I photoshopped on some fur and hat-ish shapes. Not bad. The bottom image is a bit screwy- high res fancy photo vs. grainy snapshot. But it's fun to see what a final shot might look like.

That's it; no more wet clay working. I'm gonna let the sumbitch dry out now. I'll be doing some more detailing when it's dry - sanding and whatnot. I'm not finishing that sort of work now - everytime I touch the thing, it gets scratched, junk stuck in it, etc.

The thing fell over twice, and smashed the nose up. The first time it was fine, cause I had to rework the thing anyways. But the second time was a bit counter-productive.

The thing is improving slowly. Well, not slowly at all really; i'll work for 15 minutes and then find an excuse to stop. Working on it is like holding my breath. But it ain't too bad. It's looking more and more like the character I picture in my head. I extended the chin, and worked on the mouth a little.

These here are the best pictures; some of them looked pretty D-. Thanks to my handy storyboard, I know that some of the key shots will have this head filling the frame, with lighting coming from below (Halloween style). The head definately doesn't get a passing grade from that angle with that lighting.

He's also looking a little too well-fed. Going to make him a little more wiry looking.

Ears are going to be attached after the fact; they'll probably screw up my casting if I do them now. And I can hide the joins with hair.

One thing I have to watch out for; HDR (high dynamic range) photography will take a pretty smooth, even looking surface, and make it look textured as hell. So Cornelisz's face might end up looking like tree bark if I don't watch out. That may be desirable, but I still should have control over the thing. No excuses. None of that doing random stuff and then saying 'oooh, it looks arty' bullshit.

I tossed a little photoshopping on one of the pics to see how Cornelisz would look with his beard, chops, and crazy-ass hat. I'm going to be able to hide alot of suckage with those things. He's looking a little piggish.

My end goal is to make him a little more vulture-like. My model is my friend Jim Laing.

The Weekend to End Suckiness

I've finally got over the hurdle; i've managed to make something that I don't want to smash. The 'Kevin Nash' press mold worked pretty good - the press mold impression produced was far from perfect, but it gave me enough of a foundation to work around (proper human proportions) that I wasn't floundering around, not getting anywhere. It's still pretty rough, and I haven't devoted any attention to the mouth yet. But the light is at the end of the suck tunnel.

It became clear pretty quickly that I wasn't sucessfully making this thing look like Johannes, who is a young guy of around 16 - it was coming out a bit mean-looking. So I said to hell with plan 'A', and decided to make this character Cornelisz (the bad painter) instead. It may be a mistake - the idea was to make the first armature a character with minimal screen time, as a 'practice' armature to work out the kinks. So maybe i'm making a mistake. Screw it, i'm doing it.

I'm also intentionally going for a pretty realistic look - not terribly stylized in the facial proportions. I'm trying to make the overall appearance more eerie by it's closeness to reality, but neccessary degree of removal from it.

Found myself in another surreal situation; I needed a plastic head to make a push mold with - went to Toys R' Us and bought a stuffed wrestling doll with a plastic head. So, there I was sawing the head off this thing, and being a talking doll, it kept saying wrestling catchphrases while I was chopping away at it. Like 'I'm Kevin Nash, whatch out for my aerial assult'.

Weird.

I'm finally getting in there with this thing and getting my hands dirty. Not much luck so far, i'm getting a feel for what has to be done to make something respectable.

Not liking clay very much. I just don't have a great grasp of the anatomy of the human head. Spent about an hour fighting with a lump of clya, pushing and pulling the stuff back and forth. I could sense the whole time that I really didn't have much of a sense of what the goal was, or how to get there.

The next plan is to make a big push mold from a plastic head I bought. It's not the ideal face for my character, but I figure it'll get me a properly proportioned face right off the bat, which I can then edit to look like my character.

My plans for the head mechanism, casting etc. are a little vague, but i've got ideas. It's essentially going to be a rubber mask extending to the hairline that i'll put over top of a resin cast head containing the moving bits. Hopefully it works.

Well, I think i've got enough reference material and supplies to finally get this damn head done. Hopfully i'll be over the hump this weekend. Gotta quit wasting some much time.

Sometimes I wish I had a partner in this project to share the duties. Which would be good, because the project is so damn big. And the things I enjoy about the process aren't typical - I like building sets, directing, storyboards, etc. Everything except making puppets and animating, really. Which is funny, because those two things seem to be the focus of most stop motion people out there. Collaboration has its pitfalls, but it sure sounds good right now.

Anybody out there? Anybody? 

I'm trying to sculpt a head for my big-ass armature. Johannes is the character. He's first on the list, as he ain't seen very much - sort of a trial run to work out the bugs in he process.

I really fucking hate working with clay. I suck at it. Never been into mold-making and all that stuff either. But I gotta do it.

Hopefully suckage will be kept to a minimum. 

Been taking a short few-week vacation, trying to enjoy the last bit of summer before the 8 months of rain and gloom. Back at it this weekend.

Here's what you get when you trace the contours of the foam, and fill in the blanks between (those parts having been removed to allow a full range of movement). Looks a bit like an underwear model.

I'm aiming for proper human proportions with this character - going to be steering for realism overall. I think there's a degree of removal with stop motion animation, likewise with puppeteering - the real within the unreal-looking. I also think there's an eeriness that increases in degree the closer you get to realism. The familiar, but with one degree of removal - like seeing your dad clean shaven after decades with a beard. For example.

Of course it's key that it still ring as unreal; don't want the puppets to ever be mistaken for real actors (not that there's much chance of that happening).

Now all I needs is hands and feets. Feets will be easy; hands are dependant on tests with liquid latex.

Head is going to be interesting.

Here's Johannes doing some slutty Vogue poses, each sluttier than the next. I gave him a smaller than average waist and chest. The result being he's a little girly. Which is fine, as he is supposed to be young.

The foam scultping may prove to be overkill; we'll see when I get some clothes on him.

I'm being suprised at how easy this is so far; everything is working on the first attempt, without any major backtrack-requiring glitches. It's also not taking very long at all. Which might be a first for me - always seems to take three times as long as I expect, and cost four times as much.

The pink stuff is 1" polyurethane insulating foam. I hated the stuff at first, but now i've got the hang of how to shape it without it crumbling and breaking. It's also very forgiving; if I don't like a part, I just shave it flat, epoxy on a new piece, and then shape that bit.

I don't intend to get too fancy with the body mass - it's just to fill out the costume.

Another quick armature test. Still working good. Though, wooden joints don't move smooth like - tends to be jerky - stopping and starting. Gonna put some powdered graphite lubricant on them. Should fix the problem.

Added some cheesy camera shake just for shits and giggles. I'm probably going to be doing that more than I initially planned. I'm not sure if my 'painterly' asthaetic is going to survive. Might end up just going for 'cinematic' and 'neat-o'.

I've also realized another major benefit to greenscreening armatures into scenes; motion blur. If you play back video frame by frame, you'll see that objects in rapid motion are actually very blurry. Stop motion animation, by contrast, is crystal clear in every frame. Therefore, motion blur is going to add realism, and also disguise sucky-ass animation. I intend to do a good job with the animation, but any opportunity to cheat i'm going to take.

This here's my working photoshop file for design. The grid is on it's own layer, so I can move it around to measure things. It's all to scale. My armature has a skinnier chest than the design. I might bulk it up yet.

I photoshopped a picture of the armature over top a picture of myself. So's I can see how the body mass is going to look. This represents the average shape - Johannes is going to be a little skinnier.

Pretty much finished the first armature. Sure was easy. Though I can't wait for the glitches to become apparent later. That's okay though - that's what this first armature is for. Still need the hands and feets attachments; going to hold off on that for a while until I decide exactly how they're going to be.

Look, an armature! See, I don't just make huge film sets and then smash them before I use them. It was pretty easy and fast too; spent more time on the bus and buying supplies than I did working on it today. Could probably build another one in three hours. Of course this one lacks arms, but that won't take long.

The next step, after confirming that this thing works via animation tests (1st one was a pass), is to build up the body mass with styrofoam. Then I have to make the head. That should be a right awkward bugger, that one. Then its the costume.

The huge scale of this thing seems to be making everything easier. I'm sure it'll make the costumes and head easier too. I've already demonstrated to myself that the animation is easier, as the increments of movement are just much larger than with a teeny armature.

I'm working on the first of the big-ass armatures. Sorry, no pictures yet. Started off by making one joint - seems to work fine.

I'm a bit leary about it - not using standard materials - mostly wood. Though this is for the least-used character (the first armature), so its okay if its a bit of a reject.

The only other notable addition today is a ladder; a real gnarly one. Its based on a spindly warped one I found on the internet while trolling for images a while ago. I added the ropes and whatnot. It was a bit of an afterthought, but i'm glad I made it.

It will sit in two places throughout the film; on the left, and right in the middle while in use. While on the left, it serves to balance out the composition. Note the diagonal rope; this is to continue the curve that starts on the floor. When the ladder is in the middle, it lets me make nicer compositions; I like having some dark lines on one side or the other. Still have a couple more chores to do today on the thing - tommorrow I start on the huge armature.

Last little details/chores. Prettied up the side of the left-hand table, for shots in which it will comprise the left foreground. Added a few little details too; some fancy-ass books in the most visible places (the stacks are made up of lesser props). I wrapped an ugly looking wooden container in leather. I don't know why anyone would have a leather-wrapper container, but there you have it.

Set building is actually my forte, such as it is. But guess what? I suck at animation! And I hate making puppets! And I don't know squat about ties downs, technique, etc. The next few stages of this project should therefore be interesting.

DONE

(Pretty much)

Well, that's it. I'm going to spend tommorrow doing a few odd and ends i've been avoiding, such as staining areas that have been sitting unstained for ages, putting the curtain in permanently, etc. I'm also going to go over old notes and ideas and make sure I haven't missed any little elements that will improve it measurably. Otherwise, that's it. The thing is done. Which is good, because the mere thought of it makes me want to puke.

Some of the angles are a bit awkward looking, but all in all, i'm pretty happy with the thing. I really knuckled down and worked on the design of the thing, as I went along, to a much greater degree than I ever have in the past. Its seems to have paid off. I was comparing it to a still from my last stop motion film (which is now ancient); its definately in a different league all together. Which was the idea.

I recalled an old artist's trick; if you've been staring at something for so long that you've lost objecvtivity and are taking visual elements for granted, all you gots to do is turn the thing upside down. In this case, flip it horizontally. Its pretty effective; it was a bit of shock seeing the thing fresh after having started at so many pictures of it. Looks better than I expected. My first impluse was to say 'i'm going to flip all the images around; looks way better this way'. But its obvious that it doesn't actually look different at all.

Another version of an older HDR picture. Looks neat-o. It somehow makes average things look above average. I'm pretty eager to see some HDR pics of all the piles of props and junk. Don't have any of those yet. Its been a while, in fact.

Its kind of benificial that I don't get to see the set with nice pictures as I go along. There's always something to look forward to; if I could see precisely how its looking all the time, i'd start taking it for granted, and get tired of the thing sooner.

Its pretty tedious putting the props in place; its an awkward reach (nowhere to rest my weight), and there's a hot light on the thing so I can see what i'm doing. Hours of putting a couple items in, viewing with the camera from different angles, altering thing, and glueing them down.

The thing is almost done though, which is good. The weeks are passing by, and weeks count with this project.

Boy, this sure is taking a long time. Not due to the level of detail in the props, as much as the number of the things.

Started today by making another pile of them; sketches, paint brushes, brush handles, books, piles of paper, pots, etc, all assembly line fashion.

See what i'm talking about? The bottom picture is what i'm seeing when i'm in there piddling away on the thing. The top picture is what the camera will see. Looks better.

See the red arrow? You can see the edge of the set down there. I got tired of not being able to get quite as wide as i'd like, so I built a little 3" x 8" extension to fill that space.

Whenever i'm getting grumpy with the results of this thing, I bust out the HDR pics; these particular ones are a bit older - they predate all the piles of junk, etc. Sure looks a hell of a lot better with this type of photography. It's needed for me to see, as the set, which is being designed for specific camera angles and this type of photography, is looking increasingly goofy and odd to the naked eye.

I put the curtain in (temporarily) to see how it looks. Makes sense from a compositional point of view.

I'm getting to the point where i'm taking too much time, being too timid with the props. Like i'm poking a corpse with a stick. Just got to cram the shit in there, before I get sick of the thing. Which i'm pretty close to being.

I'm also getting tired of looking at shitty snapshots; they form the basis for how I view the thing, even though I know it looks a lot better with real photography.

I'm happy with this angle, but there sure are some other key angles that look like a bag of ass. My goal in the next few days is to more or less finish this thing, and to summon enough will power to have at those angles that are sucking so thoroughly.

It's hard though, as i'm at the notorious 'the magic is gone, and I know more or less what the finished product will be' stage.

Made some sort of a tripod-dealie. Not really sure what it is. Don't really matter; i'm just after shape and colour.

Painted some circles on the floor. The top picture was the mockup up with the camera, the bottom is the actual paint job. Looks pretty goofy from this angle, but it makes sense with the camera on it.

If i'm watching somebody else's project take shape, I find the most interesting thing to be the problems and screw ups; more importantly, how they're discovered and how they're fixed.

That being said, here's a bit of a screw-up; I was about to load up another corner with props (see bottom half of top photo). Then, it occured to me that I should really be framing this shot up with a scale armature stand-in. When I did that (via a crude drawing on a piece of balsa wood), I discovered that I would have been wasting my time. If I was to actually frame the shot up like I had it, it would only include the character's legs. And I felt like such a smarty-pants, designing things with my camera. After having made that discovery, I popped off about 80 shots, all with the character stand-in in them. How the set is actually going to be seen turned out to be quite a bit different than I was anticipating.

I've been carefully designing big pretty-looking wide shots. However, the average shot will have the camera jammed up pretty close to one wall or another; not much wide stuff going on. I then made a crude photo-storyboard for the first few shots of the first scene. Its quite ugly, but the ugly stuff tends to be where the important decisions get made.

This is very useful stuff; now I know what i'm actually going to be seeing, and from what angle. So now I can pretty them up, and avoid spending ages making scene compositions that'll never be seen.

The top picture is before the design process, the bottom is after. Glad to see its working. I'm finding that I can alter the set to a great degree using these piles. Which is handy - lots of control.

There's one key prop missing, obviously; the painting itself. I was undecided about how to make the thing, as I figured the detail level would have to be pretty high in order for it not to suck. However, i've rediscovered how much detail can be implied with just a few lines and brushstrokes. So i'm just going to print out a lines-only version, glue it on a backing, and paint in some colour washes. The painting will look in-progress, and will be seen to progress as the film goes on.

This snapshot isn't pretty, but it's doing its job. The coloured lines denote the composition; how I want the eye to move. Now I just have to make some junk that will mirror the lines. I might just paint/scratch some streaks on the floor - don't want to bury the set in actual items.

The curved line at the bottom-center of the set is pretty cheeky. I'm going to put crap there just in that shape.

I've been putting in 12 hour days, trying to get this beast under control. I can't think of a good way to cut corners and speed it up, as the quality/detail level ain't really negotiable - the detail level is actually pretty minimal. It's mostly about composition at this point. So, the only solution I can think of is to work longer days. Which i'm doing. Getting up and going at it at 8 in the morning, rather than starting at 10, and spending two hours scratching my head because i'm asleep and confused.

Alot of this stuff is pretty goddamn tedious, so there's lot's of little mind games one has to play with oneself. So I don't puke from the monotony. Generally, i'll take a snapshot, doodle on it in Photoshop to see how I want the composition. Then, I make a pile of crap. Not designing a particular item for a particular spot - just churning it out in an effecient fashion. This doesn't require any attention span, and the gratification is pretty quick. Then, I get out the camera and needle nose pliers, and put the junk on the set. This is the sore-back/brow-furrowed stage, requiring concentration. Then i'll go make specific props to tidy things up; a small skinny blue book here, a long light-coloured paintbrush here, etc.

I also try to leave myself something specific and non-tedious to do for the next day; decide it in advance. So I can get right into it, even though i'm half awake and confused.

I usually put the date on my snapshots; its clear that this damn set is taking too long. I don't have that much time left, and a lot of work to do. Gonna have to pick up the pace. I put in a 12 hour day yesterday - i'm going to have to make a habit of doing that, or else curtail the quality/detail level somewhat.

The design process

I've got a routine down now:

I pop off some snapshots, then crudely draw over them, to indicate the composition of the piles of shit (see top photo). Then I make a pile of crap (see middle photo). I pile the junk roughly where it is intended to go, then pop off some more snapshots. Then I draw on it again if needed (see bottom photo), then glue the suckers down.

Battalions of props. These are only some of the ones i've made in the last couple days - they're pretty fast to do though - the detail level is pretty minimal.

Mini paintings; its suprising how a few brush strokes imply alot detail which ain't actually there.