Mad God : pt4

The Pit: 240x in 7hrs.... couldn't see a thing, staring into the LED light held by the puppet was like staring into that light the Eye Dr. uses to see the backside of your eyeball. ya know the one where they say, " look at my left ear and the light-bar burns into the corner of your vision and it feels like your staring just to the side of the sun on a snow pack field?
none the less the feeling of being lost in a giant cavern, slowly moving thru a curious and impossible environment was mesmerizing. the time just slipped by as frame by frame the Assassin crept forward.

the Assassin and me.

this is more like what it looked like on the Set.... DARK!

Had to go Old School and shoot using surface guages because all i could see on the Frame Grabber was 10 pixels of a white spot that was the Assassin's Torch-

Got to shoot this one with Jim Apperle!!! he did the lighting and the camera move.

Circe: in progress

i have 1 camera on the Stop Motion set, the other camera shooting time lapse of a sculpture,(but still got the iPhone) also teaching Harper how to make diorama of Coco Chanel for school. But managed to get a couple new castings done (the cold weather makes it take about 3+ weeks for the catalyst to completely fire)... and started another sculpt. CIRCE.

Mad God: update 3

Blaring the Soundtrack to "The Fountain" and Ennio Morricone, we dance out a few more shots, WWII BlitzKrieg Cannons, Search Lights, and tiny tiny Guards in tiny towers, pointing tiny fingers and "Fire!"...

Phil Tippett and Gibby-

Mad God : update 2

For those out there still over analyzing, over thinking, squeezing the proverbial pencil to tight, the MG crew rattled off another couple shots. We were graced with Dennis Muren on this shoot. He swept in and in about 30min. had a set a few lights found an apple box and set down to animate some Search Lights, no fuss, what a talent, said he hadn't shot a frame in something like 25yrs. and he rattled off a shot, perfect, NO RESHOOTs ! i love that guy...

Dennis Muren, Hans Brekke, cMo,..

Hans and Dennis

the Eternal Stone: pt2

a little test shot that is starting to take on a life of it's own. stay tuned i'm going to keep at it til it's something.

Mad GOd update: 1

Well this weekend marked the 1st "tag team" shot between myself and the Mad Alchemist himself, Phil Tippett. We started around 10am putting the finishing touches on the set (mostly me telling Phil to STOP! hot-glueing stuff to the TOWER!) then around 2pm we did a quick Pop Thru on 3's to see the camera Boom. and then.... Pull the Trigger, Unleash the Hounds, ..! it's "Animation as Theater" we adjust, adapt, and animate on the fly as we go, it was definetley more of a 'dance' than the typical Stop Motion practice!!! We couldn't see anything the set was so dark, we just watched the specular kicks off the edges of shadows and let the rest to fate.
We finished the shot around 10pm and went home exhausted but happy. Animation CAN be a "performance" and not some stiff-premeditated-overly-analyzed-over-critiqued process! And you can take THAT to the Bank.

pic1: Phil Tippett at work

pic2: Chris Morley & Gibby

the Disobedient Pet:

it's back to the drawing thing. just to keep the muscles moving, 1 day doodles inspired by my kids (kid me) world, as usual, although i promise m0nsterS to appear soon.
it's whatever i can accomplish in a day, 1 idea , 1 chance.

the END :

today Jim Brown looked over at me and said, " i Surrender "... and i knew exactly what he was talking about! we've been doing this Once A Week ting for 30 weeks now and well i think we'd both like to sleep again-

a last installment ... just for a while