pole Vaulting after a few good years off.

Robert Litton - Composer -Intern -Yaghtsman - BMXer- PoleVaulter

My Aunt and Uncle Visited -
had a great vacation but not LONG enough....

Back at work today animating a Monster driving a small car.....getting back into the groove .

jriggity

Camera Move Test - And Eugene International Film Fest

2009-10-13T23:23:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

been on my first week of vacation from work and I finished the last of the Dober Replacement Heads for our Film . These heads dont look like much now but they will Run the entire Expression range when required on Film. The Eyebrows , ears , jowls and so on are all soft clay ready to be manipulated.
I will be cutting the heads off and placeing new heads on where needed....then re blending the clay into the neck in animation.

These heads like Gerald's - Were sculpted with all the expression required for the acting....Most of the Time -Dober- is Angry or Suprised .... so not nearly as many heads are required....also Gerald had a nice collar to hide the seams unlike Dober....so Ill have to pay more mind to that Throughout filming.

After experimenting with Flea and his replacement heads I've decided to just use his Foam Latex Sculpt and expression giving armature in his eyes and Jaw instead of replacements. His design specifically the Jaw was just to much of a pain in the ass to work with.

We had the Lighting Done this last week as well.....Alia Houser

came out and gave us a couple of hours for getting the ligts set up for the begining of shooting. She Will be back this week for lighting touchups next week.

A couple of last touches added to the set.... and some More Props for the Film - I finally managed to get a Camera Animation test.....

This was VERY exciting!! I learned alot during this test and know I can do it better next time....Its amazing how much more real the Tiny world becomes when the camera starts moving through it.
This is the GAP i worked in during the test - This Gapp was hidden through a Low camera Angle......and some small risers on the side of the set Near the ships.

It all started with My very first 2 Drilled holes in the set and Ship!!..Yikes!!! a bit scarry.This is somthing we plan to do alot of in this Film.

The big issue is the tiny shakes and uneveness of the camera......we have ideas on making the moves less shakey and well try it on the next try. This camera move was done by hand and just nudged along bit by bit.....with a Measuring tape as my guide.

In Festival NEWS - We just came home to Los Angeles from {Eugene International Film Fest}It was the first time we had ever been to Oregon......

The festival set us up at The Valley River Inn which was right across the street from the Theatre. We arrived very late Friday night and crashed out ready for tomorrows Movies and our Showing at 1 pm.

We grabbed breakfast and picked up our Festival passes......It was at the Regal Cinemas in a local Mall...

We watched some Short Films then readied ourselves for the Animation Family Block. We were the first film that played and the audience was really feeling it....

after the showing we did our Q and A which was fun and always informative to audiences . Most people have very little idea how Stopmotion films are even made....and definitly dont understand the TIME required.

We then enjoyed the entire day watching movies ......eating and talking about them .
Sunday was more of the same except for a Nice walk in the Park along the River and some Swingset Fun.

after all the shows -we went to the Awards Cerimony where we Enjoyed Lots of Conversation with the Local Volenteers and Filmakers. Incrededibly Super Ultra nice people..

We also Ended up Winning the "BEST ANIMATED SHORT Award" .....Awesome!!!
It was really cool because after the awards ....they played clips of all the films that Won or films requested for people that had'nt seen them. Ours got played in FULL and it recieved a nice big applause in viewing. Really cool......

It continues to amaze me how much people have responded to our film and how even now its thrilling to watch it with an audience. EVERY TIME!!! Ha!

Everyone that Ran the festival was INCREDIBLY NICE.......And really open to us.....this was the best experiance with the individual People we have had on our festival Tour. I cant wait to send them our new film in 2 years for consideration.

NEXT WEEK - We start Principal Photography. KIK OFF!!!!

jriggity-justin

Planet PUSH - and BIG BEAR.

2009-09-22T18:03:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,

Here we are just coming back from an Awesome weekend at {BIG BEAR Lake Film Fest.}.It was such a Bueatifull place and we used our time there to its very fullest. We stayed at a HUGE 5 bedroom Super CABIN.It was right out of my Lincoln Log toy box I had as a kid.....fantastic with all the Woodlinees you would expect -Super Warm and Cozy -

We watched Movies - Questions and Answer-Hiked -
Son Nicky got very inspired with the camera (all the cool arty shots here are by him!)-Physical Challenges-- Horsebacked - Biked -Alpine slid- Go carted- Swam-Syncronized Dorking!!Boated- Robert Litton - Intern / Composer / Yaughtsman Stranded on the water potty -Look at Aedons Posture -so telling--Smiling and Hurt a tiny bit.
They thought it would be funny to abandon us....ha!! Problem was they couldnt get the boat to restart so the just floated away Until me and Aedon caught a ride On another boat-Fun adventure!!....and spent time with the grandparents ... So much FUN!! We Won 2 Awards at the festival - Best Family Film Award - and - maybe 10 minuets Later

The {Best Animated Short -Audience Choce Award}....This award was given by Noel Blanc-Son of Mel Blanc -famous for doing all of the voice work from our favorite Animated Warner brotherrs characters.....I was Honored!!!. It was a suprise to Win and feel how much people really enjoyed the film.

The Entire fest was of High Quality and surrounded by Bueatiful Backdrops and really nice people....I wish so much we could have stayed longer..... We look forward to Submitting our new Film in 2 years.

Now Back To the NEW Film-----

Well.... Here we are Tuesday -Shels BIG Work day - making our last big Push on the set before the Lighting designer comes next week.

One of the first thing Shel did last week was extend the Blue screen through some clever sewing...

some of the higher angles we showing garage wall so we added a little over a foot. Shel and one of our very Dedicated Artists will be putting in a bit more time to make sure were ready for lighting. Bridget - we met at the premiere of our Film Gerald's Last Day - she said she was interested in working with us and she has been INVALUABLE!! We are excited to have her with us on this films adventure. We ...after experimenting a bit..{and getting a great concept from our Newest Intern, Caitlin Pashalek}.. decided on a new plant life....to replace our older one. I am much happier with the look.
Shel and Bridget Dash.....took monday to Add some ship damage to the ships...
its so nice to see it all coming together....When I put the puppets in the scene...its almost too exciting to bear. Soon these lifeless puppets will soon be walking and jumping all over the ships. They will do it without strings and amongst their own thoughts.

The will be making their own decisions ....and thats incredibly exciting!!! Because I'll have limited controll over whats going to happen NEXT.

Shel got a bunch of great Inside info from Shadow Machine last week....Our Lighting designer gave her a first hand look on some of the Techniques for lighting and supporting lights in all kinds of situations.

Also in Studio NEWS - We had our electrician install our POWER Conditioner. This was a Big investment for us but Im really excited about how the studio Power is now under controll.

We have all of our lights coming from this Machine which keeps the power at a precise and steady rate.....we also have tons of new Plugs all over the ceiling for easy access.

I have been hard at work - Both at HOME and WORK.....I finally decided on a method of facial acting for my characters. I am now going to go through the process of constructing the many faces of Dober and Festers Emotional states.

I am just 2 weeks from taking a vacation{Comp time}...this is what our company rewards us after finishing a title. Its makeup for all the extra hours we put in during the course of a Game.

I am so in need of this Break and I am looking forward to making a big jump toward begining shooting the Film.

We had some MORE great news this month....We WON 2 online Animation Contests....
Superu Animation Contest
http://www.superu.ca/contests/view/55

and Bigstar.tv Stopmo Animation contest
http://www.bigstar.tv/film-contest/stop-motion-short-film-contests_temp-2009/gld-54-final-sm/recent/1

These both were so cool.....and I was so excited to be a part of the stop mo contest in particular.That kinda thing is very RARE....and the other films involved were very high Quality.

Our DREAM's are coming true. One Step at a Time!

Stay tuned guys Lots ta come!!!!!
Captain Aedon Driving -

The BLUE MONSTER!!!! and stuff

2009-09-11T00:39:00.000-07:00

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

The Planet Surface - Set Beginings

2009-08-26T13:52:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

just an update on progress.......

Shel's been working weekends on getting us to the planet surface. Where do we begin...right?

Thats a big task......I did some simple concept art and we discussed the feeling the planet needs to create to support the story. After that it was all up to Shel.

She started with a choice of foam base for terrain.....She and some help from Robert Litton Laid the ground plains for sculpting. Glueing 2 inch and 1 inch sheets around the surface.

Then Shel and our Intern Justin Connolly started sculpting the terrain.After Scultping the Shape -Shel Gooped the whole set up with a special recipe provided by experts.....It hardens to a strong shell and can be sanded nicely.
After a few layers of gooping and some additional sculpting-sanding.....Shel did some sand tests.......seeing if we could blend from clay as our main stage to the dried hard outer surface...which she mixed sand into.

After approval of this technique She moved into Placeing the ships in the resting places semi submerged into the planet surface..

then Cutting them into the floor......and figureing out how to stabelize them. After fitting them and figureing out how to lock them down.....Shel started painting with our awesome Intern Bridget Dash.

This ofcourse led to Squashing clay all over the main area of the Playground...where most of the acting takes place.After all of this we are starting to see the Planet take shape......next up Finish clay pressing and Dirtification of the ships......Adding the rock formations ...

then we tackle the BLUE SCREEN Monster....hmmmmm?

jriggity

Studio Upgrades!

2009-08-17T15:10:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

Justin here with a quick post on whats been happening. Shel has been doing an amazing job with upgrading our studio and getting the stage floor set up. Im floored by the way we compliment each other as artists , filmakers and partners. I am Very lucky dood!

So {upgrading our studio}.......This required - {cleaning out-organizing the garge} - Which we did on a BIG sunday Push. This is basically a transition from shop to Animation Studio.

Then Shel and Our composer removed all the drywall from the ceiling. allowing Shel to hook up the Lighting system She designed for our space..........Awesome -

The whole ceiling is covered in Pipes to hang our lights from. We also have a Power conditioner on order very similar to what Nick Hillingoss has in his new studio. This Puppey will make our Issues with ever changing light fluctuations in our garage dissapear.

After Cleaning up the Huge mess the drywall left ..........

...... we moved into ACTUAL stage construction.

Blocking out the size needed for the shots designed.

This stage is HUGE guys-one 14 ft long 4 feet wide main center stage where the ships are crashed and will be spending over a year planted within. Then Shel made 4 seven foot tables that will be removeable depanding on the shots I need and access necessity.
These table started as awesome fold down extensions to the set....but we realized I could'nt reach under the main table for tie downs....Duuuuuuughggh. Its amazing what you can look over when tackeling these jobs.

MONSTROUSLY HUGE SET!! .....this sets gona look like a museum Display when its all there.....a True world created just for the telling of this story. I am pumped and a little intimidated by the realization of all our ideas. I want to be able to live up to the vision in our head....surpass it even!! Shels been doing such an incredible job on her end I gota live up my side of the bargain.

so..... into the future

I brought home a big pile of foam for shel to start sculpting into a desert planet surface.

She officially starts this Tuesday with sculpting....The sets going to be a combination of clay

and foam covered in Plaster like substance.....Clay in the main area.....fadeing into a harder surface on the ends of the tables.

NEXT On the list.... we need a HUGE Blue screen backing in order to comp in the extra land we dont possess for the Film....We have some napkin drawings of the early design but We plan to do some tests first.

Hopeing to hang some paper or sheet- 4 by 8 painted boards?? Any Ideas are appreciated?

We are a bit worried we wont have enough room to light the Screens properly for a good keying though..... a test should give us an idea.

We also picked up a new bunch of lighting equipment off Craigs list. Saweet....Its exciting to see our studio grow!!!

Next Posts should have Planets surface a happening...by the way Shel Knocked out 5 foamed puppets in 4 days for future use......Interns will have lots ta do and learn in the next week.

jriggity

Space Ships......CHECK!!!

2009-08-02T17:05:00.000-07:00

Shel here:Thirteen weeks later (four more than i had hoped for)............and after a Really FUN Big Push this last week with more than a couple inspired late nights (i'm not generally the late night shift in this team, but having an end in sight is pretty motivating!).....i'm happy to say the ships are D O N E.

here's some pics......

Since we are starting our shoot on a desert planet with two crashed ships......they have sustained some damage already......

Some parts are replaceable for "fixing" on camera......
There are many other parts that i'm still making as props..... and a third "mystery ship" that is just in the finishing up stage......but after tomorrow, i start the transformation of our garage from WORKSHOP to STAGE...... HUGE STEP FORWARD!!!!

So many hands have helped with these puppies, whether with an hour or two, or days, or weeks, i've been extremely grateful for the support from interns, friends, family, a guy i met one morning who used to like to paint models, and even a composer (?!).....

Stop Mo Set Master JEFF CROSS who showed me how, and taught me tons.....
The extrodinarily generous and knowledgable DICK KANESHIRO who came in and worked steady for many weeks and has been a HUGE help.

Our newest intern in front JUSTIN CONNELY, who just moved to LA to start an animation degree at USC Sept.....we are so fortunate to have his great sculpting skills and friendliness on the project! In back that's ROBERT LITTON, our multi-talented (and very game!) composer.

JOHN SUMNER from Buddy Systems Studios generously stopped by one day to help me figure out the Flea's ship paint job.

CAM LEEBURG who came in early on and made some serious contributions, before he got real work and had to leave......i miss his easy nice in the shop.

Justin's brother TODD did a super professional job making the "bucks" for our windshields and welding those mighty legs on Flea's ship.

my lovely friend RALF, an oh-so-beautiful dancer, choreographer, teacher and world traveler, made a guest teaching stop in LA and gave a hand one afternoon. Aedon's and my friend KEYA, who has an artist's heart, a love for stop motion, and a beautiful curiosity about how things work in general.

ROBERT LITTON, and the consistantly upbeat and awesome, not to mention an amazing sculptress, BRIDGET DASH

RENE who, lucky for me, is very friendly and likes to paint (and who i had met just 3 hours before this pic was taken!)

Justin's sister JENNA put her dentistry skills to use on part of Dober's dash board (and conveniently on Aedon as well in a fluke dental emergency!)

I've learned so much from and about each of these lovely peeps, hanging out in the garage, talking, not talking, listening to music, sharing showers of blue dust and paint splats.....it's truly been a joy sharing the process with each of them.

So NEXT:

1. CLEAN and ORGANIZE the "studio" (seperate and make accessable the stuff we'll need in the space for the next 2 years and pack up and store the stuff we won't)

2. make and put a LIGHTING GRID on the ceiling

3. finish up researching and order a POWER CONDITIONER to keep the flicker at bay

4. design and build the SET (dress it)

5. design and build the BACKGROUNDS (paint them)

I would love to have all this done by september 30....... HA!!

a girl can dream........

Guitar Hero Spec Ad - Ethan Marak

2009-07-28T01:48:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,

Stop mo Brother {Ethan Marak}

has created a spec add for the - Guitar Hero - Nintendo DS version - in our wonderfull medium of stop motion animation. Check it out!

Its very High Quality work and I wish him MUCH Luck in his Directing adventures.

jriggity

Dobers first 3D test..

2009-07-22T11:18:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

theres been a couple missed posts lately but we have been really busy with life and work. I'm finishing a Big project at my day job {Jak And Daxter -The Lost Frontier} Our crew did over 40 minuets of Animation for this project.....as well as Ingame work.

Plus we've had alot of Visitors-company here and there for a few weeks.....so...

Trust that shel and a couple of interns have been working away in the garage to put these Ships to their Screen Acting BEST....Painting-- is looking Excellent and the ships are Complete characters all by themselves.

POWERFULL new post from Shel on that next week.

So.......In Animation News

...........I have assembled some early 2D- animatics of the story and its Looking very very good......its really exciting!! In Showing our composer this weekend he related that he is officially {AS EXCITED} as he was in hearing about GLD.....which is somthing he thought might be impossible to match.

Great News for us!!!

in the Adventures of 3d shooting. We had some early tech difficulties....with our slider ....that postponed the first tests....FRUSTRATING! ....but.......

After figuring out what was causing the issues and working out a new process of shooting R and L eyes -{Organizing frames - organizing flow of animation} and learning a new AWESOME Piece of Software - DRAGON ......

I was off to the races...

Heres what tests ....I was able to sneek out ......

A Dober Walk -

A Dober Lift - rufff!!

A Dober Shoot 3D test -

Ill post the actual viewable 3d test later.

so.....the tests came out OK....but I learned TONS in the doing....which is priceless.

I learned Dragon is a TRULY Awesome Program. I highly reccomend it!!
So many things to make our job easier ....

I learned a whole new workflow which I will carry with me throught this entire project.

I now have a confidence that we can make this film in 3D....

I just have about a million more questions ta answer before shooting and then Ill be ready to start the film...ha!.....

So heres a little bonus animation - I always go into a new animation with a map of poses I PLAN TO HIT.....ha! so Here is my map and I also scanned the poses in just to see what the would look like in sequence....Pretty neat!

Hope you like the tests...more ta come.
In GLD News-

We just Won a few more Festivals this last month......

Our First European festival which means a lot to us... ANIMATOR 2009 (Poland)

- Best Animation, PHILADELPHIA INDIE FILM FEST

-Best Animation, Audience Choice Award at the MAUI FILM FESTIVAL

we feel so honored to to included in these festivals....let alone winning them....

jriggity

SHIPS week 9 (deadline schmeadline)

2009-06-26T10:13:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-21T18:20:00.000-07:00

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!!

2009-06-12T15:37:00.000-07:00

MILESTONE BABY!

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

jriggity

Ships Takeing Flight - week # 6

2009-06-08T11:14:00.001-07:00

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 -

2009-05-31T21:44:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-22T16:55:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-05-18T18:15:00.000-07:00

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

Sips Week#3 and GLD grabs 2 More WINS!!!

2009-05-15T14:35:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,

We are steady workin.....choppin away on the new film and runnin full steam towards our Giant DREAMS.

I am so close to finishing these Storyboards.....I can feel my drawings getting weaker though {pencil fatigue} so I need to tighten the belt and Knuckle up for the finish.....So close!!

Flea Ship starting to take shape.......the core Shape will be there next week for sure...

Aedon Getting her first experiance with POWER tools. Sandwiches of Blue foam glueing together for eventual shapeing of ship parts...Jeff cutting a part for the dober Ship.... Shel has been makeing Huge Progress on the Flear ship and she is Completly Flying on her own now ...she got the knowledge she needed from Our Ship expert Jeff and has been Applying and expanding upon regularly.Its so amazeing to come home from work and see such regular progress on the ships. Its truly like a little christmas present waiting as I pull my truck up to the House. The garage door has been open with Shel covered in Blue foam....a kiss and Hug and I'm blue foamed and in heaven looking at these bueaty's shes creating.Smoothe Caboose....its all fitting together.... We also built a cool claymation set for one of our many side projects last weekend.....we and many friends gathered around the kitchen table for hours and just made a clay world with many clay critters...these are all the pics I have....but it looks REALLY cool !I also had Lunch with fellow stopmotion Artist this week {Michael Granberry} as we do every now and then to catch up on things.

It was awesome to hear how awesome things are going for him and we came to the conclusion that when your doing the right thing in life.........Doors go FLYING open....... COSMIC -MaGIC- Karma....? who knows....but we are DEFINATELY on the right paths.

In Gerald's Last Day NEWS - GLD picks up 2 more WINS this brings our total to 9.....

We got the SOUTH BEACH ANIMATION FEST {HONORABLE MENTION} -

as well as the {Best Animated Film} BRIDGE FEST (Sarajevo) .....super cool!....we were in the same category as ....MADAGASCAR 2 and Kung Fu Panda!! .....POWERFULL! ha!!GLD was also accepted to a BUNCH of new fests which Ill write on later....

over and out guys....We are havin FUN!

jriggity

Ship Progress week #2 and A couple of Wins for GLD.

2009-05-06T22:02:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

Quick Post- Progress!!! Can you see it?

We're here with another week of Ship Progress.....Shel and Jeff are Kicking ass.

Shel Shapeing away.....Shes a natural.

Shes learning tons from Jeff .......our master Shipbuilder. So much so that she Has jumped right into the construction of the Flea Ship all on her own . She Drew up the scale and Shape to begin on the Flea Ship And constructed a plan of attack .

This Ship is ENORMOUS!!!

Shel's wooden center for the Wings......She will build the Ships Footballshaped Main Body sandwiched on this like a Hamburger......Flea guy crawls all over the wings during the cartoon so they have to be strong enough and support Tie down technology.She is eating up all the Information and creating with new tools and materials.
The coolest thing about stop mo.....is that theres a jillion ways to do anything...

HUGE is the word to describe these beasts.....in progress

....FREAKIN COOL works pretty good too......Ha! The Quality in this film is easily going to Jump 10 times higher than our last....so completely exciting. I can see it already and this is somthing my boys are going to DIG.

I'm Still storyboarding.....a couple of hours a night....I need to pick up the pace pretty soon...since I have to be done by June. I'm on a professional schedule that Shel wrote up for me....and I plan to make it.

In other News....GLD Picked up a couple more Awards!! Woo Hoo...that brings it to 7.

We won the {Best Animated short} at the Hollywood East Film Fest. And We Won the {Audiance Choice Award} at the Rincon International Film Fest.

we would have loved to go to both of these fests but only so much traveling allowed.....Plus we gots a NEW cartoon to make. ......

New fests for GLD........

GLD was also accepted to the KRAKOW INTL FILM FEST (Poland) in Poland as part of the Childrens Program......It was also accepted to be in the ZLIN CHILDREN'S FEST (Chech Rep).....as well as the BRIDGE FEST (Sarajevo)....and MANLLEU (Spain)

Its very cool to finally get accepted by some European festivals.

see ya next week with more pics.

jriggity

SHIPS!!!

2009-04-28T22:48:00.001-07:00

Shel here:

Lots to report and not alot of time to do it in (speed blogging):

1. i CLEANED what used to be the garage -- it all started with an innocent, "hey babe, can you park your car on the street for awhile so i can shoot this film in the garage?"---4 years later, we finally banished all things "garage" and the space is now strickly, beautifully STUDIO......this is very exciting...... my friend nancy generously gave me shelves and extra "studio stuff" she wasn't using, and i had a date to start making ships for LINE (working title of our new film) the day after we got back from NYC. so i MADWOMANED the place before we left and it's so ORGANIZED!! it's all STOP MO--tools, materials and equipment......it makes me way too happy (i don't have time to psychologize that right now......but i just noticed how "organized" and "orgasm" sound sort of connected.....)

STUDIO/GARAGE MESS BEFORE:

ORGANIZED GLORY AFTER

Aedon demonstrating the studiness of the new shelves i built (not, maybe, completely necessary, but there was some empty wall space.....)

2. the night before we went to New York, Jeff Set Master Cross came over and we discussed how we'll go about building the ships when we get back. stop motion coninues to put us in contact with the coolest people ever, and jeff is no exception. we made up a tool and material list (what's a DREMEL?) and got on the plane the next morning.

3. Tribecca - we saw our film on the airplane....that was very much fun. we met cool people, saw some good films, got to hang out with my sister and neice (my fav part), walked ALOT, went to the awards party.......we didn't win, which is too bad cuz that would have been a pretty feather in our cap.....but in truth we've gotten SO MUCH from all the exposure.....very interesting and cool people continue to contact us saying they've seen the film on the airplane and loved it, "made me cry" (aww, thanks!) and can they buy a DVD (not yet), or would we like them to work with us on making our next film 3D (yes!), or can they distribute our film (not now but we'll keep your info for later), or are we looking for investors and what other projects are we working on (let us tell you!!). it's been incredibly beneficial and we are GRATEFUL!

4. Came home sunday night, went to home depot, bought a BAND SAW, DREMEL and BELT SANDER (okay, this is like christmas for me!!). monday morning jeff comes over and we start SHIPS.

Jeff is teaching me how as we go and i so excited to be learning this stuff (and i'm in love with my new Dremel!). Jeff's such a kind and open teacher, to have a SUPER PRO be so open and comfy with my ideas in the problem solving is giving me tons of confidence........

5. Oh yeah, and the week before we went to NYC i put together an investment package for the new short. Complete with a Deal Structure, Detailed Budget, Cash Flow Schedule, etc., etc., etc. this was so interesting and insightful......clarifies the project on a whole different level (we're pretty clear on the art level). Writing it all down from a financial/marketing POV helped us look at LINE in relationship to our BIG GOAL of making our feature, and what we want to get out of the experience of making this short. 3D is a big part of that, but that will have to be another post, cuz i have some ships to build!

Off to NY and BIG fests Weekend.

2009-04-22T11:38:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

We met with our ship building expert last night.....and I picked up some supplys this morning for next weeks big start. {MONDAY} Shel goes into the Freshly cleaned out and organized garage for some construction and education by our expert.

We are leaveing after Lunch today to NY city....its really exciteing and I am really pumped to watch some good flicks.

this weekend we play at a bunch of other GREAT festivals. I wish we could go to them all but ...
the Tribecca got us first and were up for an Award.

Tribecca-

Red Stick Animation Festival- In Baton Rouge, LAOn Location Memphis -NewPort Beach Film Fest- Ca

Indie Spirit Film Fest -Colorado

wish us luck guys....next weeks gona big HUGE for Our new film....Spaceship construction
Begins......and Storyboards

jriggity

Super Busy -3D and Growing our Brains....

2009-04-16T19:00:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,

We have had some really cool events going down in the last couple of weeks......We were contacted by a 3D camera company wishing to work with us on our next film.....as well as being contacted by many more Gerald fans from DELTA airlines. ....so cool.
We leave for {Tribecca Film Fest Next week} and we are totally excited for the trip. We also will find out if we won the Film contest. If we do Win we will be the only animated film to play at Tribecca!! FINGERS CROSSED!!That would be so freakin AWESOME to me.

so.........GLD has gotten Incredible exposure on DELTA and part of what its done is bring Outside interest into our Future films. We have always been of the mind that we would look for financeing on one of our upcomeing films........but Now seems like the perfect time to do it.

so................We Created our first professional Investor Package- Budget - Deal Structure - And Payment Schedules....with the guidance of some OLD School professionals. A couple of 30 year veteran Animation buisness owners .{http://magicshadows.com/} They Have made everything from Animated Films to Animated Television series. Although they mainly worked in 2d.....they recently produced a television series in CG. I was able to watch the show from conception , overseas work management, to edit and Distribute. PRICELESS source of Knowledge , experiance and Wisdom.!!

Our Package also contains a - Synopsis - Treatment -Storyboards, designs and Finished puppets. Pretty pictures always Help in my mind.

We are now looking for potientail investors in our next film so if you know anyone looking ....

send them our way.

.........

onto the 3D aspect of our film.....

Shel is doing major research with all of our contacts and our Main 3d Expert . Shooting in 3d will require special equipment - knowledge and it will definately slow down the process of film makeing .........but.....

it will add a Massive marketability as 3D becomes more mainstream and content is needed.Stop motion is PERFECT for 3d visualization.......and 3D is definately the future in animated films so......

If we are to tackle it in this short format first......

We will have the experiance and confidence from Future film Investors as we ready our SUPER DREAM!!! the {{{FEATURE FILM}}} aaaa aaaaa arrrooooOOoooOoooooo. Wolfs Howl.

So we are now in the process of shopping the Film....Storyboarding.....and Ship Construction.

Its all fun stuff and We cant wait to share it with you guys.

jriggity

Sonoma Adventures!!!

2009-04-08T17:04:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,
We are back from an Inspireing trip to Sonoma International Film Fest. I took off both Thursday and Friday

We drove up with our Composer{Robert Litton} who actually did all of the driveing. Nice for us.......We Arrived and picked out some films for the weekend we would like to see off a nicely put together schedule. We also were just In time the Opening Film "The Answer Man"It was a great start to the fest.....because we were Filmakers and we had full access to all of the Shows with no waiting in line.{Loooong Lines}

Speaking of lines.....before we knew we had access I was waiting in line when a woman struck up a conversation with me.....she asked what film I made {GLD}and then she said " I just saw this on the flight from New York" How cool is that.....

she told us she voted for it and that she watched it twice. The Delta Showing has been an amazeing Exposure for our Film. I would have never guessed how far reaching it would be.

The first film was in the Sabastiani Theatre which was a bueatifull old theatre with HIGH ceilings and lots of Energy-excitement. The film was very fun.....as was the Audiance..... and it kicked off a High Quality of cinema that maintained throughout most of the fest. One thing they had us do each film was take a ballot and Vote on the films we just saw. 1 to 5....bad to Great...We voted and moved on.

After being part of the opening we had a dinner break then off to our Complimentary Houseing. This was a super cool benefit of being part of a bigger fest. They gave us a Free Pool House surrounded by Vineyards....It also had an awesome Giant pool POWER SHOWER which we took full advantage of.

DAY 2-As the next day started we met up with Robert who was staying with his family in Walnut creek. He had organized a lunch date with Leslie -who did the Mixing from our score- at Skywalker Ranch....AWESOME!! I was definately excited about the possible coolness of the experiance but I had no Idea just how cool it would be.

We drove there through bueatifull Rolling GREEN hills and arrived at the Gate. After Robert Used his Jedi Mind Trick on the guards and we were allowed access to the Mighty Ranch.... Robert Turned on the Radio which Blasted the Opening theme to Star wars....Ha! It was a well planned Joke that was appreciated by my dorkness and set up a fun time.

This place is really a ranch....it has Horses , Lakes , Vineyards....Barns , Covered Bridges. We parked and went into the Leslies Building....which was just down the main street from the Main House which is where George works and a bunch of the treasures from his films can be found.

We walked into bueatifull woodwork and sunshine rays main room and met Leslie.

She had to give Some Pixar People a little Audio tour so we just sat for a bit{They just finished the movie -Up} Skywalker did the sound for it like most major films these days. While walking around the Buildings there are Posters from tons of old movies that I never even heard of. I imagine a bunch of them had a special place in Georges heart since they were sci fi- wartime or big romance movies. We hung out for a bit and then she took us to the main House where we were to grab lunch. As you walk up you see the House of course. Then You see this amazeing Porch.And this Amazing Main area.
On the way in the main house We passed a Bunch of cases with some of the Most famous props from Film History. I was really excited to see an ATAT in person....as well as the Indy Hat....and Willow props. Leslie treated us to lunch and conversation....then she took us around the house for the big tour. We went to the famous Skywalker Library....This place is amazeing!!!! It looks like its straight out of Hogwarts from Harry potter. Bueatifull Lighting....rich Wood....and Design. This is where shel was offered to come down for a few days to write and research for our feature film we've been working on. She was incredibly inspired by this and was completely Stoked on Skywalker Ranch!

so .....

as we returned to the Sound building Leslie wanted to see Our Film....which we happened to have a copy of in shels purse. I figured wed watch it on a tv somewhere....so it was much to my suprise when she took us into the Main SUPER MEGA POWERFULL THEATRE!!!!
???What??? are you serious??? we got our seats and watched a Skywalker Demo reel that was being played for the Pixar people.....then......

Our film Started......Strummm...chain drop!! we were in the middle of the theatre and I felt myself leaning back in the SUPER MEGA POWERFULL COZY seats!!!It was Huge and it was Beeeeeueatifull! Wow ...my heart was beating Boom Boom....Boom Boom. .

It plays and it looks-sounds great! And a Dream experiance is had. We screened at Skywalker Ranch . Damm...Dream stuff guys! I feel so freakin fortunate. Leslie really liked the film and she took us to the Scoring stage before we left.It was an amazeing Huge and Inspireing space....How many amazing scores were captured here? I can only imagine.

What A day guys...and this is just Lunch....We go out to the dock and take a few pics before we leave....POWERFULL! So....back to the Film fest.

We arrive back in Sononma....ready for our first Picked screening of a Russian film called "Mermaid" (original title, RUSALKA) by Anna Melikyan 2007 . This was our second film and I lOVED it! Wow ...2 for 2 guys. This film sucked me in right away....and I was Hooked the whole ride. Such an Inspireing - Artistically -storytelling wise film.
I gave it a 5 ....GREAT!

This was a whole different class of films at this fest. It was really exciteing to think of what was ahead.

Because they give you an Hour and a half between films....We walked and talked about likes and dislikes....and then grabbed some mexican food.....before the next show.

Next up was a film called Punching the Clown -It was pretty funny and was at the same theatre we were screening at at 9:15pm. The Crowd was nice and loose for our screening since the wine is free everywhere you go in Sonoma. They were very Loud and very excited for the showing. I was a bit concerned about attendance but it was a full house. Lines out the door.... As our Shorts Block started the crowd cheered Heavily for the coming films. It started with a very artsy film that the crowd didnt quite know what to think of....ha! They clapped politely and the next film started which was very entertaining{ I Kicked Luis Guzman in the Face }

.This was more of a crowd pleaser but it ended very darkly. There were a couple more DARK - films then GLD played.
The crowd was very very Into the film....you could feel a thick energy in the air as the film went on and they became more and more invested in Gerald. The crowd was offering many comments like{Do you see the scratches on the wall} ...they were really digging it

. They watched and fell completely on their butts when the little girl sees the puppies and we pull the rug out!!??? Huge collective GROAN!!!! Awwwwww.....dammm...OUCH...Ohh no?? {He he!! Film makeing is so fun!}This is where the audiance got a bit worried. They did not do that. Is Gerald going to Die? With the types of films at most fests you have to wonder. There was an incredibly Thick Silence and tension in the room as the Music cut out and Edwardo walked by.

You could feel them holding there breath .....as the music came back in...a giant sigh came into the room as the music said it was going to be alright. The film ended and The Audiance ERRUPTED into applause. This was the most Liquored up Vocal clapping Responce of the evening!! They started up from there seats and we got a standing Ovation.WOW!!!!! I could see the excitement on Roberts and Shels Faces...dang. What a reaction.

One thing about most festivals in our experiance so far ...is that the majority of films are VERY DARK......Depressing even.Its hard for me to sit through that much darkness. Our film was like oxygen to a Diver trapped under water..and they appreciated it. It was an amazeing cap to an amazeing day. The rest of the show was pretty Dark and Heavy as we waited for the Q and A.

It ended and we went up for questioning. Alot of the filmmakers were there....so it was cool for the audiance to interact . We talked a little bit about the production which opens up alot of people with questions . One thing about animation is that most people have'nt got a real clear idea as to how much time it actually takes to create.Especially stopmotion. They enjoyed our talk and could easily tell we love the craft and working together.

This was after midnight now so we made our way home for Another POWER Shower and then hit the sack for a early film the next day.

DAY 3-

early the next morning....We saw a cool documentary on Being a Screen Writer.....it was chock full of experiances and advice on the whole process. Very educational and very inspireing!

We had our second showing soon {12:30}so we met up with Robert for our lunch. He stayed in Walnut creek with his folks so he commuted in every day. Because we didnt want to sit through the films we just saw last night again we decided to Pick out the films we definately want to see when we are at The Tribecca Film Fest. They provide 6 guarenteed seats to all filmakers and it was our last day to pick. We picked out or films while robert watched the films again.....we waited to hear our music then Poped in to watch the screening.

This screening was different for 2 reasons - They changed the order of the films {Put ours Last}.....and it was too early in the day for such dark films...ha! So from a sold out Showing by the time the last film played- ours - a quarter of the audiance had walked out. Ohh well....I think the programmer wanted to leave the audiance with a Hopefull happy taste in their minds instead of all those Heavy depressed feelings.

So We stood in the back with shel leaned into me and my arms wraped around her.She could feel first hand how excited I get watching a film I made with an audiance..She could literally feel my heart pounding into her back as we went throught the film. I could feel it to...I didnt even know it was that Pounding....untill I felt her pressure on my chest.

Thats how much emotional investment I have after seeing the film a hundred times...Makes me wonder if Ill always feel that way.

The Showing went great again and we went right into the Q and A....lots of questions answered and people so happy we had a happy ending. The person who ran the MIC had runny makeup from crying and a bit embarrased....admitted to crying every time she watches our film. POWERFULL indeed!! Thats priceless right there.

after that it was lunch then a {Getting your Script Made Panel} This was another excellent and inspireing few hours.....Getting financeing is huge for filmakers...and this was talked about in many ways. We took lots of notes from the very experianced panel and went for another good long walk. We had a hard decision to make....

were we going to go to the evening with Bruce Willlis Event?

Neither of us really wanted to go....but it might be an opporotunity to find people that like our film and our interested in working with us....Alrrright...I guess

well go.

We went and it was pretty fluff filled. Amy Mann -A singer interviewed Bruce willis while showing clips of his films from the last 30 years. It was silly but it was just more adventures for us to undertake and experiance. After that it was obvious we didnt really need to attend the After Party.

We got Japanese food instead....then We decided to see another block of short films. This block had 3 animated films in it which was exciteing. Thats pretty much as cool as it got. This was a particularly Depressing group of films...Yuck! Except for {Crank Balls} a stop motion animated film...most of the rest were dark and dank.There was one Dark film that was a great piece of filmmakeing though.{Next Floor} from canada. It was an excellent film on all levels.

we packed it in after that and thought wed make one last stop before called it a day.We would show up for the last 15 minuets of the After Party. We'd walk through and see what it was actually about. We arrived to a HUGE winery with live music and tons of people. We said hey to a few familiar faces and at a cupcake.

One of the Directors was there and he talked to us for a bit. He told us there was no animation Award at this fest.....? Awwww.....we didnt know that...too bad... cause we had a serious shot if it existed.

ohh well...It was another great day.POWER SHOWER.....Activate!!!

DAY 4-

Here we are on our 4th Day....we sleep in and go for a walk and its off to a {PITCH Panel}
Shel was really in bizness mode and looking for new knowledge to soak up for our future in filmmakeing.
In this panel - filmmakers could pitch their ideas to a group of professionals who would critic and answer questions. The coolest part is you got to hear and watch everyones pitch.
MEGA learnages right there. Many filmakers pitched a film and the Shel went up for some questioning of the experts on how do you get to the point where you even get a chance to pitch.

They had many ideas on getting our Story to the right people but the main way was through networking and haveing work that does the talking for you. Award winning films dont hurt .

Great Panel....EVEN MORE INSPIRED!! and we were ready to leave for Los Angeles....

Before we drove home we Had to pick up Robert and have dinner with his family. It was an awesome dinner with his Parents... Brother .. Miko his wife and the Kids...Uki and Ko.

It was really fun...and we Pitched our newest cartoon to the family which they really enjoyed as did the little ones. Uki said...."I like his Storys".....that meant the world to me.Watching the kids and family respond to our story makes it so clear that this is exactly what I want to do in Life....Tell Storys through animation.

On the road again....

back to LA......Fun adventure had.
Livin life people...its freakin exciteing stuff.

jriggity

QuickPost Back to the fun stuff!

2009-03-29T22:49:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

I've been missing the {Art based-Film Posts}....alot of traveling been on here for a bit. Well ...the film is moveing along......I'm still storyboarding....over an inch deep in drawings. Me and Shel worked out a sticky spot today so I can now move forward through the rest of the boarding process.

as a QUICK post and to celebrate the coming Space Ships for our next film....Ill share the Early design Drawings-sketches for the 2 ships in the film.

Dobers Ship-

Flea Dood Ship-These ships will be built In full size{1 foot and a half long} and with the ability to shoot from all angles....They should be amazeing looking Display Pieces at the end of this production. They will be very large and exciteing to watch happen.

Shel Found an expert Ship Builder that will be educateing and Helping in the Construction of the Ships......he works in Stop motion and knows all the specific needs for the medium. They will start in just 2 weeks on Dobers ship first. It will be a new and exciteing weath of knowlege and new materials she will gain for our future in film makeing.

other wise ...3 more days till Sonoma....Exciteing!!!!!

We were also accepted into a bunch of new festivals this last week.RED STICK ANIMATION Apr 22-25.....and INDIE SPIRIT F.F. (Colorado) Apr 24-26

Hope to Have some animation soon....

jriggity

Back From DC....and Whats next

2009-03-19T00:21:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,
We are back from a great trip to DC. Shel and the kids got to see some really cool sites including a private tour of the White House. As well as attend the fest with my grandma and Aunt .

I left friday night at about 10:30 pm after a Long day doing some Stuntman work for

a new videogame coming from Sony.

/mocap work is.....{One of my side Jobs} and a fun way to use some of my movement beans.It was straight from the Studio to the airport. Then 5 hour plane ride ta washington. It was not a comfortable ride {I was beat up and Squashed between a couple of people} but I did get to see {Slumdog Millionare} finally.

My phone ran out of batteries so I didnt get to hear how the showing went....Dangit!!

I was hopefull it went well but the whole reason I came to washington was to see grandma.

Upon Landing I rented a car and proceded to drive around lost for an hour or so.....then finally
found grandmas house. I met shel outside and went inside took a shower and crashed HARD.

After awakeing ...We hung out at my Aunts house for a while....climbed some trees - played some pool......then off to my Uncles house.

Aedon got to meet her 3 Cousins as did I .They clicked very quickly and were running around before we knew it. I also got to meet my Uncles wife Joanna who cooked us an amazing meal.
After dinner Me and Shel had a private screening of GLD with my Uncles family. It was a chance to show them what I've been up to artisticaly for the last 3 years. They had a nice projector and sound system in their living room so it was kinda like a real mini festival. We both introduced the film and they watched it.

I dont know if they ever saw stopmotion before....They had a big collection of cg animated films so this was definately going to be different. In the end.....they gave a polite clap but I dont really think they really got it...... Its was still very cool though that I got to share it with them and Im sure they recognized some of the work involved.

My Grandma and Aunt definately liked it though.........especially Grandma! Ha...ofcourse!!
She was very proud and very vocal about it . Ha! She said "I even liked it better the second time"

So after a full day of playing with relatives we went back to grandmas....ready for a sunday with grandma and the awards assembly that evening. Breakfast - Lunch - Ducks - Swans- Hugs and we were off.

The WINNER of the best animated short was

Chainsaw - A Rotoscoped-Live action- Film by {Dennis Tupicoff} Shel said it was a high quality film but it was definately not somthing you take grandma or little ones to see. Ooops! It was also Traced-rotoscoped-live action animation. Good Film makeing non the less.

......we played with a bunch of Live action Short films so there wasnt much to compare our film too....but Grandma got to see it on the big screen so that was cool.

so into the next weeks.....we were just accepted to the Burbank Film Fest...as an extended entry!

We also are starting to see the effects of the Delta Airline Showing!

We recieved emails from a distributor....And Our film was given to a distributor By some people who have been mentoring myself on the whole Buisness of animation.

....Also..... lots of strangers who saw the film on the Airline have been contacting us and letting us know they Enjoyed it very much. HOW COOL IS THAT!! Connecting with people all over the world because of our film is pretty amazeing.

We also were contacted by A Programmer for the {Rincon International Film Festival} . He saw the film on a Delta Flight and extended an invite to us to attend there festival which we gladly accepted. SWEET! I wana go to Puerto Rico!!

otherwise...weve been so busy with all else....I hav'nt got to do my flea animation test yet. But I am still storyboarding slowly and surely.
Just 2 more weeks till the http://www.sonomafilmfest.org/ this fest is incredibly exciteing to us and We are looking forward to the weekend of films and Fun ahead. We will be alone and its a bueatifull place to Enjoy a weekend together.

As for bad news....we saw the official selection List for {Annecy 2009} and we were not on it.
This is actually sad news for us since it was Number 1 on my list of Festivals I wanted to attend and play at.

ohhh well....

Like shels Mom says - " Next Film" ................sounds like a plan to us.

jriggity

Off to Washington DC!

2009-03-12T11:11:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

I'm still busy Story boarding Like crazy - I had a big break through last night and got the SPACE Intro down on paper......Id say Im 1/2 way finished boarding the entire film now . I timed out the Intro as being about 1 minuet 10 seconds. Thats not bad at all....It gives me hope on the film not being longer than 8 minuets.

I'm also getting ready for a weekend trip to Washington DC. Shel and the kids flew out Wed morning to get an early start............. I have some work responsibilities I couldnt get out of. So Ill run up friday night late and arrive early Saturday morning.
So this weekends Festival is called the http://www.dciff.org/ DC Independant Film Fest.One of the reasons we applied to it was because my Grandma lives in the area and We have been wanting to visit Washington for a while. Shel really wanted to show the kids the sights too. She also managed to get the family a tour of the White house.....includeing the rare visit to the Westwing....where the president actually lives.

This and the Smithsonian will be the main Spots on the trip besides Grandma's and the fest.

I wont be present for the actual screening of the film Friday night.........So...... Shel will have to do the Director Q and A herself . My grandma and Dads brother-sister will be there to see the film as well so its cool they will get to see the film . I have no idea what they will think of stopmotion but I'm sure shel will fill me in on how they took it when I get there.

wish us Luck !

and full report upon returning to Los Angeles.

justin- jriggity