Ubatuber Productions

Happy 2012!

2012-01-03T15:56:00.000-06:00

*whew* Sorry I haven't posted in so long! Its been a busy couple of months for me. Let me catch you up...

I am really proud of this drawing of a bit of wrought iron in Lafayette Cemetery, I used a reference photo that was blurry at the edges and decided to try to capture that blurriness in spots by smudging the charcoal, a nice effect...

Around midway through November, I signed up for a spot in an arts and crafts show. Once I was officially invited to participate, the month that followed was pretty much a non-stop factory of crafty goodness. I made tons of hand-painted magnets and ornaments, learned how to cast soap to make streetcar soaps (more coming next year, I have tons of ideas now that I know how to do it...) and created new charcoal art and paintings that I could peddle :) All with a local flair, New-Orleans themed.

The show was extremely successful for me, I made enough money to give Roman an awesome Christmas, and look forward to participating again next year!

Next came two weeks of Christmas crafting for family gifting. Every year I gather all of the memory cards from family members and edit together about an hour of footage of everyone, videos & photo slideshows. Christmas, birthdays, events, funny little vignettes, all compiled on a dvd and given as gifts. That takes a ridiculous amount of time, but I always manage to finish burning disks late Christmas Eve!

And now I'm back....sort of....all that crafting has created piles of stuff in my studio that needs to be cleaned up. I can't even get to my sets for "Unearthed". Cleaning it all is like staring at the rings on the stump of some gigantor tree, each layer of "mess" tells a different story, a snippet of the last couple of months of labors of love. Once that is all cleaned up, I'm back at it. I'm probably going to put away the marionette for a bit to refocus on animation, because thats where my mind is right now...

Happy Halloween from the Roché Family

2011-10-28T15:36:00.000-05:00

Mardi Gras Marionette - The Mask

2011-10-18T12:25:00.002-05:00

I've been working on carving the hands and feet, which is time consuming. Periodically, I've switched over to painting the head and sculpting/embellishing the mask. She has taken on a bird-like quality which I love, and I will be adding feathers to her gown as well. Her mask is removable right now, but I will probably glue it down when it is done. I've considered putting magnets on it so she can remove it during performance, but I'm not sure yet...

Marionette - Hips and legs

2011-10-14T15:33:00.002-05:00

Still working on the marionette, alls thats left is the hands and feet....and painting...and costuming...I've also gotten a couple of paintings done in the last few days. One was for Juli on our anniversary (oct. 12), a quick little painting done from one of our wedding photos. The second features Morgus the Magnificent, a local, late-night, B movie horror film host from my childhood. He had a wonderfully sick and absurd sense of humor, and showed the greatest bad films ever produced.

Marionette - Waist Up...

2011-09-28T17:17:00.000-05:00

Been busy cleaning the studio (again....how can so much crap accumulate so quickly? Am I a creative hoarder?) Also progressing nicely with my first marionette! She is done from the waist up (minus hands, 'cause I'm afraid of hands, but they'll get done eventually....probably last :) I am loving the amount of detail required to build one of these pups, I may end up having to add lead weights in places like the hips to make sure the weight is distributed evenly. Right now she sort of leans forward a bit, due to the heaviness of her solid arms and breasts as compared to her hollow chest cavity. I wont know for sure until I string her, I suppose its possible to adjust her stance with the tightness of the strings (she will be strung at the ears, shoulders, wrists, knees, and possibly somewhere at her back). Her shoulders joints are leather cord anchored inside her torso and strung through her shoulder, tied at the outside, knot secured with glue. Her elbows and wrists are strips of leather glued into slots carved into her arms. More coming soon...

Marionette - Torso Begun

2011-09-22T09:50:00.002-05:00

Marionette - Developing the Head

2011-09-19T17:02:00.001-05:00

I am currently creating my first marionette, a Mardi Gras reveler complete with feathers, gown, and mask. Her puppeteering "gimmick" will be that she is second-lining, dancing to a Mardi Gras beat while waving a handkerchief in the air. It is a New Orleans wedding and funeral tradition that is sort of difficult to explain, so here is a link to a video if you are curious :)

I have already made the neck of my puppet, choosing to go with a neck that is free floating, unconnected to the head or shoulders except by a cord tied on either end that will be anchored inside the head/torso. This allows for free movement of the head independent of the torso or neck.

I have also started on the head. I carved out a piece of styrofoam, covered it in plaster wrap, and then began adding layers of water based, air dry clay. Once complete, the styrofoam will be removed piece by piece so the head is hollow and able to be strung from the inside (the alternative, a solid head, involves visible screw eyes for stringing). The nose is rather ugly but will be concealed by a mask, so I am mostly focused on making the eyes, lips, and chin as nice as they can be.

More coming soon, I'm riding a wave of inspiration :)

Strings

2011-09-17T17:18:00.000-05:00

This week, I was struck with sudden inspiration, found myself pondering marionettes. I love puppets of all kinds, have always wanted to branch out from stop mo, and building a marionette is one of those items on my creative bucket list. So I started doing research, and found surprisingly little online. A few tutorials here and there, but most sites say, like stopmo, that there are a million and one ways to construct a stringed puppet, and its all about experimentation. A lot of sites recommended a particular book, "Making and Manipulating Marionettes" by David Currell, so I checked it out from my local library, read it, loved it. Very thorough, yet not confusing for a beginner. I plan on designing my first marionette tonight, and will construct it this week (I'm on vacation from work and this is how I plan to play :)

More info as it develops, sketches, design plans, and whatnot...

Unearthed - The Story So Far...

2011-09-07T18:34:00.004-05:00

I've finished the cemetery scene and rerendered "Unearthed" complete with all of the footage I have filmed so far! Enjoy!

Quick Lil' Giantest

2011-08-30T15:16:00.000-05:00

Painting the Giantess

2011-08-26T17:35:00.000-05:00

More Giant Progress

2011-08-24T15:39:00.000-05:00

I've added more strands of hair, constructed the buried hand/fingers which will bar the entrance to the cave, and added a mostly buried foot to the base of the small cliff. Next up I'll complete the layers of moss/grass, add some trees/plants, and some vines/roots for Herbie to climb.

The Buried Giantess

2011-08-12T15:44:00.001-05:00

I'm finishing up another big set piece, the entrance to the cave in "Unearthed", the mouth of the buried stone giantess. The fingers are rigged with armature for twitchy movement. Gonna add more "hair" and a layer of spackle over the whole thing to rough it up a bit and give it some stony texture. I'm working with layers of plaster wrap right now, and the hand is a rubber Halloween decoration that I picked up a couple of years ago.

Walls and Weapons

2011-07-28T23:16:00.000-05:00

Today I finished up another prop for Herbie's apartment, this will be mounted to a wall, on display, a Reaper's scythe.

Also created another wall for the apartment. I mounted a couple of sheets of scrapbook paper (a great resource for "wallpaper" of all colors and patterns), then dry brushed a deeper red over the whole thing to sort of unify the pattern a bit and hide the seem between sheets of paper.

The previous wall was made back in '07 I believe *sheesh* Here's an image of it...

More coming soon...

Mossy/Mold Technique

2011-07-26T16:22:00.000-05:00

Just successfully added a moss like mold to my friezes. Alls I did was brush on some elmer's glue where I wanted mold, then stuck on a big piece of green felt flocking, let the glue dry, and peeled off the excess flocking. I'll be using this technique a ton for Jenny G...

Frieze!!

2011-07-24T18:45:00.000-05:00

I'm going to add some green flocking in areas I think, like a covering of moss or algae. Also gonna shatter them in places...

Swampy Inspiration

2011-07-24T14:34:00.000-05:00

Spent some time googling Jenny reference photos today.....

Unearthed - Next Scene Set Up...

2011-07-07T13:09:00.001-05:00

Herbie enters the woods surrounding the cemetery and wanders, searching for.....something....

These scenes will be a montage of wandering, fading one shot to another. For each, I will rearrange trees and alter lighting to make it appear as if Herbie has hiked for miles, the fading between shots meant to show passage of time.

These trees will be retired after this short, since I've used them for three shorts now (Widow, Tree Beast, not to mention a slew of Nola bits). When it comes time for Jenny G pre-production, I will be fabricating all new shrubberies and such :)

Fairy Victrola & Mezzotint - Done!

2011-07-04T23:33:00.000-05:00

Ghostly reshoots complete, bit more fiddling with effects and editing and the scene will be done. Fairy victrola is done, as is the mezzotint, which is a prop based on an old M.R.James short story about a haunted print. Here is a link to the tale if you are interested, it is one of my favorites. To create the image, I scoured real estate listings for "victorian manors" until I found the right look, then tweaked the image in photoshop to get a "mezzotinty" appearance.

Unearthed - Fairy Victrola & Devil's Backbone

2011-06-29T16:46:00.000-05:00

Latest progress--the victrola mostly just needs a paintjob, and the lil diablo is done. The amber liquid is a two-part resin that I added a drop of orange acrylic paint to. I just poured it and snapped the pic, hopefully it doesn't become cloudy as it sets...

"Unearthed" - New Props

2011-06-28T16:37:00.000-05:00

I'm working on a handful of props for the remaining scenes in "Unearthed", still have to paint and weather the plaster friezes from the previous post, also need to reshoot a ghost scene for the cemetery shots, but spent today on a couple of new bits for Herbie's apartment. As a treasure hunter, particularly the supernatural variety, Herbie has amassed an impressive collection of items which will be scattered about his home. A lot of the props for that set have been based on items from some of my favorite horror movies and gothic lit (the demon mask from "Onibaba", the Zuni doll from "Trilogy of Terror", the Mezzotint from MR James' short story, to name a few) and some of the props are from my own imagination.

This cute lil guy is made of sculpey. He is based on the fetus-in-a-jar from the film "Devil's Backbone". He will be inserted into a tiny jar filled with an amber liquid.

I've dubbed this prop the Fairy Victrola, it has a bell made from a leaf, and will be painted with vines. When Herbie first enters his home he will drop on a record, so I will have this rigged with an animatable needle and turntable. More to come!

"Unearthed" Continues

2011-06-22T14:42:00.000-05:00

I'm officially back to work on "Unearthed", today I am finishing up editing the cemetery scenes, mostly compositing and tweaking ghost footage.

I've also been working on a few props for the next scenes. As Herbie wanders through the woods searching for his treasure, he will come upon pieces of a broken temple. I'll have a few broken friezes and columns, which I have been casting in plaster.

I've also been working on a new portfolio website. When I updated this template and discovered that you can now have "pages" on your blog, I decided to do a proper portfolio website, with pages devoted to different media. Go check it out at JeffreyRoche.com, I have a slew of charcoals, prints, puppets, and paintings up so far. (Domain name registered for 2 years through godaddy.com and linked up with my blogger address!)

The Fates Present: Pyramus & Thisbe

2011-06-04T23:01:00.003-05:00

Pyramus & Thisbe Coming Soon...

2011-06-02T23:19:00.000-05:00

I'm still tinkering with my layout, trying different blog banners, possibly an animated GIF like my old header, I dunno....

Reminder: don't forget to tune in here this Saturday night for the chance to watch Pyramus & Thisbe!!!!

Site Under Construction...

2011-05-25T12:03:00.002-05:00

Please excuse my mess while I update my blog template...I'll be testing out different backgrounds and banners over the next few days so don't get too attached to anything :)

NW Animation Fest, Here We Come!!

2011-05-16T12:55:00.004-05:00

WOOT!! "Pyramus & Thisbe" has been accepted into the NW Animation Festival, running June 3, 4, and 5th!! I plan to release the film online that weekend so everyone gets to see it around the same time :) I'll keep you posted here...

WOO-HOO!! :D

UPDATE: As you can see from my little countdown widget, I will be releasing P&T online at midnight on the Saturday of the festival! Be there or be square ;)

Whew! Wipes Sweat Off Brow

2011-05-05T21:32:00.003-05:00

Well I did it. I've finished the film, it is in the hands of the first festival's jury! I plan to submit to several others, including Montreal's StopMo Fest. If accepted into the NW Animation Fest, I plan to release the film online on the weekend of the fest. If not, I'll release it in the next few weeks here.

I accomplished a lot with this film. I worked with a narrator for the first time, and found that I really enjoyed having a soundtrack (the voice recording) to animate to. I watched as scenes played out exactly as I imagined them in my head, not all of them mind you, but enough to make me feel like my animating skills are suitably developed to take on......*gulp*.....Ms. Greenteeth (a film that's been swimming around in my psyche since 2005). I tried some new techniques, including paint-on-glass and a bit of traditional 2-D animation. Not to mention that I completed an 8 1/2 minute short in just over two months. Yay me!

I was, though, and for the first time, extremely disappointed with the quality I was able to achieve with my camera (still using an old Sony analog Handycam). Don't get me wrong, I've always known the quality was lacking, but I suppose seeing my skills as an animator reach greater expectations has left me bellyaching for better image quality to show off those skills. Also, this was the first time I set out to make a film fit for movie screens. The quality in the past has been alright for Internet consumption. But now I'm thinking bigger.

So here's my plan. I've got to finish "Unearthed" with the camera that I started with, my clunker. I've got easily 4-6 months left on that film if I work at a consistent but somewhat leisurely pace. In that time, I will be trying my damnedest to save money here and there for a new camera, preferably a nice (but cheap) Canon DSLR that can link up with my StopMoPro. Well, actually, I won't need the camera until I'm ready to film Jenny G., so I'll have the months of pre-production to save up as well. In any case, I see the light on the horizon. I'm going for the gold! Battening down the hatches! Jenny Greenteeth is coming, and she's pissed :)

The Final Frame

2011-05-01T21:30:00.002-05:00

RIP Pyramus

2011-04-27T09:52:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts, I've been slaving away on the new short....a few more shots to go, some fx, sound fx, and a bit of editing work, and the "Pyramus & Thisbe" film will be ready for festival submission!!!

A Little Clip

2011-03-27T19:26:00.002-05:00

Here's a bit of the new short, revealing my latest challenge: working with a narrator/recording a voice/animating to a pre-existing recording...more on that later, I've got work to do :)

Today's Bits and Bobs...

2011-03-22T13:46:00.004-05:00

I'm working on a few things today, finishing up my mulberry tree, setting up my shot for tonight's animation, and painting my textured wall for Pyramus and Thisbe's homes.

The tree is composed of two plastic shrubs bound together with tape and stuck inside a one inch wooden cup filled with hot glue. Then I took some brown kraft paper, crumpled it and un crumpled it, and wrapped that around the trunk. Added some brown acrylic paint, and hot glued on my little styrofoam white mulberries, harvested from another fake plant piece. The blood-stained mulberries will be attached to the back half of the tree so that between takes I can simply spin the tree to expose the red side for the rest of the short.

My shot for tonight is the final Fates setpiece, featuring Atropos cutting the thread of Thisbe's life. I rigged a few pieces of black foamcore to hang/drape thread around the set, but didn't like the way the thread was hanging, so I taped a penny to the end of each strand so they would hang straight. Made sure each strand was long enough so the pennies rest on the tabletop, so they won't sway between frames...

And lastly, the wall of P&T's apartments. They share a wall and communicate through a crack so the majority of the interior shots will be in front of this background wall, Thisbe in dark blue on the left, and Pyramus in white on the right, so there is a little play between dark and light. The wall is foamcore textured with wall spackle and painted with acrylics.

Mulberry Paint On Plexi - Animated

2011-03-19T22:43:00.000-05:00

Fates Animated

2011-03-16T14:02:00.001-05:00

I won't be sharing too much footage as I'm filming this short, gonna wait til its all done. That being said here is a small clip of one of my Fates, animated :)

Backdrop

2011-03-14T11:39:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I painted up the backdrop for the night scenes. Blue acrylic paint gradient on a large piece of black foamcore. There is a hole cut out for the moon, which is printed on vellum and taped behind the opening. It will be backlit. There are also small punches in the sky so some of the backlight can be seen, as stars. May have to clean up the moon opening a bit, it is pretty roughly cut but may not be visible, will have to wait and see when I set up lighting on set...

Pyramus, Thisbe, & The Fates

2011-03-12T17:52:00.002-06:00

Say cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese!

Mulberry Paint-On-Plexi

2011-03-11T16:24:00.002-06:00

Been hard at work making this new short happen :) My three Fate puppets are juuuust about finished, as are my pups for Pyramus and Thisbe--just trying to work out the mechanics of Thisbe's gown at this point, attaching it in segments which will still allow me to access her lil legs for animationy purposes. Harder than it sounds. Filming is complete on the cemetery set for Unearthed so I've dismantled that and am ready to build the P&T sets once pups are done. I should be animating by the end of next week, wOOt!

A new development....I was dreading making the lioness puppet required to tell the story of P&T and decided I would use a different style of animation for her. Tossed around shadow pups and ultimately decided to do paint-on-glass, which I've always wanted to try. That concept grew and by the end of storyboarding I had inserted about 4 or 5 key sequences that will be done in this style. One of them involves a mulberry turning from snow white to blood red (the myth tells of how mulberries got their color). Here is the initial painting that I will animate, just finished it minutes ago. Oil paints on plexi glass, laid on top of a white drawing table. I will remove small amounts of the red using q-tips, revealing the white surface underneath, until the berries are white, then will reverse the footage so they change from white to red in the film. For some reason I figured that working backwards like this (red to white) would be easier....

Fates: Lachesis and Atropos

2011-02-25T22:35:00.003-06:00

Chugging along on my Fates puppets, just about done with Lachesis (the measurer, the mother) and Atropos (the cutter, the crone). Clotho (the spinner, the maiden) will be the most difficult because her arms and legs are exposed and so she requires more layers of latex buildup, and some kind of rig up her arms that I can feed thread through for the spinny effect in animation ( I'm thinking of using cut up coffee-stirrer straws, a piece hidden behind each of her fingers, I plan on creating the shot as close as possible to that drawing I posted in the previous entry)...

Those shears are one of my favorite props to date, definitely one I am most proud of. I was racking my brain trying to figure out how to make them so they would be completely functional, got to playing with some floral wire and it all just sort of worked. I trimmed some bits of the wire, about the same gauge as standard armature wire, pounded the ends flat, trimmed them 'sharp' with wire cutters, created a hole in the center of each piece by hammering a straight pin through (very difficult but not impossible), and then connected the pieces by inserting a straight pin to act as the screw. I'll try to remember to post more detailed pics...

NW Animation Festival

2011-02-23T12:19:00.004-06:00

The NW Animation Festival is a new film fest being spearheaded by Portland animator Sven Bonnichsen. He has some fantastic ideas, including touring a "Best of the Fest" lineup throughout the year. If you are an animator, help him make this festival a success by submitting a film!! Personally, I'll be creating something new to submit, but you can send in any film any length from any point in your career as an animator. Read more at the website:

NWAnimationFest.com

My plan is this: finish shooting the cemetery scene for Unearthed this week, strike the set, and begin production on a new short for the fest based on a Roman myth called "Pyramus & Thisbe", a bloody tale of forbidden love which will be presented by the Fates. I've been wanting to turn my Fates into puppets for awhile and have had a blast working on them over the last couple of days. Stay tuned for more...

Herbie's Love Bug

2011-01-02T18:50:00.004-06:00

So I got ahold of an old plastic car that is perfect puppet-size, and decided to add a scene of Herbie driving. I just couldn't pass up the opportunity. As soon as I plopped Herbie-pup into the driver's seat, I instantly had driving scenes from Psycho playing in my head...

First I sawed off the solid plastic windshield using an exacto sawblade.

Next I primed the whole thing with a glossy black spray paint.

Next, I taped off the black areas near the bumper and sprayed that with a chrome spray paint. Then came the new windshield, which I cut from the plastic box on one of Roman's Christmas toys. I trimmed it to shape and attached it with superglue, and added a couple of strips of sticky foam, painted silver, to line the windshield. I used the same silver paint to cover the headlights.

Next came the wipers, made of thinly cut balsa wood, and the side rearview mirrors, which are just wooden beads glued to a piece of wire and stuck in a wad of clay which was stuck to the car, all attached with superglue and painted silver and black. The driving scene will be shot solely from the front, so I didn't need to worry about trimming the bead flat or creating an actual rearview mirror.

Lastly, I added an interior rearview mirror made of clay and wire, a fleur-de-lis hood ornament, and a couple of strips of shiny chrome tape to catch the light better at the top and bottom of the windshield. I also lightly painted the windshield with a thinned out white acrylic paint to get the outline of the wipers.

The light of the headlights will be done in post using ParticleIllusion, and the illusion of driving will be achieved by passing a light, frame-by-frame, overhead from front to back, reflected in the hood and chrome bits. I may also add an ankh hanging from a chain on the rearview mirror which can be animated slightly swaying to show motion. I may do a quickie little animation test this week...

The Next Shot - Unearthed - Cemetery

2010-12-28T16:35:00.002-06:00

A quick POV shot showing Herbie not seeing the spirits approaching....this is an example of an improv shot for me, not in my storyboards but I felt it'd be necessary as I was plodding away on the scene...

Unearthed - Cemetery - shot 2

2010-12-08T19:21:00.001-06:00

Unearthed - Cemetery - Shot 2 from Ubatuber on Vimeo.

I'm loving how this is turning out, I've still got to tinker a biot with the compositing/fx on the ghosts...I basically just shot them in front of a greenscreen and layered them onto the Herbie animation using a string of video effects...

Thirteen Seconds Unearthed

2010-12-07T15:13:00.002-06:00

Animated the next 13 secs. of "Unearthed", the first shot of the cemetery scene. Here it is with f/x, next shot will be animated hopefully tonight or tomorrow night :)

Next 13 seconds "Unearthed" from Ubatuber on Vimeo.

Cemetery Lighting Test

2010-11-24T15:19:00.001-06:00

"Unearthed" - cemetery set lighting test from Ubatuber on Vimeo.

Cemetery Lit (Mostly...)

2010-11-23T13:55:00.003-06:00

I'm just about done figuring out the lighting on the cemetery set, I'm still working with miniature "Christmas Village" spotlights, which you can pick up now while the holidays are in full swing, if you're interested in testing them out. They are fantastic moody little spotlights, I've used them and only them to light all of Unearthed so far. I sprung for a plug-in adaptor for them as well, so I wouldn't have to worry about batteries fading (bonus: each adaptor can power 3-4 sets of lights). On the setup below, I have a few lights mounted to strips of wood that are attached to the underneath of the set floor, holding them about 8" out form the set. Also attached there are the battery packs for each set of 2 lights, for easy access to the on/off switches and less fumbling through cords when I'm ready to animate. I also have a couple of lights mounted higher, one on the very tip of the brick wall and another on a gauge. They swivel somewhat loosely so I've used wads of clay to hold them in place. Alls I have left to do is secure a couple at the back of the set to light Herbie as he walks down the path between the angels. In previous shorts I have changed lighting around depending on the shot, but with Unearthed I have tried lighting the sets as a whole so I can run through my shots without having to change anything around. I may need to add a spotlight on a close-up of Herbie here or there but it should pretty much work as is (I've positioned Herbie at key points on the set to make sure he is well lit).

Unearthed Again

2010-11-10T10:36:00.003-06:00

Hello Dear Reader! I am long overdue for a post so here I am, checking in. While it may not seem like it here on the blog, I am always working on something. I have a tendency to have several projects going at once and they all take enormous amounts of time to complete because my muse has many shifting personalities and I am at her whim :) For the last two months or so, I have been trying to turn my Nola Legends series of paintings into a children's book, designing layouts, writing poetry, researching self-publishing. My original goal was to have a hard copy in my hands by Christmas. My Lady has convinced me to slow down a bit on it though. I think we both feel that this could really be something special and she wants me to sit on it for a little while, get some distance before committing to anything. Maybe in a month or three I'll want to reword something or change a font, etc. I want it to be the best it can be, so I think she's right. Don't rush it because of a self-imposed deadline. I can share here, though, that I was a bit stuck on how to make the whole thing gel until she had the idea of resurrecting RJ Legrasse, my bayou fisherman alternate persona of Monster Month South fame, as a sort of narrator, and things really took off from there.
That being said, the change in weather has caused my muse to change personalities a bit these last few days. I've been cleaning the studio, packed away the Seaclops and Mermaid for now, and have re-set-up my cemetery set for the next scene of Unearthed. I have the "stopmoshorts" film bug. Last night I figured out how to transfer my StopMotionPro license to my laptop, worked out some video-capture kinks there, and am now ready to animate without being tied to a computer desk, which will be nice. Once I get the set lit, and revisit the storyboards, I'm ready to move on with the next phase of the short, which has been in production since 2007 (my, how the years fly by). So stay tuned, exciting things happening...

Seaclops Test

2010-09-14T16:53:00.001-05:00

Here is a quickie little Seaclops test I did last week, wasnt too concerned with lighting etc, just wanted to get him moving...more to come...

Seaclops - Fins and Flaps and Eyeballs Oh My!

2010-08-10T11:43:00.002-05:00

Still working on the Seaclops pup, I used a sheer wired seafoam green ribbon for his head fins and pit & finger webbing, attached with a bit of glue first, then sealed in place at the edges with liquid latex. His eye(s) are 3/4" wooden beads painted with acrylics, pin hole in the pupil for animating, then glossed over for shine with a Sculpey brand glossy varnish. Animation tests coming soon...

Seaclops Puppet Cast!

2010-07-26T11:13:00.002-05:00

Hooray, finally found the time to cast my Seaclops puppet!! Another foam latex success! This is by far the largest (and thickest) puppet I've created to date, about 10" tall, but a small bowl batch of foam was enough to fill the mold.....just barely enough :) I've already started painting and embellishing him with fins and catfish whiskers, now I just need to polish up the details of the script for him and the mermaid, finish up the island set (it'll be much easier now that I have a puppet to place on it to make sure I get the scale right), and then its on to animating! (And then back to "Unearthed", I promise :)

Harryhausen Tribute Bit

2010-06-29T16:24:00.003-05:00

Woohoo! I managed to squeeze out 30 sec of animation for the Harryhausen 90th Birthday Tribute Bash :) Not nearly what I had initially planned but at least its something.

Hindi Mermaid

2010-06-26T18:24:00.003-05:00

Finally had a few hours to spare to work the foam magic, followed the directions that came with the batch of GM foam for a mid-temperature room, but I added slightly less gelling agent (12g)due to the extreme heat and humidity outside. And she turned out beautifully. There are a few air bubbles just under the surface in one boob and just above the "knees", but it shouldnt effect animation if I pose her just so....she is still in-progress so I'll be posting more pics as I go, along with a more in-depth post when she's done....coming soon, Seaclops casting, yay :)

No Progress :(

2010-06-15T10:14:00.002-05:00

I still have not found the time to cast my two puppets, and have gotten no further in developing the island set so I will not have anything to contribute to the Harryhausen tribute unfortunately. We've had some house issues, an infestation of ants, a leaky roof, not to mention Roman is getting bigger every day (amazing how they do that :) and we've had to start preparing the house for crawling baby.
I find it sort of synchronistic (a word?) that I am in the middle of developing two water-based beachy characters while this whole oil-spill marsh-land-destroying wildlife-killing fiasco is going on with BP so near my home. I have images of my mermaid character coated in oil and may revisit the story to make it more.....proactive? We'll see what happens when I get the pups done, still a top priority for me as far as my creative projects go...

Mini-Islands

2010-05-03T10:17:00.003-05:00

I've completed a few mini-islands to serve as distant background...I plan on touching them up with a bit of paint. Things are progressing slowly, I may not have time to do a short film for the Harryhausen tribute but will at the very least send a stop-mo Seaclops birthday wish for the video. We'll see how the next month-and-a-half turns out...

Seaclops Backdrop

2010-04-25T19:38:00.003-05:00

Finished the backdrop for the Seaclops short and tacked it up, all ready to start building the little island set. There's a little glare here from the camera flash but it should be fine when lit properly. Pups aren't foamed yet, hopefully this Thursday if weather/humidity permits. You'll know as soon as it happens :)

Easter Bing

2010-04-11T19:42:00.003-05:00

RE the title, we have a ton of nicknames for the lil one, including the Bing, the Bing-a-Ling, the Bada-bing :)

Here are a few pictures of our little Easter Bing...the giant basket is homemade from a laundry basket...

Mermold

2010-04-11T15:56:00.003-05:00

All done with the mermaid mold...had a couple of minor issues with this one, mainly, I didn't go far enough up the arms with the clay wall so the first half of the mold didnt grip the arms as it should and they were lifting out...I put a small drop of superglue on the sculpt's hands, pressed them gently back into the mold, and then built the other half of the ultracal mold...seems to have worked alright, I've been careful to scrape the residual glue out of the mold so as to avoid any potential reactions with the baking foam...as soon as I have the time to do it, I'll be foaming up the pups....I havent decided if I'm going to try to do both at once, I have two toaster ovens but don't want to put any extra stress on the foaming process by trying to rush and do two....then again, if I do both at once, I'll be saving foam (won't have to mix up two whole batches)...

Next up, set building...

Seaclops Mold - Done!

2010-04-06T14:03:00.003-05:00

Finished the Seaclops mold over the weekend, ran into a snag, literally. I went too far up the foot on the top half of the mold. The foot narrows at the middle, where the mold cuts off, and I couldn't pull the armature out of the mold because the tie-down/epoxy clay at the toe area was too thick. Luckily all I needed to do was shave down the epoxy clay a bit, didnt actually interfere with the tie-down itself. So thats taken care of :)

Next up, the mermaid mold. I'm excited to get to work on this puppet, she's begun to take on a Hindu feel, I see her now with lots of reds and golds, henna up her arms, jewel-encrusted scales...she is a singing mermaid and I was even able to download a few Indian vocalizations at Soundsnap.com, yay!

More coming soon, including, hopefully, storyboards (as soon as I get them done....)

More Mer

2010-04-02T21:46:00.002-05:00

Got my shipment of Ultracal yesterday, finished the Mersculpt tonight, will mold her and complete the Seaclops mold this weekend, then on to the fun part (foam! lets hope I havent lost the magic touch :)

Mermaid Sculpt

2010-03-31T20:18:00.001-05:00

Almost done with the mermaid sculpt...

Moldy Seaclops

2010-03-29T12:18:00.009-05:00

Well, I completely underestimated how much Ultracal I had and ultimately was only able to make the top half of my Seaclops mold on Saturday. (I have since placed an order for more of the gypsum concrete plaster compound and will finish the mold as soon as it arrives.) Here's where I'm at so far:

First I plopped down a bunch of water-based clay for the bed, to create the wall for my mold. I used a crayola brand earth clay that we sell at work and it worked fine. Was a little too soft maybe, required a bit of extra cleanup when removing the clay at the end, but otherwise okay.

Next I smoothed out the clay bed, about halfway up the sculpt (between the fingers is the worst, possibly my least favorite part of the whole process).

Then I sprayed the whole thing with a quick layer of Clear Coat, mixed up a pea-soupy batch of Ultracal, and brushed on my first layer.

After two more layers of soupy Ultracal...

And about 1/2" layer of Ultracal coated burlap...

Next came the super thick, clay-like layer of Ultracal to finish it up...

And finally, after the top half set up, I flipped it, peeled off the clay bed, cleaned up the residue of the water-based clay with a soft damp brush, and now I'm ready for the second half...

Ideally, there should be a little more space around the edges, particularly near the feet, fingers, and head, and also more space between the arms and torso, but I had to squinch him in a bit more than I should have because of the size of my toaster oven. Now I'm off to finish the sculpt of my mermaid...

Sculpting the Mermaid and 'Clops

2010-03-25T15:20:00.003-05:00

Started slapping clay onto the mermature and roughing out a feminine shape. Also removed the wooden eyeball from the Seaclops sculpt, ended up having to resculpt the bottom eyelid which had to be removed to get the ball out. Clops is now ready for molding. Here are some detail shots...

Mermature

2010-03-24T21:23:00.002-05:00

Today I made the armature for a supporting character in my Seaclops short...I'm still hammering out the details of the story, but it will feature my clops and a singing mermaid...

Thanks Shelley!!

2010-03-18T17:24:00.002-05:00

Special thank you going out to Shelley Noble of Halfland fame for making Baby Roman this ultra-cute little chickie tee. Her talents are endless and her gifts, always handmade, are beautiful. Thanks so much, Shell! You rock! :)

In production news, I've had to put Bacchus aside in order to focus on the Harryhausen tribute. I'll be touching up my Seaclops sculpt over the weekend, creating a mold next week, and foaming up the puppet in the next couple of weeks. I just ordered a quart kit of GM foam from FX Warehouse in Florida and am extremely excited, its been waaaay too long since Ive played with the foam latex :)

Bacchus Progress

2010-03-11T11:50:00.003-06:00

Coming along, hope to finish him up this weekend and then nexy week start seriously plugging away at my Seaclops short which will hopefully be a part of Ray Harryhausen's 90th birthday event :)

And because I cant help it (and since Mark requested), some more pics of Roman...

Baby Dangerfield gets no respect :)

Bacchus Progress

2010-03-03T22:56:00.004-06:00

Still plugging away at the Bacchus pup...life with a newborn is all about little stolen moments, so progress is slow but there nonetheless :) After I finish this little project, I'm going to resurrect the Seaclops sculpt, finish up that pup, and film a comedic microshort for a special Stopmotionmagic.com challenge for Ray Harryhausen's birthday (official announcement coming soon).

Resurrecting Bacchus

2010-02-16T14:45:00.004-06:00

I'm back!! Sorry about the huge non-posty gap but I've been busy with baby, and still unpacking the new house. This week I got most of the studio set up, almost all boxes unpacked and organized, yay! On the baby front, its been extremely tiring having a newborn in the house, but we couldn't be happier. Roman is so cute and sweet, I cant stand it...

Two little monsters...

Today is Mardi Gras here in Nola, and an especially celebratory one for the city as our Saints won the Superbowl last week :D In the spirit of the holiday, I resurrected an old unfinished pup of mine, Bacchus (search it to see some posts on the blog here from back in 2007). I'm going to try to finish him up between today and tomorrow and hopefully shoot a micro-film with him before retiring him to the annals of shadowboxy puppetdom.

Dorian Box Receives Award of Merit!

2009-11-22T18:18:00.003-06:00

Howdy y'all...sorry about the lack of posts but Ive been super busy setting up the new house and readying the baby's room (he's coming soon!!) Today I picked up my Dorian Gray box from the RHINO Gallery and discovered that it had been chosen to receive an award of merit, hooray for me! Seems to have stirred a lot of interest, I think I'll keep submitting stop-mo for shows...

Meeting Mefull

2009-10-10T23:03:00.003-05:00

Mark Fullerton aka mefull was in New Orleans this week for a screen-printing convention and we had the chance to meet up and chat about all things stop-mo! Mark and I have been buddies online for a few years now, but it was wonderful to meet a Moe in person and really put a face to a name. I brought along my early Jenny Greenteeth foam pup, we talked about the city a bit, and touched on many a stopmotion topic. It was truly a pleasure to hang out with you, Mark, and I hope we get the opportunity to do it again sometime!

Dorian Gray Animated

2009-09-22T17:54:00.003-05:00

Finally, here is the animation that I submitted to the Art-in-a-Box show. I am not pleased with several aspects, mainly the de-aging of the portrait, which was much more difficult than I thought it would be. I ended up with only 2 sec of animation, painted too many/too big brushstrokes per frame and finished repainting it entirely too quickly, but I was trying to make the July 30 deadline and did not have time to repaint and reanimate. This is really the first time that I've incorporated "live action" shots (the curtain coming down, for example) and I'm not sure how I feel about them. I love the look but somehow feel like I've cheated :)

Enjoy!

The Picture of Dorian Gray from Ubatuber on Vimeo.

Art In A Box Announcement

2009-09-16T10:30:00.001-05:00

Howdy all, still working on getting my computer up-and-running....here is a link to the announcement for the RHINO gallery Art-in-a-Box show featuring my Dorian Gray set!

http://rhinocrafts.com/2009/09/07/art-n-a-box-otober-show-is-getting-closer/

Updates and Grown-up Life Junk :)

2009-09-13T20:30:00.003-05:00

Tons going on lately, sorry about lack of updates....my Lady is now at 22 weeks, expecting our first baby, a boy....he's about the size of a puppet now, a good 8", and this week I felt him kick for the first time, amazing....tentative name: Roman Alexander Roche. We are also in the final stages of purchasing our first home, have gone through the headache-and-stress-inducing process of financing and inspections and negotiations and we should be closing on the property at the end of the month, and moving in throughout October. I still have not gotten my computer back, its waiting on a part for repair, but I will have to figure out something this week because I have to deliver my Dorian Gray box to the RHINO gallery by Sept. 20. I'll probably ask the shop thats doing the repair to pull my files from the harddrive so I can try to edit them on another computer. As soon as my computer is back I'll post some photos and the final vid. Peace out.

Box - YES! Computer - NO :(

2009-08-21T12:47:00.002-05:00

Good news! My Dorian Gray box has been accepted for the Art-in-a-Box exhibit in October!!! Unfortunately, I write this from my local library as my computer has been struck by lightning (I think) and is inoperable. Hopefully all is well with it though, because my Dorian Gray footage is still on the hard drive, not backed up on disk, AAARGH!! I will be bringing it for repair today, ***fingers crossed ****

Frank Darabont - Walking Dead - AMC

2009-08-12T16:19:00.004-05:00

The Walking Dead

I don't often post about entertainment news, unless it has me super-jazzed, which this does....Frank Darabont is "close to signing" to write/direct a TV series adaptation of Kirkman's graphic novel zombie survival series "The Walking Dead" for AMC. I loved the comic series, excellently written with wonderful characters, and, yeah, zombies. I hope this happens!

Dorian Gray - Done!

2009-07-30T16:11:00.002-05:00

Animation is done, though in my haste to finish I rushed the de-aging of the portrait, only ending up with about 2 seconds of footage when i really wanted it to be a slow process....much more difficult than I anticipated....que sera sera...I'm not done with the editing or effects but I cobbled together a preliminary "draft" to send along with my submission to Art-in-a-Box....the box is done, sealed up in plexiglass and (hopefully) ready for exhibition. I'll post the completed clip in a week or so, I need a little break from this. And I know just how I'll spend the break...the Lady Julianna, suffering some insomnia due to the pregnancy, went out and invested in World of Warcraft, a massive multiplayer online role playing game which I've started playing also....I can totally see how people can lose themselves in a game like this :)

Dorian Gray - Filming....

2009-07-29T12:36:00.002-05:00

Filming is under way, I hope to be done with it tonight but if not, I am going to send the submission in without a copy of the animation, which shouldn't be a problem considering the box is the star as far as the exhibition goes...

Dorian Gray - Dusty

2009-07-27T10:59:00.002-05:00

Finished webbing the set, dusty too....tomorrow and Wed I animate and Thurs I send off my submission.

Dorian Gray - Bits and Bobs

2009-07-23T16:34:00.003-05:00

Here are the last few bits of the set, didn't get to dust and web up yesterday, will tackle that between today and tomorrow.

The little lamp actually works, a little battery operated light that comes on when you twist the bottom. A knife for to stab the painting. A wall sconce. And the second outer collage.

A (Corrupt) Picture of Dorian Gray

2009-07-22T11:55:00.003-05:00

This was probably the most difficult part of the process so far, the miniature portrait of Dorian old and bloodied and corrupt.

Today I will assemble the final side of the box, finish the second collage, dust everything up, and add the cobwebs. Then I will be ready to animate! (I've got storyboards done too :)

Dorian Gray - Side Collage

2009-07-20T10:06:00.002-05:00

Continuing my box....One side will feature the window, the opposite side will be a piece of plexiglass so the inside can be viewed.....the remaining two outer sides will be collages using printed pages of Oscar Wilde's novel. Here is a pic of the first collage:

Dorian Gray - Two Walls and a Floor

2009-07-12T14:08:00.002-05:00

Three parts assembled, my room has two walls and a floor. I will dirty and dust up the set after it is done and assembled, including cobwebbing from wall to wall and fixture to fixture. The deadline for the "Art-in-a-box" show is july 15, but there is a late deadline of July 30, which is where I will probably fall. If I shoot for the 30th, I may be able to finish the animation in time too.

Dorian Gray - The Puppet

2009-07-10T18:29:00.003-05:00

Basic twisted wire armature, epoxy clay bones, sculpey head baked, wrapped upholstry foam buildup, neck and hands latexed, painted, clothed, topped with hair (hairline painted on then topped with some glued-on doll's hair). Meet Dorian Gray.

Dorian Gray - Fireplace & Mantle

2009-07-08T15:08:00.003-05:00

Finished up the fireplace with a brick hearth and some black acrylic paint to add a sooty look.

Dorian Gray - The Tapestry

2009-07-07T18:35:00.005-05:00

A piece of linen painted with the image described in the book, a faded king and queen playing chess in a garden....hung on a wooden dowel and embellished with beading bits and golden thread.

I've been working on the puppet of Dorian Gray also, but I'm waiting to post until he's finished so I can do a sort of time lapse .gif of his creation...

Dorian Gray - Wall with Window

2009-07-03T17:41:00.003-05:00

I took one of my "walls", cut out a space for the window about 7 x 9" and popped in a scrap piece of plexiglass cut to size. I used metallic Tulip paint to draw the lines on the Tudor style window. I wallpapered the inside with scrapbooking paper and added the decorative window frame, then hot-glued on some plaster castings from my brick mold for the outer wall, painted up with dark and light grey acrylic paints. The window is "dirtied" by painting on a thin watery layer of white acrylic paint that I wiped off of each pane after it dried.

Dorian Gray - Bookcase & Weathered Rug

2009-07-02T14:23:00.002-05:00

I got a lot done yesterday, stained the wood furniture and weathered the rug using thinned out black acrylic paint. Also cut up various materials (scraps of mat board and card board and balsa wood) to make the school books for the bookcase. Today I tackle one wall and Tudor window...

Dorian Gray - Beginnings of a Room

2009-07-01T12:04:00.004-05:00

To start off my box-set, I pulled six vinyl tiles from a box I had laying around. They look like granite so I thought they'd make a nice basis for a Victorian room. I stuck them to a big piece of foam core, then cut each one out. My box will be 12"x12"x12".

In the novel, this room is sort of like Mrs. Havershams place in Great Expectations, worn and weathered, dusty, old, and unkempt. Sparse of furniture, not visited by house guests or servants, which is why Dorian decides to hide away his portrait here. If you are unfamiliar with the story, it features a young man known for his beauty. When he has his portrait painted, he becomes struck by his own good looks, and his sudden mortality. He will grow old while the portrait will remain young and beautiful forever. He says that he would give his soul for it to be the other way around, and so it is. As he ages, he remains handsome and spry while his portrait becomes bent, withered, and corrupted, reflecting his soul, and eventual madness.

The room contains a table and chair, a trunk, mantle, and bookcase, a rug, a tapestry, and the portrait hidden behind a curtain. I got to work on the rug first, googled some patterns for a round rug until I found one that I liked. Then I tweaked it in photoshop, printed it out, and transferred it to a screen (embroidery hoop and nylon mesh).

Once I had blocked out the negative space with some glue, I printed the pattern in gold onto a piece of suede scrap mat that I had cut to size. The mat is a bit bright, but I knew I would be weathering it, staining it (probably with coffee), so I went a bit brighter that I wanted the finished product to be.

Next I added a little fringe to the edge using some yarn out of my "fabric drawer" (Ive done some serious organizing lately, trying to clean up shop to get ready for baby-proofing, but that is a post for another day :)

I also tweaked some store-bought wood items to make the table, bookcase, and mantle. Today I stain the wood items and weather the rug.

Art In A Box - "Dorian Gray"

2009-06-28T09:03:00.002-05:00

For awhile now I've been trying to figure a way to mesh my fine art (painting/drawing/sculpture) with my stop-mo art, some way to make stop-mo gallery-friendly. The other day I read about an upcoming show called "Art in a Box" which requires you to....well...create art in a box.....jewelry box, shadowbox, any box....and I had the idea to build a box, create a set inside, film a bit of stop-mo, and then submit the box "as is" at the end of filming....if someone were to buy the box-set at the show (if chosen to exhibit), they would receive a dvd of the animated sequence leading up to their "sculpture"...I could potentially even figure a way to display the animation with the box, maybe running on a digital photo frame (I have one but have had trouble getting it to play the video formats it's supposed to)...

I want to do something theatrical, and had just finished reading "A Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde, so I've decided to tackle a scene from the book, either the big murder sequence from near the end, or the finale, the stabbing of the painting. I've already started gathering materials to build the room that houses the hideous painting, and will update soon with images.

Brian and Roger

2009-06-13T13:22:00.002-05:00

Here is a commissioned portrait that I did for a couple of friends of ours last week. It was an honor to create something for them, they have the coolest collection of art out of anyone that we know.

Unearthed - The Rest of the Sets

2009-06-01T10:24:00.004-05:00

Howdy all, starting today I'm refocusing my energies on stop-mo. I've still got a ton of work left to do on "Unearthed", here's a rundown of what's left, the remaining sets and where they stand. After Herbie takes the path through the cemetery, he wanders a bit through the woods and swamp until he starts to come upon bits of architecture, broken columns and friezes, and eventually makes his way to a cliff which leads up to the top of the hill where the stone giantess is buried.

1)The Woods - I'll be reusing the half-trees that I've been using for years, which were originally planned for Jenny Greenteeth, but will be retired after these scenes in Unearthed. I'll need to set up a few shots for Herbies wander through the woods/swamp. I still need to finish my bits of architecture, the broken columns and such.

2)The Cliff/Lady Cave - still got to moss up the cliff face and add foot/hand holds for Herbie to climb it, along with roots and vines....at the surface Ive got a small arsenal of flowers that I need to add to the ground surrounding the cave entrance....and Ive got to mold and cast my Lady's arms and finish building up the cave with layers of plaster-wrap.

3)Tunnel - mostly done, just needs to be painted...

4)Cave Interior/Pool - also mostly done, a few tweaks needed to complete...

5)Pool Interior - simple set, this one...skeletons and watery blue backdrop....skeletons are pre-fab, need to be painted and mangled into a pile...they will hold the treasure that Herbie is after and will try to keep him from getting it....he will swim down, fight them off, and exit with the treasure...

6)Herbie's Bedroom - After exiting the cave, we cut to Herbie's bedroom, where he is preparing to sleep after a hard night of murder and thievery.....what he doesn't know is that he's gone too far this time, awoken something that is coming after him...this set, again, needs to be tweaked a bit, including several additions that I've been excited about but haven't started working on yet...since Herbie's a mystical treasure hunter, I want to litter his room with his trophies, a couple of wall-mounted shadowboxes, a bookcase housing treasures, a couple of columns with statues (Cthulhu!) on them....I plan to use artifacts that will be recognizable, like a "holy grail" and some objects from Gothic lit like the print that is featured in James' "The Mezzotint" (fantastic story if you haven't read it)...lots of props to make here but I think it'll be worth it...

Unearthed - Tweaking the Cemetery

2009-05-31T17:00:00.004-05:00

After the soul-sucking fiasco that was the Arts Market used up most of my month, I'm finally back to work on the cemetery scene for "Unearthed". I had begun to play around with a pop-through, moving Herbie and taking still frames of the scene to get a better grasp on it, and then decided to tweak a couple of things, mostly additions to the set. I haven't done a pop-through "rehearsal" before, I usually semi-"wing it" while animating, figuring out rough timing on moves etc but leaving myself room to improvise where necessary. This shot is different though, due to the fact that I will be compositing greenscreen footage of my ghosts in post, requiring a bit more planning. So this week I'll fiddle with lighting, then work on the "rehearsal". Here are the changes that I made:

I mounted Herbie's bag over his shoulder to free up his hands.

I added the symbol from the book cover to one of the posts on the wrought-iron gate around the graves that serve as the entrance to Herbie's path. This symbol doesn't necessarily mean anything, I harvested the bit from my Lady's jewelry supplies because I thought it had a sort of celtic-y wiccan look to it, and used it here because I thought it would make a good visual aide, connecting this grave to the manuscript stolen at the beginning of the short.

And I added a second tree to the set, this one on the far right, so that I could get a "through the branches" POV shot.

Meet the Flarry's...

2009-05-20T14:14:00.005-05:00

We've gotten more great slug photos, and have even attracted the attention of a new breed of slug that we'd never seen before....this new guy was flat and not-so-slimy, looked like a leaf when threatened, hence the name Flat Larry, or Flarry...soon enough there were a couple of other Flarry's, including Juli's favorite, Flo...

The Flarry's have the coolest little motility stripe on their undersides, when you flip them over you can see the little pulses going through, like a conveyor belt...

A teeny tiny Narcisslug...

"If I can just reeeeaaaaach..."

"What are you lookin' at, butthead?"

Peek-a-boo!

Screw the Arts Market of New Orleans...

2009-05-20T13:08:00.004-05:00

....Sorry....I'm a little upset right now....I just received an email stating that my Arts Market application, which I sent in over a month ago for the Market next weekend, has been rejected...Ive put in a ton of work over the last few weeks to prepare for this thing, because I assumed when I applied that it was a first-come-first-served sort of thing, "send us your money to reserve a space at the next market", but then I got an email talking about a peer review last Friday, so I guess I should have known better....like everything else in the art community here, Hell, like everything else in this city period, its all about who you know and who's ass you kiss, even for a glorified flea market....I'm so tired of rejection...I'm about 2 seconds from giving up on it all and resigning myself to my dark little corner of the kitchen, just me and my puppets...

Metairie Cemetery Angel

2009-05-15T17:32:00.002-05:00

I haven't played with charcoal in awhile, got the hankerin', and here you go.....'bout 3 hours of work...

Princess and the Frog

2009-05-10T10:06:00.003-05:00

Ive been thrilled to see Disney headed back to 2-D animation, especially set in Nola, but now I'm especially excited, after seeing this new trailer...many of you may recognize elements of some of my recent paintings, the cathedral, the paddleboat, the streetcar....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m171X44WNA

Business Cards & Artist Info

2009-05-07T10:56:00.005-05:00

I may be participating in an Arts Market at the end of May, just awaiting my application approval. I've been gathering together/creating some documents, making prints of some of my work, creating some paintings to sell, hunting for a cheap tent/tables, swiping display materials from work before they hit the dumpster, ordering mylar sleeves for my prints, y'know, getting my ducks in a row....here's a couple of my new documents:

Business Card (front):

Business Card (back):

Artist Info sheet:

Flambeaux Phoenix

2009-04-29T14:48:00.002-05:00

Panel #8, the Flambeaux Phoenix.....the flambeaux are light carriers, fire walkers, originally used to light the path of the parades during Carnival over 100 years ago, before the time of electric light...they twirled their torches, danced, entertained the crowds, and still do to this day, upholding the tradition in several parades throughout Mardi Gras...

Unearthed - The Cemetery Gates

2009-04-24T22:51:00.002-05:00

Finally, after about 8 months of sitting in editing limbo on my PC, here is the 'cemetery gates' sequence from "Unearthed"...sound effects were fun on this one, mostly created by me but a few downloaded from Soundsnap.com...that moon shot at the end is a stand-in, ganked from Lord of the Rings ;) until I can create or film my own such image...I had a ton of trouble compositing in the footage of my black Salvie's cute little kitty face, in the long run it would've been easier to just give the pup a face and animate it like a normal person would've...the reason I did it this way? Near the end of the short, there will be a sequence involving compositing my Lady's eyes onto a waking stone giantess (think Hera in "Clash of the Titans") and I thought it might be nice to foreshadow that technique with the cat here.....again, ended up costing me waaay too much time in post.....I'm not 100% satisfied with the results but I never am :) Time to move on, my cemetery set is getting rather dusty...

"Unearthed" - The Cemetery Gates from Ubatuber on Vimeo.

St. Louis Cathedral Gargoyles

2009-04-23T14:54:00.002-05:00

Panel #7, same dealio, 5" x 7" canvas board, acrylic, Mardi Gras palette...the Cathedral Gargoyles...

Slug Lady

2009-04-18T19:36:00.004-05:00

And now for something completely different :)

My Lady has become attached to a large family (?) of slugs that is slowly but surely making its way towards my vegetable garden each night. We've discovered though, that they love cat food even more than produce, so we've been leaving extra food out so that they have dinner waiting even after the neighborhood strays have feasted. And each night this week, she has snuck out in the wee hours to photograph them, probably waking our neighbors with the flash, but getting some awesome shots....

....Take me to your leader....

Screen Print How-To

2009-04-03T13:23:00.021-05:00

Special thanks to "craftgrrl" Kristy (girlx512) for her cheapie screen printing tutorial, which I used as a basis for my first screen-printed tee.

A few years ago, I posted a "Woodcut How-To" showing the steps necessary to create a wood block print, in that case, of an image of my water witch, Jenny Greenteeth. That tutorial is responsible for, I would say, 35% of the visits to my blog, and is the first link to pop up when googling for a woodcut tutorial. So when I decided to teach myself screen-printing, I knew a new toot was in order.

I wanted to take silk screening in college but never had the time/credits. I took lithography and acid etching, and always meant to teach myself to silkscreen later. Plus, I looove tee shirts, own probably four or five dozen that I wear regularly, and have toyed around with creating my own for years. I had at one point set up a CafePress account, but I would prefer to do the printing myself, have more control over quality, etc. And now that I have an Etsy shop set up, I can start selling my designs there.

We've got a new machine for sale at work called a Yudu screen printer. I attended a demo the other day and fell in love with the machine, but I just can't afford $300 (I'd much rather put the $ toward a new camera for my stop-motion). So I googled and turned up craftgrrl's cheap toot, linked above. Same basic technique without the complicated and expensive tools. Here is what you will need:

*Material to print on (a tee)

*Material for your screen, traditionally silk, but Kristy says you can even use nylon, though you may end up with a pixelly image due to its loose weave. She recommends curtain material, and just so happens we have a canopy bed and lots of old dressing for it, including some old ugly peach sheer curtains, so thats what I used.

*An embroidery hoop

*Glue (Mod Podge recommended and thats what I used)

*Pencil/pen for transferring image to screen

*Ink (I bought a bottle of black screen printing ink made to go with the Yudu machine, but Speedball makes it as well)

*An iron to heat-set the ink after drying.

Lets get to it then....

I need a Jenny Greenteeth shirt. No doubt. So I took my original woodcut image, photoshopped it a bit to get rid of the body and control the hair strands a little more. (I didn't even realize until doing this, that I had printed my woodcut backwards! Oops :D I hadn't considered that she was not symmetrical, missing an eye. So the image on the woodcut print is actually reversed, her "good eye" is in the wrong socket.)

I bought a 17" embroidery hoop and stretched a piece of my curtain fabric onto it. I had to tighten the screw and then tug on the loose ends of the fabric to get it stretched tight enough, then tightened the screw again as tight as I could get it. The result was almost like the surface of a snare drum, excellent!

Next I measured my shirt to figure out how large I could make my image, ended up deciding on about 14". So I opened up my photoshop image file, changed the size to 14" wide, and printed it out on two sheets of paper, which I then taped together to form the complete design.

Next I laid my "screen" (my fabric-stretched hoop) down on top of the image so the material is flush with the printout. This is how you will later drop the ink, with the fabrics flush together, so it isn't necessary to reverse the image for this style of screen printing. After laying the "screen" over the image, I took a felt-tip pen and traced the blacks onto the screen.

Now comes the most time consuming part of the process, the glue mask. In traditional silk screening, you would use photo emulsion fluid to "develop" the image directly onto the screen. Here, all you do is paint the negative space with your glue, creating a mask that will block the ink from transferring through the screen. You are basically making a glue/fabric stencil. Don't go too goopy with it or it will glop up on the reverse side of your screen, I would occasionally flip the screen over and smooth out the glue globs with my brush. I ended up doing two thin coats of the glue to make sure that all of the little holes in the weave were filled in completely.

You can apparently use tape to block out the larger areas, but I went ahead and painted my glue over the entire edge of the screen. I found that, like when priming a stretched canvas, as the glue dried, it tightened up my screen even more. Once the glue dries, its time to print.

First I stretched my tee onto a piece of cardboard and used clamps to hold it tightly in place.

Then I laid my screen down on top of my tee, centering and positioning it where I wanted the transfer to occur. I grabbed a few weighty bottles of liquid (cooking oil and some cleanser :) that were handy, to weigh down the screen, to make sure that it was flush against the material of the tee.

Again, with traditional screen printing, you would run a bead of ink across the top of your image and then use a squeegee to drag the ink across the screen. I wasn't sure if that technique would work on my screen, so I used a foam brush to stipple, dab and paint the ink onto the screen.

Once I was sure that I had covered the entire image, I peeled off the screen and brought it into the shower to wash off the excess ink before drying, so that the screen can be used again.

A couple of areas were light so I took a paintbrush and painted a little extra ink in those areas.

I let it dry for a few hours, and then ironed it on med-high heat for about 3 minutes as per the instructions on the ink. If you don't heat-set the ink, it can fade or wash off.

Here we have it, the Jenny Greentee :)

I think I want to do a couple of additional screens to go on this tee, maybe some green printed seaweed. Once I finalize the design, I'll post an image and probably list it for sale on Etsy. Now go forth and be printy!!

Pirates Alley Vampire

2009-04-02T14:34:00.004-05:00

Back on track, continuing with the Nola Legends series, now with panel #6, the Pirates Alley Vampire. Pirates Alley is a small street running along Jackson Square/St.Louis Cathedral, named by locals due to rumors that Jean Lafitte and his pirates would hang out here. Also features the home of writer William Faulkner, and today, the best spot to buy local art.

You maybe can't see too well in the pic but there is a touch of blood on their lips and the classic puncture marks on her neck.

Ubatuber Productions

Happy 2012!

Happy Halloween from the Roché Family

Mardi Gras Marionette - The Mask

Marionette - Hips and legs

Marionette - Waist Up...

Marionette - Torso Begun

Marionette - Developing the Head

Strings

Unearthed - The Story So Far...

Quick Lil' Giantest

Painting the Giantess

More Giant Progress

The Buried Giantess

Walls and Weapons

Mossy/Mold Technique

Frieze!!

Swampy Inspiration

Unearthed - Next Scene Set Up...

Fairy Victrola & Mezzotint - Done!

Unearthed - Fairy Victrola & Devil's Backbone

"Unearthed" - New Props

"Unearthed" Continues

The Fates Present: Pyramus & Thisbe

Pyramus & Thisbe Coming Soon...

Site Under Construction...

NW Animation Fest, Here We Come!!

Whew! *Wipes Sweat Off Brow*

The Final Frame

RIP Pyramus

A Little Clip

Today's Bits and Bobs...

Mulberry Paint On Plexi - Animated

Fates Animated

Backdrop

Pyramus, Thisbe, & The Fates

Mulberry Paint-On-Plexi

Fates: Lachesis and Atropos

NW Animation Festival

Herbie's Love Bug

The Next Shot - Unearthed - Cemetery

Unearthed - Cemetery - shot 2

Thirteen Seconds Unearthed

Cemetery Lighting Test

Cemetery Lit (Mostly...)

Unearthed Again

Seaclops Test

Seaclops - Fins and Flaps and Eyeballs Oh My!

Seaclops Puppet Cast!

Harryhausen Tribute Bit

Hindi Mermaid

No Progress :(

Mini-Islands

Seaclops Backdrop

Easter Bing

Mermold

Seaclops Mold - Done!

More Mer

Mermaid Sculpt

Moldy Seaclops

Sculpting the Mermaid and 'Clops

Mermature

Thanks Shelley!!

Bacchus Progress

Bacchus Progress

Resurrecting Bacchus

Dorian Box Receives Award of Merit!

Meeting Mefull

Dorian Gray Animated

Art In A Box Announcement

Updates and Grown-up Life Junk :)

Box - YES! Computer - NO :(

Frank Darabont - Walking Dead - AMC

Dorian Gray - Done!

Dorian Gray - Filming....

Dorian Gray - Dusty

Dorian Gray - Bits and Bobs

A (Corrupt) Picture of Dorian Gray

Dorian Gray - Side Collage

Dorian Gray - Two Walls and a Floor

Whew! Wipes Sweat Off Brow