Stop-Motion Animation Set - The Bridge of the Ship

I've been pretty busy and posting here has suffered. Here's one of the things I was busy with. I have built the set of the ship. It will be used for some stop-motion segments and for help in layout. It's rather large and takes up a good portion of my dining room. It took several weeks to build when I could find spare time from work, family and friends. Here are some pictures from the building process.

Step one build your base.

Here are the materials used on the base.

Here's Cooper wondering what I'm doing and why I'm not taking him for a walk on such a nice day.

Then set up where the wall will be. Materials used here were foam core, the little triangle things that are intended to keep those cheap blinds anchored at the bottom but no one ever uses. I actually save those kind of things for just such creative occasions.

I tried to set this up so certain sections could be removed to allow for the camera to get better shots. Materials are 3/4 inch Styrofoam, duct tape and "Foamies" - beige color. Oh yes, and spray glue.

From there I went on to make the ceiling. It's removable also and made of pretty much the same materials as the rest of the structure. The elements such as the back rails, the trim on the door and the girders in the ceiling were drawn and colored in Adobe Flash. Yes I said Flash - not Illustrator. I like the tools in Flash. Then I export them as jpegs and bring them out. From there I glue them to foam core or poster board and shape them into the parts I need. The short posts are printouts wrapped around small tubes that I saved from somewhere and the red things on top are the lids to hotel shampoo bottles painted red. Okay, I'll stop listing all the weird things I save, but if you rummaged through my garage you wouldn't believe what you would find. 

This is it in front of our couch to give you and idea of how large it is. 

This is it with the rest of the elements in it. As I get into the stop-motion segments I'll show you more of what cool things these elements do.

Oh and I have a great wife! Not once did she complain about the mess I was making in the dining room, living room, kitchen, garage or back yard. In fact she even bragged to others about it all... the animation set, that is, not the mess. 

Survivor: Bugworld

Bug World - Survivor, Bug World from Lee Waller on Vimeo.

I mentioned that I would post pieces from older projects as I.G.G. moves along. This is a short section from the 30 minute video Bugworld. It examines the world of ... Yes bugs. This short piece incorporates stop-motion animation, puppetry, motion graphics and Flash animation.

The Best Alien Baby Name Book I've Ever Read

In creating this cast of characters for Intergalactic Gung-Ho Gurus I found that alien names aren't that easy to come up with. Inevitably you end up having the same names (or at least very similar ones) that you've heard used in other stories, cartoons or movies. What to do?

I have found that I like boundaries. With school projects I enjoyed tight parameters on what I could and could not do, what materials I could use and what I was trying to accomplish. It seemed these boundaries worked to squeeze the creative juices better. So for this, I set my own boundaries. 

Looking through different books on my shelf I found The Word Museum by Jeffrey Kacirk. It is full of defunct English words that have great combinations of offbeat definitions and amazingly meaty sounds. For instance Brizzle sounds like burnt and sizzle and it's definition means about that. Eureka! This would be my parameters. All the alien names would come from this book. 

So far, almost everyone of them has (You'll see two characters very soon that came from another idea). It was a lot of fun going through this book and finding the coolest words. The definitions of these words sometimes helped me to define a characteristic or physical trait of the character. 

So if you are looking to name a new born alien, then I would highly recommend giving this book a once over.

Introducing the Characters - Madam Thrunch

Madam Thrunch is the CEO (Chief Executive Overlord) of Gandermoon Studios - the company that produces Intergalactic Gung-Ho Gurus.

She's the ultimate source of fear for Thunderstone. When I put her in the script I knew she had to be terrifying in a funny way. Yes, she's a bit of a spoof on the Emperor from Star Wars.

 I played around with a variety of ideas. At first the cute yet evil bunny character under a dark cloak seemed appealing, but then I got a few gag ideas that work better with a frog-like alien.

These are the designs that started emerging.

I went further and decided to try a take off on the walking hologram projector from the Phantom Menace. The one in the movie walked on spider-like legs. I figured I'd give mine frog legs. This will make it kind of comical to watch. I'm not sure if I'd do it in Flash or Stop-mo.

She has to have an imposing throne. A hint of Toadstool here. 

This is the sketch I'm going to use to start the puppet with.

Introducing the Characters - Dr. Mucksluff

Dr. Mucksluff is a cross between Mr. Spock and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Normally a self-controlled, highly rational scientist this cat-like alien has an alter-ego that comes out only occasionally. It’s a slobbery, wolf-like creature. He’s not very articulate. His short sentences are accented with growls, snorts and the occasional howl. With this character I’m playing off the cat and dog, Jekyll and Hyde persona. While the dog part is not nearly as cruel as Mr. Hyde, it is intimidating and Dr. Mucksluff brings it out when others seem to be unreasonable.

The Cat part came pretty easily, but, as you’ll see in the many sketches, the dog part was a bit harder to nail down. But I had a lot of fun “finding” him.

Oh yes, as with the other hosts’ names, Mucksluff is a “dead” English word. It was once used to describe a nice looking garment that was worn over a ratty looking one for the purpose of covering it up. I thought it fit the character well.

Below are the sketches for the dog-like half of Dr. Mucksluff. These are a small portion of the sketches I made it.

This last one is what I am aiming for the final character(s) to look like. 

My Writing Space When Writing About Space

It's 4:45 am. I'm sitting at my dining room table trying to make progress on the script for Intergalactic Gung-Ho Gurus. It's not happening so what do I do? I take a picture of my writing space and post it to the web.

Weekdays I get up around 4:00 am to work on this project. I have to be at my teaching job about 6:45 and afternoons are rather unsure when it comes to what demands will be placed on my time, so my only guaranteed time to get work on the film done is in the wee hours of the morning.

Just a note about the writing.I believe with a project like this, writing is everything. Without a well-written story the quality of animation or special effects won't matter very much.

By the way, I do have an office here in the house, but when I write I have to spread out a bit, as you can see, and my computer desk doesn't have the space.

Introducing the Characters - Brizzle Batterfang a.k.a. “Fang”

Abrasive, tough, pull-no-punches. Fang is a tomboy mechanic who helps keep the ship and the show together – a Ms. Fixit both literally and figuratively.

Her formal name is made up of two great old English words: Brizzle, which means to scorch, and Batterfang, which means to beat and bite. However, she goes by Fang.

 I wanted Fang small but tough – kind of a cross between a Chihuahua and a piranha – a “Chiranha” if you will. Here’s how the sketches started.

The trouble with these? The uniform was making her look too militaristic. She resembled a galactic conqueror more than a rough-edged good guy.

So I took the head covering off and played with the position of the ears. Her trademark fang moved around some too. 

 This is the sketch I’m using to build the puppet. The animation designs will come after the puppet is built.