Cleveland FX

Globe trottin'

2010-04-27T23:36:00.001-05:00

It's been a few months without an update here.

Well, the reason is I've been workin like a dog. I now get to jet over to the other side of the world and continue doing it on set.

Wish me luck.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-28T14:02:00.001-05:00

and/or Happy Holidays to you out there.

Short break here from work, well, another day or so before I head back. Doing some cool stuff on this one, nothing ground breaking, but cool to me at least.

Haven't had much time to play with Blender 2.5 alpha yet, but can anyone tell me if there's a way to set the tool tray in its own window with everything on display? That's probably my biggest gripe. Sure I have others, maybe they'll be addressed, maybe I'll have to adapt.

So there ya have it, as much of an update as I have right now.

Blender 2.5

2009-11-26T16:45:00.001-05:00

The new interface is HORRIBLE in my opinion. Maybe come version 2.55 or so I'll have managed to get caught up and adapt it to the last few years of learning the "old" interface. I really don't understand the option to change from horizontal to vertical after 7+ years and every pervious version.

Maybe with a widescreen monitor, or maybe two of them, you could regain screen space and actually be able to see what you're doing. I've got dual monitors and the only decent way to do things is open another window but that presents issues unless you duplicate things on both.

Maybe it's the whatever bug I caught, but I'm really not liking this right now. Unless this release comes with a full manual, not a link to an online manual (as I won't have internet where I'm at for the next 4-6 months), that covers everything I'm going to suffer the same fate that led to the purchase from NaN that gave us blender in the first place.

Not on a jet plane

2009-11-22T18:01:00.002-05:00

But I will be leaving and don't know when I'll be back again (besides holidays.)

Heading off to do some shop work and whatever else comes my way, so expect even fewer updates here. Actually, I'll be dragging at least one computer with me to do some work on a few things as I have time. Mostly cgi stuff that I've already posted, the project with the bullet, but if possible some more product related things as well.

Also, someone asked about a custom cartoon prop that I've thought about building for a while now, so perhaps I'll end up making one and post some progress stuff on that.

So, that's the haps here. Since I probably won't be around that much I'll drop those seasonal type things on you now.

Happy Thanksgiving. Merry Christmas. Happy holidays, in case those two don't cover you.

A Polish Winter

2009-11-22T17:53:00.003-05:00

Slacking with the blog posts again.

I just noticed that APW was nominated for the Suzanne Awards 2009 best short film. Unfortunately they didn't win.

Memory, a well done, but disturbing post apocalyptic sci-fi short took the prize. I guess anyone who pays attention to Blender goings on already knew this. The good news however is that those who haven't seen it now can by following the above link.

Heck, with everything I've been doing I haven't had much of a chance to play with Blender lately. Props, parts, shoots, and getting ready to go away for a while and do a (hopefully) long stretch in the movie trenches.

Anyway, congratulations on the nomination guys, better luck next time. Congrats to the winners, one of these days I'll get around to doing a short instead of just some shots for live action stuff and product type stuff with Blender.

whole lotta shakin' going on

2009-09-25T17:05:00.002-05:00

Last weekend was another shoot. Got to make some stuff that sounds like it should be awesome.

It would have been had it worked correctly. Oh well...into post we go.

My first course will be adding a bullet and distortion to a shot. The plan is Blender for the bullet. Particle illusion for the distortion layer, which will be brought into Blender and used as an input on the distortion node. I'll probably render out something that might be used in AE since I have raw footage and am not doing the editing. There will be a few other vfx shots I get to play with. Go me!

I may have a few other courses coming along in my big feast of "if only it had worked on set"

So it goes.

In other news, things need molded. Samples need made. Personal projects to play with as well.

long winded, as always.

2009-09-25T17:01:00.002-05:00

I should stop by more often. This started out as a response to a comment left on my post here. It's gone a little long so it'll get its own post.

My max access was back in school, after that I had a couple friends with a copy. They moved, or switched to other things and I drifted away from CGI for a little while as I had nothing. One day I came across something that reminded me of Blender. I had downloaded version 1.73 or something like that, I've mentioned it elsewhere before. The new version was much more powerful, but still a PITA as there was no included documentation. However in the decade or so between the initial introduction the internet had become more mature, and much faster. Youtube, wiki, many more user sites and tutorials helped answer the mystical and mysterious functional questions I had regarding Blender. Both the program and the community had grown into something that deserved another look.

Blender, for the price, can't be beat. It's made and continues to make giant leaps forward in terms of features and function. I see the same "hobbyist" sentiment elsewhere as well. People dabble in makeup or sculpting as well. I know some who have opened a business after a few years of dabbling.

I don't expect Blender to take over the industry as some in the community do, but they've made 2 short films, a game, and are working on another film with it. Many other people have used it to make short movies and games. Hell, a company used it to do a full feature film. The community support and development is.. perhaps rabidly anti other software at times, but very active. I don't see that as a negative for the most part, the bashing is uncalled for, but the passion isn't bad.

Look at it this way. Since I have no idea of your age, experience, or anything like that assume for a moment you are a young teen with no money but a decked out computer and some interest in games or CGI. Your parents already dumped $3000 on a computer so they won't buy you another high end program that you may lose interest in. Along comes Blender, a small download that will run on damn near any system and provide you that gateway into the world of CGI, as well as possibly programming.

Is that a bad thing? Getting a large jump start into a field that is quite complex and ever changing? Learning a complex program that shares many of the same basic functionality as the others but with no financial investment (at first) that also requires some effort by the user as it rarely has up to date documentation (a major drawback as I've said in the past) isn't quite the negative you make it out to be. Were I better with the program and able to talk some friends into it I'd consider a summer camp type of program for children based around Blender, as well as some of the other open source software that the community lauds. Audacity, the gimp, and some others. They may not be the hollywood blockbuster behind the scenes programs, but damn I wish they had been around at their current levels when I was in high school. Programs like them were far outside of what I could afford. Couple those with a mini DV camera and you CAN make a movie today.

I do believe that the there is quite a bit of truth behind "It's not the tool, it's the craftsman." Blender might force a few extra steps or have a harder time getting there, but it will do the job.

As for why I use it, let me run down a few of the reasons.

The cost. Free.

The learning. I'm forced to learn new things, to not stay still. The learning curve is pretty steep, or at least it was/is for me. I had a couple of classes in 3DSM when I was in school. I screwed around with it a little bit, but I never actually took classes in it to learn the real basics. With Blender I was forced to go back to the very basics and start from there. I'm far, like drifting in interstellar space type far, from being good at animation, modeling, or damn near any of the things I can do with it. It gives me something to focus on, that is getting better and doing things the right way.

The features. This goes hand in hand with cost. Nothing else comes close to the features at this price. Besides the basic modeling and animation you get a video editor, a node system that can be used to adjust pictures or do some color correction, fluid simulation, sculpting, and a very active user base to name a few.

In the end I guess it comes down to personal preference, need, and justification. I can't justify dropping thousands on something I use in a production rarely. I'd rather put that money towards tools or things I use constantly as opposed to the rarely used program. If max were in the $1000-1500 ballpark I'd consider buying it and starting from scratch. Same goes for many of the other programs out there that are considered "professional" and mainstream in this area.

With the 2.5 release I think Blender will be making another large leap away from the "hobbyist" world. How large remains to be seen, and how successful will be determined to a large extent by the users of other programs such as max, maya, and the rest that dominate the industry. The future of its hobbyist status will be determined by the community. All those 13 year old kids growing up with it and using it may take it with them into their jobs in the future.

In the end it all boils down to what gets the job done.

I'm totally blushing

2009-07-06T17:32:00.003-05:00

Or maybe it's just because I was outside for more than 5 minutes this weekend.

The new BlenderArt magazine is out. The 2 regular readers here may notice something familiar about the cover.

I'm also dealing with an extra heavy dose of "D'OH!" as I totally forgot that I might have been able to include something on the Jean Claude the Gumming Zombie stuff in there as I used Blender heavily on that project. Well, at least I finally got around to uploading some of the videos to youtube. They're in no way tutorials, just a brief glimpse at a little of what went into the movie.

Hey, maybe it's time to mention a little something on the next project. There will be heavy Blender usage, here's a little tease. Traditional FX fans fear not as there will be as much real stuff as possible, but some of the shots need CGI and some post tweaking. Blender will be used for modeling, animation, and some post work on this project.

Now, go check out the magazine I'm sure if I can make the cover there's probably plenty of much better stuff inside.

Blender raytracing build

2009-06-13T01:44:00.001-05:00

It's showing promise and was mentioned over here. I know it's just a build and not finished and all that, but a bunch of things are bothering me already. Yes, I hate to complain about free software, and all the hard work, but I feel I have to.

The time wasting animated view changes, see for yourself, click any of the view buttons (numpad) and you get a little time waster. It spins quickly, in large files/scenes it takes a bit of time and I can see it being even worse once you start getting really complex with particles and things of that nature.

Default vertical button window. Automatic resizing of the buttons to stretch to fit. I hope shift+space will be able to be configured to maximize the current window, so much faster than ctrl+up arrow. Another is the having to hit the pause/stop button for playback of the timeline.

While there seems to be some speed increases in the interface, I really am not digging the new cartoony feel it's got, much like I hate XP, OS X, and VISTA looks. All those flashy little things might be cool and trendy but I don't need/want them in functional software. Yes, there's probably a compromise somewhere, or it could be configured or whatever, but turn it off by default. Please.

If it will be possible to download or configure a basic layout like the default setup of the past few releases, or something very close I'll be happy. Over time I'll work with their defaults, but I'm finally getting the hang of it as is. There's a steep enough learning curve already, so having to relearn everything in a cartoony (not high enough contrast theme, yes, sadly my eyes are getting older)

Will there be a render window or are we going to be limited to image editor? Size presets?

The single thing I dread the most is that there will not be current up to date documentation. PLEASE guys, spend some time getting that together, at least a list of changed locations, key commands and combos, and/or a much better intro guide before you release this.

That's just my impressions on the first few minutes of messing around with it. I understand a lot of my complaints might already be addressed but I'm worried about having to relearn the interface and a whole lot more plus the unneeded/unwanted slowdowns that (and some of the features) bring with it.

Just got back from the Geauga film fest

2009-06-12T22:33:00.003-05:00

There were 2 films I worked on (just supplying props to one) showing tonight. Interrogation and Jean Claude the gumming zombie (do I really need to provide a link, again?), but for me the big show stopper was a little film I hadn't heard of before. A Polish Winter.

From their blog:

It tells the story of a young boy who discovers an abandoned train cattle carriage in Eastern Europe. Upon entering inside and finding a discarded doll, memories are triggered of the Holocaust and the murder of countless children in Nazi death camps in occupied Poland.

Visit the blog and have a look for yourself. It's worth the time.

Another fun short was Visit China I didn't know so many folks I knew worked on this one, but it was good as well.

All in all it was a fun time with some good films.

Bummer

2009-05-30T00:04:00.000-05:00

So, it seems I wasn't the winner for the splash screen contest.

Well...I think I'll start on something for a 2.5 entry soon.

Congratulations to Clemens Granjon Have a look at what's in this version here.

A new link soon to be officially added

2009-05-19T20:39:00.001-05:00

Johnny shot me an email with a new review of A Joker's Card today. AJC is about 4 years old now, so it was a bit of a surprise.

As luck would have it Cleveland has an indie film examiner now. Once I sign in he's getting a link here. Yeah, I'm mailing this in, what can I say, I'm feeling a bit lazy right now.

Oh yeah, a while ago I posted the Crow T Robot stuff. Well, as soon as I switch over the website and finish rigging the model, adding legs and rigging him, I'll be posting him up on my site. At least until I get some angry letters from BBI demanding I take him down.

In other news...uh, that's really about it. I'm looking around for a cheap mac, something G4ish. Anyone have some old stuff cluttering up the place they want to get rid of cheap?

Been spending time in Blender

2009-05-10T22:02:00.001-05:00

Over the past couple weeks I've been working on some simple animation for a project. I've come to some conclusions. 2.5 NEEDS a few things...

Simplified keyframing, especially for materials. Why can you only set keys, without using the IPO, for certain aspects? Heck, why doesn't the automatic keyframing function for all animatable parameters work on materials too?
The ability to shift timeline. Ideally, shifting keyframes. It would be wonderful if you could simply hit A and G in the timeline window to shift the animation.
The ability to change the start time of the animation into the negative area could negate the need for the above.
Buffered shadows on ALL light types. Perhaps with GSOC and the project to speed up raytracing this won't be as critical, but it sure as heck would be nice.
Not necessarily a need, but something that I'd love to see. A material mask like the Zmask. Would make adding fake glow easier and probably help in other aspects too.
Again, not a need, but volumetics on other lights. Even notice that lightbulbs are roundish?
A fully documented help system that is searchable, covers EVERY aspect and function, and includes pictures to show what effect it has. Yes, I'm one of those visual learners. Sure, it'd be huge, but imagine how useful it would be. When a new version the changed features can be added via a "what's new or changed" addition that could be downloaded. Sadly, were it not sure a huge job I would have already begun myself. With all the DVDs that come out, or the books, why can't one be made like that?

I will personally commit to undertaking such a task, in book form, if I were able to get some help so it, like everything else Blender related, isn't at least 3 versions behind. That is another maddening aspect of the existing documentation. With the coming release of 2.5 this would be a wonderful opportunity to tackle this issue.

Don't take this to be Blender bashing. For the price it's a wonderful, feature rich program. With 2.5 and the Durian improvements (technical targets), when they get integrated, it should take another huge step towards "mainstream" usage. I'm thrilled to see Colin Levy on board. He's been working with Blender since he was at least 13, about 7 years, so he should do a wonderful job.

I don't know if I've mentioned it here, and I'm not really in the mood to go looking right now, but about 10 years ago I first heard of Blender while I was at school on the Like-a-story message boards. Yes, they are back online, but only as archives. I believe it was around the 1.7ish version as I have 1.73 on an old computer. At the time the only 3D program I had ever used was the one bundled in with corel draw 7,Bryce 2 and a little later on a watermarking version of truespace 2 or 3 I think. About 30 minutes after installation I threw up my hands and really never touched it again. I hated it. Well, a year later I had a class that required me to use studio max. I also had friends who were there to become animators so I got to spend time on their computer playing with max, and the school computers. It made much more sense to me, and I could do quite a bit more, the biggest thing that helped was documentation! Help files, books, a teacher who knew the program. Yes, those things really DO matter. 10 years later after the user base has drastically expanded, video tutorials, and even simple pdfs, not to mention the books, DVDs, and other "official" documentation such as the wiki are fairly common. Things have changed. I've learned much, the program has improved exponentially and has become a very welcome addition to my toolbox and borrowed access to max. I'm happy Blender is out there and ever growing. I may have possibly converted someone else to become a blenderhead.

I just wish its documentation was more in synch with the development of the program itself.

two in one day

2009-04-10T01:34:00.003-05:00

Blender has decided to release version 2.49. Somewhat big news as 2.50 is a major overhaul of the program and was expected to be the next big release.

The powers that be have decided to hold a contest for this version's splash screen and in my continuing effort to learn the program I took the opportunity over the past day or two to make up an entry.

This is A Fish Out of Water, my entry made within the rules of the contest, which you can find over here, along with all the entries. Some of them are quite impressive.

This image is the raw render of the scene. The fish is a bit Dr. Seuss like, probably because I had watched Horton Hears a Who the other day and that style was still in my mind.

This is the finished composite version after running through Blender's node system for a little processing. Depth of field, color adjustment, and glow on the head light.

The original idea behind this was a "toilet shark" similar to the sewer alligators of urban legends. From there I wandered into the whole "burial at sea" thing that gave me the idea for 6 pallbearers dressed like this guy with a small fish coffin standing on the toilet seat, zombie goldfish pouring forth from the toilet, a flying fish with angelic halo and eerie lighting from the toilet. Eventually I settled on the fish out of water theme, partially because of my feelings towards learning Blender. I'd had some classes in 3D programs back in school, and dabbled with 3DSM years ago, but that was the extent of it. With Blender I felt like a fish out of water. Surrounded by an unusual interface, powerful features, and something I didn't have to feel guilty about not paying for. Bumbling my way through teaching myself how to use it I've been getting used to it and feeling slightly more comfortable.

I still have a long long way to go with the program, let alone the basics of modeling,but that shouldn't be a reason not to at least enter.

I'm going to give you the finger

2009-04-10T01:25:00.004-05:00

All 10 of them that is, but only if you're the person I made them for.

The first run of foam fresh out of the mold, untrimmed and with some loose skin. Apparently the molds were still damp. Oh well. I shot some video of the process as well, so that may see the light of day sometime in the future.

I've never made fingers of any kind, so this was another of those new experiences, the kind you learn a lot from. I'm not horribly disappointed with them, which is fairly uncommon for me. More runs are scheduled after another bake out of the mold to avoid the loose skin problems.

Maybe you, yeah you, that one guy who stops in here to read this, will get to see some more once makeup tests are done. Then again at the rate I post you might get to see the finished product before I post anything more on this.

Jean Claude...the last post.

2009-03-21T19:39:00.004-05:00

The premiere was earlier today. The crowd was nice, laughed when they were supposed to, and for some unknown reason seemed to find the neighbor character funny. Yeah, I was the "Eh, I don't give a shit" slinging neighbor. If you've been over to the blog for the movie, that is indeed me in the loud Hawaiian shirt from the "got any sugar" day of shooting.

It was a fun day. Kicking back now and watching the DVD with the commentary track I speak on. For those who like FX type commentary tracks, the Producer/crew commentary track is for you, it's the one I speak on and I go into a little detail on some of the stuff.

There's a nice easter egg on the DVD too.

Thanks again to everyone who was involved, both cast and crew. Also a huge thanks to the folks who made it out to the premiere and enjoyed themselves.

Jean Claude

2009-03-02T10:47:00.005-05:00

The finished zombie!

The premiere is set, info here. There will be Q&A sessions after both showings so RSVP and pop out if you're in the area.

Things are wrapping up on JC. Film's set. Commentary tracks have been recorded. Been learning quite a bit about Blender as I forced myself to use it. That sounds bad, but I personally fall into the "learn by using" kind of camp, so with books at the ready I sat and used it for a few shots in the movie.

With the majority of the DVD done I now turn my attention to something we had discussed doing as a nice little bonus and tribute. Jim, one of the writers, came up with some good ideas and I cranked out a quick version of one yesterday. He's going to be doing the final I think, unless my doodling is OK.

In other news, I've "finished" the Crow T Robot model and been working on something else in there. I'm sure he's not quite as accurate as he could, or should, be. Plenty good for my needs right now. He's probably a bit heavy actually. I didn't bother with any mapping really, or modeling the detail of his body, I had planned to use some bump maps.

I've been working on modeling some things for a music video that I want to do. I've been thinking about releasing the Crow someplace in case anyone wants it. Still thinking about it really as I haven't decided. Also may let go some of the things I was modeling for the music video, but only a few are even of questionable use elsewhere. I'll give it more thought, and if I do I'll just upload them to the website someplace.

OK, enough scatterbrained blogging for right now, back to blender to learn some more. Experimenting (sounds better then playing, right?) with animating Crow.

With this all out of the way it's back to The Attic. Foam runs, test makeups, and who knows what else.

Oh... SAG, don't strike. I need some money and a job this year.

A bit more

2009-01-26T02:08:00.001-05:00

...on the recent costume related work.

A local paper had an article. Along with further information on the play and background of Sign Stage, you can also see a picture with the horse and parrot in partial costume. Personally, I think the monkey has the best costume, but I also like him best so I'm biased.

Google will get you information if you wish to see it near you.

Another year, already!?

2009-01-21T22:14:00.006-05:00

Yes, I know, another long delay between postings.

I try, I just get busy. The latest bunch of busy has been all kinds of things. For instance, force learning Blender to get some CGI shots done, as well as doing a bunch of particle illusion work for Jean Claude.

Along the lines of learning blender comes the fun of "doodling" . The partially completed Crow T Robot here is a doodle that will get fleshed out, fixed up, and animated at some point in the not too distant future. I hope.

Other news on the busy list include finishing ALL the molds for The Attic. If you think MY updates are slow you should see the last time the directors blog was updated over there. ZING! Now that this batch of molds is done I get to go back to frothing foam and watching the oven for a few sets of the newly molded appliances as well as a couple backups of others. Nothing too exciting in the way or pictures on this bit of news but keep reading if you like pictures.

The big busy of the last week has been another batch of costume heads. This year's production from Cleveland Signstage is Dr Dolittle, and on the list of fun foam fabrication was a parrot, monkey, a horse, and an African headdress. I just dropped them off today and the cast was excited to see them and get some rehearsal time in with them. I yanked out no more hair than the last few times I've made heads for them, which is an accomplishment as this sort of thing is really not my bag baby, even after my stint making backpacks and a few patterns. It's fun to do, and as far as I've ever heard there are no complaints from the audience. One of these years I will get a chance to see one of their productions. One of these years I will also learn to take better pictures as well. Next time around I hope to be a bit better in Blender and do a little more of the pre-production work in there. I will say that I did a little bit of work on these in there.

In the meantime, it's back to Blender and blank stares are the computer for CGI work before ammonia fumes from the foam runs that need to get done in the next week or so.

As always, feel free to ask any questions you may have.

WOW, where's the time go?

2008-10-30T01:10:00.004-05:00

OK, I'm back and alive.

I've been back for over a month, probably closer to two. I'm still a little hazy on just what I can say.

I was down at Precinct 13, Robert Kurtzman's shop in Ohio working on a movie filming overseas. I did some mold making and some mechanics work. Met some great people from LA, KNB folks to be a bit more accurate. Learned a lot, had an absolute blast, miss it.

Besides that, work on Jean Claude continues.,,I've moved on to CGI stuff now on that. We'll probably have one more day or shooting pickup stuff that will need a little makeup.

So, is there anything new? Oh yes! The big job since I've been back has been The Attic. I've been working on a few the characters. An ogre named Cyril, wounds for Dagger, and the (or should that be a) soul cribber. Since I like to spread out the exclusives a bit, and myspace has some in progress shots already, anyone reading this gets to see Cyril's foam appliances. These are so-so runs of the face and ears resting on a copy of Frank's lifecast. I plan on gluing one of the "bad" sets to this head, paint it all up and use it as reference. Did I forget to mention that The Attic is a series? Oops, well it is. It'll also serve as a cool display head to show off.

If you look closely to the left you can see something else...I wonder what those might be? Stay tuned and maybe you'll get to see more of those.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that Cyril also has an eye patch over the eye with the giant scar running through it.

I know you're thinking to yourself "WTF?" and all I can say is see the website and stay tuned. Makeup tests for one of the characters are coming up soon, so Cyril will be fleshed out a little more.

Also helping out on a student film, doing some weapons wrangling and CGI for it.

Beyond all that fun stuff I've trying to wrap up a few personal projects that sat untouched all summer, so things are busy. I'll try to post more regularly in the near future.

MIA

2008-06-21T23:50:00.003-05:00

I'll be MIA for a few months (I hope, or at least if all goes well)

Just work stuff, nothing to worry about.

I'll continue to post stuff when I can, but it'll likely be sporadic.

Consider yourselves warned! Bwahahahahahaha!

Overly dramatic, check. Vague, check.

That is all.

He will be missed

2008-06-16T18:44:00.001-05:00

Stan Winston has passed away at the age of 62.

A sad day for the FX and entertainment industry as one of the greats has been lost.

My condolences to family and friends.

another day, another shoot

2008-06-14T04:05:00.003-05:00

Today we shot some footage of the narrator, and his encounter with Jean Claude.

Well, I was snapping BTS pics when I could, and wound up with this one.

Now, being that I was just snapping and quickly glancing at the shots on the small LCD monitor I didn't actually catch this at the time. Since I'm a geeky fanboy sometimes as soon as I saw this after downloading the pics I just KNEW what it was going to become when I was done.

So, without further ado, I present...

The tribute poster made from the above. This was not condoned by the production, it's just a goof based on the shot I took. Kyle had his head just barely out of whack for it to be a perfect match, had he turned about an inch to his right the images would be "dead" on.

Anyway, besides that the shoot was OK. We had some storms roll through and a water issue that delayed the start a little bit. I'm uploading the shots to my site right now. Just head here and click on Jean Claude to see some more BTS stuff.

Jean Claude The Gumming Zombie

2008-06-05T22:35:00.001-05:00

I haven't updated much here, but over on my site I added a whole bunch of behind the scenes shots.

Where's the time go?

2008-06-05T22:17:00.004-05:00

Well, things keep on moving along.

As promised on myspace... some test footage of an arm gag for Jean Claude.

This past weekend was a big shoot with all kinds of zombies and a few gags, including the above if I could have got it working right again. The thing worked, but I had to change a couple things to make it work for the shot, at which point it ceased working correctly. It's OK, the way we did it looks just fine and actually worked out better anyway, so I'm not too disappointed by it.

Another one of the gags involved a woman being drug off and her fingers bleeding as she scratches at the pavement. Here's the rig I whipped up for that from things on hand.

The thin, 1/16" ID, tubes run down the bottom of the fingers. An air can filled with blood was pressurized and hitting the gray button while holding it upside down would send blood shooting out onto the pavement. There was also chalk glued to the actresses' fingertips under fake nails that was supposed to look like her nails grinding away, when it ran out the blood was to flow. Well, priming the tubes blood got on the chalk and ruined that effect. Oh well, at least the blood worked.

Besides that there were bloody bod parts and lizards and zombies running all over the place. Beautiful day with sun and no rain, unlike the day I shot the arm tests where it was in the mid low high 40s. Got a few great shots, and I'm happy if the director and the rest of the crew is happy.

In other news, working on a bunch of self adhesive wounds and may have a lifecasting marathon this weekend for another project. I'll sneak a shot or two of the wound test applications for ya.

More on the teleprompters.

2008-03-18T23:57:00.005-05:00

Since I'm getting quite a few hits to the teleprompter post, here's a few more pics. It was made from things I had on hand mostly. The exception being the 1/16" aluminum angle for the monitor frame.

Showing the mounting system for the shoulder rig. Carriage bolts, washers, and wing nuts. Nothing fancy or expensive.

The mount is 3" wide, 1" leg AL channel. A slot was milled into that to mount to the shoulder rig. The monitor and glass framework is all 1/16" thick 1" AL angle. It simply bolts together. The cutouts for monitor cables and controls were milled.

The bottom showing the way in mounts as well as the hole to secure the monitor via a 1/4-20 thumbscrew.

Front view

Adhesive backed Velcro was used to hold the sides in place as well as the "glass" that was some Lexan sheet I got for $1/ pound as scrap. I never measured it, but I think it's in the 1/8" ballpark.

In terms of construction it was straightforward. Measure monitor, determine cutouts for cables and controls as well as mounting position, cut and mill to size/shape. Drill holes and bolt everything together. Adjust position of glass and make the brackets. Maybe a day or two of fussing with it. I would have liked to bead blast and anodize it black personally.

The "presidential" style prompter was even easier. It involved adapting a microphone holder and was all scrap AL angle, 1/8" thick and bolts.

Torture props

2008-03-03T04:14:00.003-05:00

I get all kinds of weird requests. This is a torture device for an independent film from 4th Floor Pictures. Another quick job. The shaft is a dowel rod. Apoxie sculpt was used for the handle, which on further review I should have painted to look like ivory or bone as I could have done some great blood stain paint job on it. The head is a piece of cast resin I turned on the lathe and milled slots for the bass wood fins which were finished with a diamond wheel in the drill press to accept the real (ground flat) razor blades. A wooden honey thingy, a cast resin copy of an air freshener cap, and a piece of leather cord complete this brutal piece.

Just add blood and screams.

Monitors and rigs and teleprompters OH MY

2008-03-03T03:58:00.005-05:00

ZOMG!

Teleprompters? Yep, those nifty little devices for feeding the talent their lines. I just built two of them. One that uses a small 7" DVD player/monitor that mounts to a shoulder rig. A couple pics of it below as it sat on my very cluttered workbench. The heaviest part is the monitor. I would have liked to make this one a bit more adjustable, but it works so why worry too much. The first pic is essentially done, but lacking the fabric covering and sides to seal light out (and make it easier to read.) The second pic is it mounted on the shoulder rig with the sides (black foam core) in place. Fabric was added once the camera was on it.

The other is a "presidential" type that will sit on a microphone stand with a monitor on the ground. In this pic you can see the rear of the mount I whipped up out of some scrap aluminum angle I had sitting around. This one measures about 17 inches square. The protective film is still on the plastic, some scrap Lexan I had.

They're both pretty rough by my standards, but for a couple days and being made mainly out of junk I had sitting around they turned out OK in my book.

These are NOT for Jean Claude as someone asked me earlier, this is for an industrial video.

Jean Claude continues shortly

2008-03-03T03:54:00.002-05:00

So a bit of a break here due to scheduling. Bummer, I know.

We shot some really cool stuff and Kirsten and Kris got to have all the fun.

don't fence me in

2008-02-03T19:35:00.000-05:00

I cranked out some foamcore fence for the next shoot the other day.

Just a few shots it'll be needed for. The foamcore was free, so no big deal.

Jean Claude the gumming zombie!

2008-01-29T20:07:00.000-05:00

The first teaser trailer is out. With a mere 2 days of shooting under our belts what did you expect? Lighten up, it's a teaser.

If you;re interested, you can learn more here or here. Of course, I'll be sharing some nuggets here as well. Like these pictures.

The sculpture of jean claude's makeup, an elderly man who is unknowingly zombified while enjoying his day. A quick sculpture done in monster makers clay. Sadly, it doesn't seem they will be making it anymore. I've grown to love it, soft when you want it soft, hard when you need it hard. I wish I would have grabbed more.

Day two of shooting. Jean claude is ready for his scenes.

Nummy nummy. I monitor the monitor as our pathetic French zombie is fed people food by mother.

Here's a few shots of some of the real behind the scenes stuff that went into making jc come alive...or would that be come undead?

A freshly demolded casting of jc's makeup. Cast in monster makers foam, with some GM flow enhancer added in to help out. The foam's somewhere in the 6 1/2-7 volume in a small sunbeam bowl, so very soft. Most of it is under 1/4" thick, but the jowls, chin, nose, and front of the neck is thicker, at the thickest it's about 1/2" A couple of drops of blue pigment added. It's a comedy, he's a zombie. Deal with it.

The mold for the makeup. Originally I had intended to run a cowl for him as well. I didn't set out to do a silicone mold for this, it just happened that I had to. The mold itself is brushed on dragon skin from smooth-on and is fairly thin. The support shell is ultracal 30. I ran into a few undercuts that I hadn't corrected due to the initial cowl idea...time demanded I get it done and run. Running the foam latex in the silicone hasn't proven to be too difficult. Baking in an old holding oven that requires constant attention to prevent the temperature running away is a bit of a pain. Every 10-15 minutes I have to manually adjust the temperature, for about 6 1/2 hours. No steaming yet, and the oven temperature is being held at about 150 degrees. The only other thing I have to be careful about is watching the edges, the silicone still wants to give just a little bit, so pushing that lifecast in well is critical for good blending edges.

I was a bit nervous about the foam, so the silicone could have ran some gelatin appliances if needed with ease. I'd also be willing to bet I could still get a nice silicone appliance out of this mold. I've run some compatibility tests with dragon skin and after the doom and gloom and dire warnings people have given me about platinum silicone and sulfur I was worried, but experimentation shows it to be very possible with a little cleaning before hand.

jc's "teeth." Don Bumgarner whipped them up for me quickly as he's my go-to for anything dental. I stained them a little bit, but would have liked to do them much darker.

I've got some props to build, and other things to work on. As I get the OK I'll be sure to post more on this.

James and the Giant Peach.

2008-01-21T00:37:00.000-05:00

About a year ago I had made 3 masks of the farmers from The Fantastic Mr. Fox for Signstage on tour. This year the play will be James and the Giant Peach and I got an email asking for more masks. Excellent. They wanted 6 masks initially, the rhino was added along the way along with a giant "spanking hand." One of the aunts will chase James with the giant hand, about 4 times the size of a normal hand during the play.

Shown here are some of the things that went into making the heads and working out the final designs.

The maquettes of the grasshopper, spider, and worm. Thrown together quickly to show where I was headed with the sketches I had done. They've got some lines carved in that approximated what I saw as the pattern pieces for the foam masks.

The shark and rhino.

The cloudmen. You can click on any of the above for a larger view.

The final masks were created in sheet foam. RIT dye was used to color the foam and some airbrushing of details. Hard hat suspensions were used and will allow adjustment for the actors. You can view them in the sample puppet gallery on my website.

Once again the job was a fun time, and a welcomed change from the usual things I get involved with. No zombies. No extremely dangerous chemicals. Just a bit of contact cement fumes and scalding water with the dye.

Sorry there aren't any horror stories of things gone wrong. The worst thing that I ran into on this was sticking a T pin into my knuckle, painful at first, but it faded quickly.

Been a while

2008-01-07T06:18:00.001-05:00

So to catch up...Merry Christmas, happy new year and all that.

Busy working on some foam heads for a play. Similar to the last batch, actually, for the same people. It's been almost a year now since I made any. Now that I think about it, those were the reason I started this blog, specifically to thank the few people and blogs who pointed me in the right direction. Well, the thanks still hold up. I wish I had gotten a little more practice at this kind of thing over the past year, but I haven't. In fact, besides those and the little bit of foam work I did for Near West recently I haven't touched any sheet foam this year.

I'm not sure what I can or can't say right now, so I won't say much. There are 7 characters in progress, just under a week until they're needed to leave on the tour. Cutting it close again, not that there's anything really new about that. I'll have some pictures of them when they're all done and I get an OK to post them.

Beyond these heads lurks some zombie work. Due to a few things here and there it will be a big rush to turn a young man old and then to zombify him through a few phases for a short film. I'll get yet another tiny part in this as well, and I can say I'm not a homeless person. Always good to stay away from typecasting.

More in the near future, and I hope to keep this blog updated a bit more frequently.

Near West Theatre

2007-11-18T01:40:00.000-05:00

Been working. Workin' my tail off actually. That itself seems a bit unusual for this time of year, but not unwelcome. The past two weeks have been spent pouring time and energy into Near West Theatre's production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. I was asked just over two weeks to help out on costumes and I figured it couldn't be that bad. I accepted and have been making all kinds of foam stuff since then as well as helping out wherever I could.

As usual, I'm not going to BS you, the 2 or 3 people who stumble upon this. It was pretty damn hellish, but that's work in general. You're trading your life, your time here on this planet and your energy to make something, in the case of theater, something that only has to last as long as the run of the show. Movies are the same way, if it's held together by bubblegum and a prayer it doesn't matter as long as they get the shot. Well, I had all kinds of foam things to make, mostly "second string" objects and foam headpieces that represent the enchanted castle objects... salt and pepper shakers, feather duster handles, desserts, a pork chop, bleu cheese, a creamer, a sugar bowl, tree heads, and even tree branches.

If it weren't for the cast and most of the staff I would write theater off entirely. The cast was wonderful to work with, and they had me choked up when they were thanking me. I guess I'm just a big softy or something, but if any of them read this, thank YOU. You made it worthwhile.

And lest I forget, big thanks to Audra for coming down and helping out a bit too.

Bucky Katt takes shape thanks to Blender.

2007-10-12T08:14:00.000-05:00

Blender. You've heard of it right?

I downloaded it years ago. I HATED it...the interface, the lack of help besides the mostly non-English speaking message boards at the time, well, that's all changed.

Now I'm starting to love it. With things like the many blender blogs, boards, and video tutorials that have popped up, as well as the commercially available books it doesn't make me want to pull my eyes out with a pickle fork.

So, without too much trouble I've gotten some of the basics of getting around and modeling in blender. This is the first organic modeling I've done, so it's a bit rough still and is a work in progress. It's really just a learning exercise on how to model things in there, and will be rigged and set up for animation at some point.

He is of course, Bucky Katt from Get Fuzzy.

It'll be a while until I can get him all set. Did I mention I'll probably upload the .blend file for him once he's all set?

In the mean time I'll be attempting to get good enough with Blender to pull off some of the CGI elements for a new short film I'm working on. It requires a fly crawling up a nose and a few other shots that probably are best to do CGI, at least on the budget we've got to work with.

Check back for more later.

In other news...

2007-08-29T02:52:00.000-05:00

Production crawls forward on Calamity House's Green Lantern: New Dawn. At this point I'm holding things up with some CGI shots.

Now that the goggles are off the plate, this kicks into high gear at the end of the week, or sooner. I just need a day or two to take care of a couple things, and get outside to the metroparks for some air and screwing around. It's been a long year so far and I fully intend to enjoy at least one summer day in semi-real nature.

Working on a few shots that I probably can't talk about just yet, so I won't beyond saying that there's a few geek things in there that I'm happy about after this summer's movie season. They did a pretty good job shooting it and making life for a semi-new to CGI a bit less hellish. Either that or I can pull stuff out of my no-no spot fairly well. I'd like to think it was them, because the thought of magically removing things from any of my orifices is rather disturbing.

Once I get an OK I'll post a few shots of the work over here first, the one reader who stops in deserves a scoop.

So, since I can't update my website....

2007-08-29T02:32:00.000-05:00

For some unknown and elusive reason I haven't able to update my website in the last few days, and things that I had uploaded before that are returning a 404. Most of the site's still there and operating.

Been a while since I posted anything here, mostly due to work. Been working on a few projects, the first being construction of some suits of armor for a movie. Took a lot longer then I expected and there were a few hiccups along the way, the main one being that I had to cast everything myself. 6 suits of armor, each composed of at least 25 parts, plus 4 piece guns. Fiberglass. Not fun. Also, a few of the parts had to be reworked, remolded, and recast. I'd rather not talk about it anymore right now.

After that a few things turned up. A set of Sam Fisher's goggles from Splinter Cell. These were a joy compared to the armor. The armor wasn't bad by itself, or if I'd have had some help. It was a learning experience, and the biggest thing I learned is not to touch anything like that for at least 4 times the money, and even then I had better be damn sure I have a working, large, vacuformer with a pile of precut plastic. Ok, back on track. The goggles. They don't do nothing, at least in this case. Built as a private commission they had to work, as in light up. I've seen some of the other designs out there that use LEDs. Not a fan myself, at least of the LEDs for that use. Very intense light reflecting off a lens into darkened tunnel-vision eyesight wandering around, usually at a crowded convention. No thanks. So I got to testing ideas for different means of illuminating them. Prism, nope. Different angle on the LEDs, nope. Polarized filter, nope. I tried a few other things. Nothing was giving me quite what I wanted.

A while back, a local discount/closeout store, Marc's, had those EL nightlights on sale for 2 or 3 for a dollar and Mr. FX that I am grabbed some since I have worked with EL wire before. Ok, worked isn't an accurate description, I have played with and wanted to work with it for a few things. So I pulled out my being seen inverter that I had cut the wire off of and a couple nightlight. Pulled those apart, carefully so as not to destroy the nice small "screen" looking piece that may prove handy for a future prop. I wrapped it into a tube and lit it. A nice glowing effect, especially if viewed from an angle. I put a plastic lens I had here (from the armor) into the tube and I could still see. Hmm, this might work. I had a safety vest from my days at Drifter, that had probably been there a good 10 years that had a thin, much more flexible, and most importantly, green EL strip about 1/2" wide sewn into it. Well, yanked that out and into the tube it went. GREAT!

I'd got the green glow, and most importantly the needed vision. Now it's just time to start building the things. Out came the handy box of left over resin castings. I know I had some of my resin-cast-for-machining-blanks in there. I had made a mold of a few different size PVC pipes that I could pour excess resin into and use those as fodder for the lathe if needed. Well, I turned a few tubes, bored them out with a lip for the lens and a cable routing hole to run the wire through. I also turned a center tube, which wasn't quite up to snuff, so back to the lathe I went and turned another that was much better. The plan was to house the EL inverter, batteries, and much of the cable in the center tube. In the end that worked out just fine, but there were a few tool wielding primates along the journey eager to lend a hand.

So, that's the end of the easy part. My weakness lay ahead, sculpting something symmetrically. Using the infrequently, perhaps twice in a pinch, old style monster makers full head armature I set to work. Thoughts of making a "plate" to mount the tubes on to ensure symmetry, placement, and things like that quickly ended when it became painfully apparent that the goggles were going to be at least 10" off the face going that route. Oh well, off it came with quite a bit of clay. The tubes got slammed into the clay, and things started looking better. So they weren't perfect. They were close enough. Sculpting away I did all the tricks to gain some semblance of symmetry.

Molding came to mind. The tubes I had initially turned, and the initial plan called for a flexible material with the cast resin tubes embedded into it. The tubes had been given a groove around the base to allow them to be held onto by dragon skin, which was the material of choice. Well, that went up in smoke since the plan had changed. OK, I thought. I'll just do a two piece silicone mold, laying some clay in to ensure an even wall thickness. Nope, I had been working off some less then ideal reference photos that I hadn't boosted the contrast enough on to see the large "V" cutouts on the sides. There's no way silicone that thin would have held it's shape. My mind wanders back to the "plate" idea slightly modified. A semi rigid box that would support the tubes, allow the straps to be attached without distorting the silicone under the weight. No, that'd require too much removal of clay to get back to that shape, and time's running out. Not enough time to do that after the mold's done and get it to fit.

Onward I march.

So now, I've scrapped my initial plan in favor of a "wing it" attitude trying to stay a step or two in front of those primates who I swear I could hear grunting as they heaved their plumbing tools. I'll get the sculpture done, and I guess I'll stick with the two part mold plan. I'll just get something else to cast it out of, something stiffer. Tick. Tick. Tick. CRAP! the clock's going to get me. Get your damn dirty paws off of me! "Or was it From my cold dead hands?" In any case they've got me in their grubby grasp.

So emails back and forth most of this time. The decision comes to just cast them in resin. I REALLY hate, I mean HATE, like even in real life I'm screaming to myself I HATE IT when I disappoint or can't make a deadline or deliver what I said I can. The monkeys begin their funny-if-you're-looking-on-and-not-the-target flailing assault. I agree to the resin, with every intention of casting one, then working out the bugs in time to cast another better one out of something else. So I set out to mold it. The primates plans realized. I make mistake after mistake, some my simple oversight, some truly unforeseen events. Molding takes a bit longer, and uses up valuable materials that fate would leave me throwing clenched first to the air and cursing my shortsightedness over later. The first part of the mold is finally done. Fingers are crossed. Mine that it has come out well, the short hairy ones that they're succeeded finally. Chimps be damned.

The results were a draw. I had mostly outsmarted them, through my own experience or dumb luck, but they had won one major victory. Since the center tube is stepped down at the lens end, and I was making a brush up glove mold, I had tried to keep the silicone thin and even inside the narrow, slightly deep tube while getting enough thickness built up. Imagine a squid's body inside an old coke bottle. You could simply squeeze it out the opening. Well, the silicone had pooled off the walls enough to make a nice solid plug inside the tube. Grandfather time sides with the monkeys and I have to carry on. I'll get a shot or two if this tears I'm going to have trouble, so I carefully cut the original tube out of the mold to avoid any chance of tearing it at this point. Quite a challenge with only two hands. Like wrestling with an anaconda? Have they recruited MORE help? Sneaky cheeky monkeys. Eventually I beat them at this newest game and got it out. Fine, now let's make the second part, the clay just will NOT stay in place, I still haven't figured out why. Perhaps feces flung at the mold? No, I'd have seen that. DAMN, that incessant ticking is getting old. It's not like there isn't a clock two feet in front of my face.

I decide to simply cast the tubes and coat the mold with a very thin, even coat of resin I can just build it up with the shell shock. I've easily got enough for two castings just in case. WRONG. I used most of it for the support shell instead of the dreaded fiberglass (did someone say armor?) Well, now I have to be extra careful and cautious. I made it, with just enough, or just an ounce or so under what would have been ideal. Now, the moment of truth, can I get this out without breaking it, or tearing the mold.... Away I pry, carefully, with compressed air, water, and some blood due to a sharp jagged edge newly created by me snapping a piece of leaked resin off when the wet springy mold got away from me. Pictures get sent out now. I have response. Yes, I'm well aware of those things and will be taking care of them. I do, more pictures. The reply would make it all worth it. I proceed to finish the face piece while attempting another casting in different materials. It doesn't fare as well as the resin cast did. Air bubbles, trouble here, trouble there. Now I fling the feces to the garbage not to be mocked by monkey luck. It'll be resin, that's all. As I trim I really wish I had doe the shell in another material as a few spots look dangerously thin to me. Break out the apoxie sculpt from it's position next to the duct tape in the fix-it toolbox. Build up a couple areas, add a more pronounced "lip" around the edge to glue some foamie padding to so it's a bit more comfortable. Prime, paint, ready to assemble the electronics and get this out.

Now Cornelius, Cheetah, Lancelot Link, and Curious George make their last stand. They put up a hellova good fight too.

The holder/ battery box was a simple item to whip up, I had made the center tube the size it is so I could save a bit of time here and just trim to length, mill and slot a resin blank to handle this. I was able to whip that up lickety split. Crap, I need contacts for the batteries. To the junk boxes! Hmmm, nothing much in the way to contacts that'll work out of the box here. I have a bag of assorted copper clad board material I bought a while ago in the electronics drawers. That'll serve as the negative (bottom) contact here. Did I mention the size limitations and use of cheap button cells? CR 2450s since Pat Catans carries them for use in some of their LED tea lights and a 4 pack runs $1.89 and tax. I had bought some CR2032 holders on the off chance that I'd use them for the availability factor, but looking into it, they probably wouldn't have enough oomph. To the OTHER junk box. Here's where the packrat, get it while you can and find a use later mentality paid off. Some years ago while working stock at a local drug store I had the opportunity to take many displays. One of them was a cosmetic unit that had spring steel coils, like you'd find in a tape measure, to push the product forward. Many years later I had broken the bulk of the plastic display but decide to pull those out and toss into the box for future use. Looking at the 2032 holders, they were essentially close enough for my taste. Quickly cutting off a length I attempted to solder a wire onto it. No go. scuffing it with the dremmel proved to have no effect. Well, I was already paddle-less and upstream where the EL strips came in. Days earlier I had tested with success means for connecting wires to the trimmed strips. Today that method just was not working. I couldn't solder to them for fear of melting the lamination sealing the AC in. I had looked locally for conductive copper tape with no luck. I remembered something I saw online, perhaps on make or instructables. Conductive glue. Maybe I saw it in a store, I honestly don't remember, nor does it matter. Time for some mad scientist type experimentation. Superglue sounded like an idea candidate for the base, and the 2 pounds of aluminum powder I use to dust my molds before casting was within reach. It's aluminum after all. Metals conduct electricity. So, a little powder in the glue, mix, apply to the EL strip and let dry. Now, the moment of truth. Hold the wires from the EL inverter to the hard blobs and hope for the best. Monkeys 1, me 2. It worked like a champ, and what's better I tried to pry it loose and it held fairly well, in fact when it finally did pull loose it took the conductor right off the EL strip. So it worked there, so the next test was connecting it to the stainless spring I'd fashioned from the display part. No problem there either.

With those minor issues worked out I could proceed to disassembling the inverter I had bought for this so I could mount it into the battery/electronics holder. I had to remove the switch since it would be inaccessible when mounted and there had to be an easy way to turn the on and off. Chim Chim has a large lead on third. I managed to get the switch off, but somewhere along the lines of wiring the new one I totally screw up the board overheating it trying to determine which set of the 10 pins of the switch I need to connect to. He steals home to tie the game. The bastard! Actually, I'm not quite sure if that's where I went wrong or if I toasted one of the many SMD resistors. Fine, I've got another. I can still make it. I've got a day left to assemble this, a few wires, some heat shrink, a few hours tops.

King Kong steps up to bat and knocks one out of the park with two outs, two strikes in the ninth. I melt a couple of the copper traces off of this inverter. TIMEOUT COACH! What now? I have to have these out tomorrow at the absolute latest, and even then I'm betting on UPS not screwing me. The fine folks at HobbyTown USA to the rescue. But it's not quite that simple. An accident in front of their driveway, every elderly woman who stereotypically couldn't see over the wheel was on the road and letting the fast and furious types cut into traffic. All this over a sunfire with the hood tacoed up after driving into the rudder of a trailered sailboat. I swear to God. Feces flying in every direction.

God, I should have just got this in the first place weeks ago.. They had one, 1, uno, singular of Miller Engineering's experimenter's kits on their shelf. I will now be buying several more for the simple fact that it saved my bacon. It was meant to use with EL cable, but from the appearance of the kits on their website will also drive about 6 square inch EL panel, so it should be fine for the 4.something square inches of the EL strip I'm using in these goggles. They could have the worst customer service in the world, but compared to a few other places I tried to contact about their products, they'd STILL be better because they sold a product that worked. Just a quick aside to EL companies with slick websites and online stores. If your store software doesn't work with IE or firefox, or is down, REMOVE THE LINK. If something else is up, please make an update to your website, even if you have to hire someone to do it for you. Please don't say you answer ALL emails within 24 hours. Now, back to our story. So, the miller kit comes wired for 2 AAA batteries. That got snipped. Thin wires lead to the EL cable socket. They were plenty long too, so they got snipped, the thing wired up beautifully. In fact, at this point it was just like I had anticipated the electronics would go together. The homebrewed conductive glue worked fine.

The last step, to apply the mirrored window film applied to acrylic lenses and install them. Ah, grape ape hits deep fly ball and the crowd gasps thinking the end is in sight for the home team. The package says not to apply the film to acrylic or Plexiglas. The man working the window and door section at a big orange home center thinks it should be fine. The film's website explains it. Difference in expansion and contraction due to heating of the plastic and glass can cause the film to bubble and peel. Hmmm, these are small areas. Small areas on a sealed black plastic mask worn close to the body. The catcher gives the sign. Screw it, I shake it off and decide to go forward. A little extra film and a few extra lenses go into the box along with the finished goggles, extra batteries, cast strap, as grape ape's fly ball is caught.

57 dollars for next day shipping later the finished goggles are on their way out via UPS. The tracking page indicates they're on their way...to Illinois? Is the umpire trying to rule that an infield homerun? They're headed the opposite direction.

I'm waiting on the ruling from the umps now.

No monkeys were harmed in the composition of this post, but man would I like to take a tire iron the those meddling monkeys.

lolcats

2007-07-16T00:37:00.001-05:00

In honor of the many hours (at least) spent laughing at the feline grammar and poses captured for eternity I present these offerings. For many more that are probably better see I can has cheezeburger?

Yes, I'm also very well aware of the incorrect font and accurate spelling that Wallace Trump used. I can't find what I did with the source file so I can't redo it right now.

RIP Boots Randolph

2007-07-04T21:46:00.000-05:00

Dead at the age of 80, the legendary sax player Boots Randolph, whom I never met. I mention his passing because I have (very loose) ties to the family and wish to extend my prayers and sadness of his passing.

Congratulations to Natural Bridges

2007-05-20T21:38:00.000-05:00

Those with their hands elbow deep in the Natural Bridges puppets have had a fun time recently. For the month of April they toured Europe thanks to Armed Forces Entertainment. For some further info peep this.

I've done some work for them over the years, so here's some free publicity...now if they'd just get me some pictures to put up here.

FANBOY!

2007-05-20T21:28:00.001-05:00

So, finally something I worked on makes it to the big screen. Damn, that's not true, a few things have now. Oh well.

Anyway, Fanboy's available to buy now. Comic geeks and lovers of romantic comedies will like it. Independent movie lovers will too. Who the hell am I kidding, everyone will like it. It's good. The acting's good, especially for the first timers, the dialogue is fine- not too much, not to little. Normally I don't dig romantic comedies as they make me hate my pathetic life even more, but this one's good. I guess it must be the comic and comedic elements and seeing so much of myself in various characters. Probably other things too, (like Nancy Fletcher) but that's what I really dug about it.

Fanboy links on the web:

www.FanboyTheMovie.com
Calamity House
the Calamity House myspace page

hot damn!

2007-04-13T20:23:00.000-05:00

A movie I played a very very small role in will be in a theater, soon.

Big props to the folks at Calamity House Productions. May 6th I'll be taking time out from my schedule to go check it out. I haven't seen much of it, actually, I've only seen the trailer, which of course you can see on their site.

I can't wait to report back.

cannon... a work in progress. Part 4

2007-03-14T23:12:00.000-05:00

The back half has been turned down. You can also see the file mentioned earlier in the bottom left of the pic.

Here it is.

Just another view showing the button on the back. It didn't quite get rounded enough. Now that I did this one I've got some thoughts on how to make things go smoother.

As mentioned, use as large a spindle as you can. Reduce the epoxy use so that it's only as large as the smallest section. If possible, use wood caps or something that will not dig into the foam if the nuts tighten. Cut as close to the finished size as possible, make it "stair step" and cut the sections round as this balances it and reduces wobble and the mess.

The biggest thing that would help is to use a wood lathe with a support would be much better suited to turning foam then a metal lathe set up like this.

The only thing left is to drill a hole in the barrel, add the trunions, and the vent hole. After that it's all a matter of skinning it over. Wood glue works well, then you can apply polyester resin or bondo to form a hard shell. Smooth that, spot putty and then make a mold.

I'm debating if I should do another with the changes I mentioned above to improve the shape. Some sections are slightly out of round due to the wobble in the thin shaft.

more to come...

cannon... a work in progress. Part 3

2007-03-14T22:53:00.000-05:00

The front half of the cannon is turned down. Basically it was just long boring work. Something I found out along the way, USE THE LARGEST DIAMETER SPINDLE AS YOU CAN. There were some vibration issues and "flop" at higher speeds, due to the length of the rod as well as it's thin 3/8" diameter. 1/2" would probably have been better, 3/4" better still. I think that's as thick as I could do without boring the headstock on the lathe out.

A little bit further along in the process. No, no action photos since I only have two hands. Another thing I realized is that I should have only used epoxy to the smallest diameter of the foam...that is, it doesn't shape as well with file cards so you'll have to use the file on it. If less is used in the only the center you can turn it quicker.

A close up of the end. if you look closely at the seams between the discs you can see they're raised, the result of the epoxy.

Here's some of the tools used, as well as a huge mess.

More to come...

cannon... a work in progress. Part 2

2007-03-14T22:43:00.000-05:00

This is the basic plan, scaled up plans for a "miniature eighteen pounder" to what I felt would make a nice small cannon. Nothing too fancy here. In the background you can see the beginning of the shaping of the foam.

Here's a shot showing the initial smoothing out of all the rough cuts. You can also see that doing this makes a huge mess of very fine foam dust and chunks, depending on what kind of tools you're using. I guess I should mention what I'm using, huh? Primary tools are an auto body file, or a horse shoe file. It has large arched teeth and you'll be able to see it better in another pic later. Also a rasp, a file card and some drywall sandpaper. Open window screen type since it doesn't clog nearly as much. I said there was a bit of static, it's actually pretty cool to see the foam spinning and the small bits orbiting it, not flying off, but orbiting. It gets old fast since as soon as you touch them they stick to you instead.

More to come...

cannon... a work in progress. Part 1

2007-03-14T22:39:00.000-05:00

So, as promised, the cannon build ....

I've turned foam before, back when I had no lathe. I did it with a large "U" shaped setup built out of 2x10. There was a large flat base with two uprights, one upright had a hole for a drill. I chucked up the threaded rod after fitting the drill into the large hole, the other end sat in a bearing. It worked OK, but not great as the drill kept falling out of the hole.

Now that I've got the lathe, I might as well use it right? If this cannon was an inch smaller in diameter I think I could have pulled it off over the bed. How can you turn a foam cannon that is larger then the mini lathe you have? Since you could turn several sections and glue them together, the real problem is how do you overcome the swing over the bed issue? You could build something like this.

Here we have the extended rear bed for a 7x12 mini lathe. It's just a piece of 2x10 with a piece cut off to form the support. Some shelf brackets and another piece of wood hold it in place. A hole was drilled to fit a small bearing that the threaded rod rides in. Yes, bench space has been exceeded. It's not really a smart idea to have it overhanging the bench like that. This will be fixed with the expansion of the shop in the somewhat near future.

The cannon itself is 21 discs cut out of pink insulation foam held together with 5 minute epoxy. A hole was drilled at the center of each disc to hold it onto a long piece of threaded rod. At the ends two nuts and as large a washer as I had on hand was used to clamp it together while the epoxy hardened.

You can see the washer here as well as the rough cutting of the foam.

More to come...

Cannon: step 0, err, -1

2007-03-14T06:33:00.000-05:00

For some reason I can't get any pics uploaded here right now...so I'll hold off on adding cannon stuff.

I will say that there were a few issues that came up, but nothing too serious, and if anything it was a learning experience.

stay tuned.

some new props

2007-02-27T19:49:00.000-05:00

Yep, now offering a 36" pipe wrench, a 12" crescent wrench, and a golf club.

Not too much new in the world here.

Working on a few props, including a 32" cannon that I'll probably detail the build here as it comes together. The barrel, I'm sure that there is a different term for it that I don't know, will be shaped out of XPS foam sheet. That's already been epoxied together with a threaded rod fit down the center. It will be mounted through the headstock of a lathe on an extension fit behind it and the far end of the rod will sit in a bearing. As with all foam, a rasp, file card, and dry wall screen will be used to shape it, all while the lathe runs in reverse to keep the speed down which should help prevent the foam from melting and tearing.

After the barrel is shaped, I'll coat it with wood glue to seal the foam, one or two coats is usually enough. Bondo "cut" with polyester resin will be applied, allowed to cure, then sanded and filed on the lathe. Finally, some spot putty to clean that up and make a nice glassy surface. Follow that up with some filler primer and we're ready to move on.

This is a private commission for display, but a mold will be made for casting fiberglass copies. Eventually I plan to make one that will fire pneumatically, perhaps marshmallows or NERF balls. I'm going to be making at least a 2 part brush-on 50 and fiberglass support shell. The plan is to only shape the last few inches of the barrel, then on casting to fit some PVC pipe into it.

To make the castings, both halves of the mold will have fiberglass matte laid up by hand, being careful not to cross the edge of the mold. When that has set, a bondo/polyester resin mix will be made, fiberglass tape applied to the seams, and the mold will be closed. I'll rotate the mold so the mixture bonds the two halves together. On opening the mold some final work will be needed, as is always the case, but this is mostly light sanding and touching up the seam with bondo, or spot putty, or both. The casting will be primed, then painted to look like either brass or cast iron.

The carriage will be another story.

For the immediate future I'll simply detail the cannon's construction.

Stay tuned for more on that....

...but first, Bucky Katt needs to get off my bench.

I'd just like to...

2007-01-29T15:30:00.000-05:00

...go on record expressing my thanks for some of these folks.

Chensational's blog

puppeteers unite

Creaturiste's blog

Puppet 101

Snapdragon puppets

none of them actually helped me, but with the magic answer box here, a little bit of pattern making experience from my last "real" job making backpacks, and a lot of dumb luck I managed to pull off my first venture into something along the lines of puppet building. Three large sheet foam masks for a theater company.

You can see them by stopping by the site and having a look at the puppet samples.

WELCOME TO US

2007-01-29T13:34:00.000-05:00

Hello from lovely snow covered Cleveland Ohio! Home to gray skies, snow, rain, and not too much else. OK, so there are some other things here. The Rock and Roll hall of Fame, the sports...all those damn sports, and well, I guess I covered everything.

Fine, there are some folks here trying to make some movies, folks doing special effects, hell, I guess there really is something going on here after all.

This will be a "behind the scenes" and commentary from my point of view on the FX scene here. Who am I? Why, I'm Tom. Don may chime in from time to time, but he's based down in Pittsburgh.

Welcome, now stop back soon when we have some more content.