Braneworld

Working with Dave Cowles can be a mixed blessing. On the one hand, I get a chance to play around with some unique animation techniques and some wonderful designs (one of the bonuses of working with an overwhelmingly talented illustrator!).

My first real marionette puppet (unfortunately, un-intentional)

On the other hand, these one day shoots might be the death of me. Started shooting about 10:30AM, Sunday, wrapped 9:45PM. Three shots. Total. Once again, a HUGE thank you to Richard O'Connor and Asterisk Animation.

Makes me feel like a real puppeteer!

In the end, of course, it's all worth it. The spot is a cute little commercial for the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra starring a baby grand piano. Done entirely with puppets made from cut paper, black tape and LOTS of glue of both the hot and stick variety, it was a lot of fun to put together. I'll be sure to share once it's finished.

And FYI - cats do not like lights, tripods, drop-cloths or really anything else to do with film shoots.

Bang bang, shoot shoot...

Last weekend I got to flex my puppet muscles. Literally. I was sore till Tuesday.

(You may think Richard is hiding from the camera, really it's the imminent shards of glass)

Richard O'Connor at Asterisk Animation was kind, gracious and all around just plain awesome enough to lend us some space for most of the day Sunday. He also single-handedly played the role of cameraman and lighting. Like I said, just plain awesome and I don't think I'll ever be able to fully thank him for it.

(Dear me, Dave! That Opossum's as big as your head!)

Dave Cowles flew in from Rochester, NY for the shoot and managed to snag an award or two at the ASIFA Screenings later that evening. A Sunday well spent, I'd say.

(Johnny's most demanding scene)

It's safe to say the whole day wouldn't have been half as fun without the presence of Johnny(A). Playing the role of gopher/puppeteer/comedian, he kept the pace going and the mood up.

And I guess I should also thank Dunkin' Donuts for the copious amounts sugar we consumed throughout the day. You can buy a lot with 30.00.

(Paint-roller and Mogubgub)

Next comes the tedious task of keying... UGH.

With two arms and two legs...

Due to certain events that took place last Sunday, I haven't been able to draw, do dishes, shave, shower or do much of anything else properly. Believe me, I've tried.

As a result today's post will be fairly simple.


Here's the puppets to date.




Rabbit, Possum and Bear are done. Rat's half-way there. Problem is, I've gone about as far as I can since I need to start cutting fabric and using scissors at the moment is basically impossible.


I'm also not entirely happy with the Cat character. I think it's mostly because he's kind of unnecessary. I think I'll end up nixing him altogether; 8 characters is more than enough.

More to come soon...

Update (With Opossum)

For those who don't know, most of my spare time is dedicated to producing a music video for They Might Be Giants.


Remember this little fellow?


Well, now he has some friends. Ears and more animal friends to come.

By the way, for those interested in obscure factoids, opossum is the proper form of the word. It was shortened to possum later after it's first appearance around 1610 in Jamestown. Or so the internet says...

Got Wood?

LIESJE: "You know what would be REALLY cool, Dave? What if we did this whole video with puppets? Actual puppets! No animation."

DAVE: "Great idea! Maybe socks? Like they're really amateur, handmade sock puppets?"

LIESJE: "Perfect! And maybe a few of 'em could even be made out of wood."

DAVE: "Great."

Okay, so maybe that wasn't our actual conversation, word for word, but you get the idea.

A while back, Dave Cowles and I embarked on a new music video for They Might Be Giants. A decision was made to not only build all the characters as hand-puppets, but also to construct several of them out of carved wood.


Neat? Hopefully. Time-consuming? Definitely.


Here they are, after a month and half of filling my apartment's living room with copious amounts of saw-dust and probably permanently damaging my lungs. From left to right, we've got Mole, Fox, Porcupine and, of course, Cat.


And here, following the same line, Rat, Raccoon, Bear and (O)Possum. Each will get his very own sock shirt with accompanying fabric/spring/felt arms, as well as button eyes and assorted other goodies.


The Bear is the tough one. He needs to have a month we can (roughly) operate.


Hopefully my plans of rigging his jaw up with fishing line and dowel rods will do the trick.

And yes, I know. The Raccoon needs a tail. And the Cat.

Lisez Ceci Avant de Commencer a Utiliser Votre Outil Dremel

I bought a dremel well over a month ago and finally found a few hours this past Sunday to break out and see what that guy at Home Depot was talking about.


Unfortunately, all I had for eye protection were these.


Needless to say I wasn't able to get much done (apart from spend an hour or two pouring over the manual). Luckily, my landlord lent me a pair of safety glasses the following evening.


Rat's done, moving on to the Possum. I'm sure that'll make more sense in the future.


And yes, I'm wearing a robe I stole from a ryokan in Japan. Between that and the bandana, I look like some lame reject from a Tarantino flick.

Sock it to me, baby!

Hey, remember this?

For the last month or so, in between churning out web-ads and trying to get some semblance of sleep, I've been stitching up puppets. So far I've finished a grand total of one.

In my defense, I really made two. The first was kind of a 'test run'. In other words, I botched him up. I blame my supervisor...

His nose was too short, the quality of the sock was terrible and the stitch was shoddy at best. I was about halfway through sewing his ear up when I realized I hated the colors and needed to just go back to square-one.

After several long nights involving many movies and some musicals (much to my roommate's chagrin I'm sure), he finally started to take shape.

Like my Middle School art teacher, Mrs. Swanson, always told me, "If you have to do it over again, don't worry. It always comes out better the second time around."

I'd say she was right. His other forest friends will follow soon (I hope).

No CGI here!

About a month ago, I was doing this to books.


It looks like I'm killing them, when, in fact, I was giving them life! Proof? You want proof? Well, unfortunately, due to a looming deadline and lack of sleep, I neglected to take any pictures after this point. Oops...

But I do have this to show for it!



If I remember correctly, 5-6 books were rigged with fishing line to 'jump off the shelves'. One of those books had a 'flying double' who was rigged with a rod and 'marionette strings' to give it's 'wings' the flapping motion. About 4-5 other books were also rigged for flying, but these were 'stiff' (no strings), the 'wings' locked with metal struts stuck through the pages.


Hence the knife, which more then once, ended up nailing the book to the floor. However, I can't take any credit for the amazing work in post; Alex de Campi is the wizard responsible for that magic.

Survival Tips

In case you ever find yourself in a situation like this -



Try doing this.

Deboning...

The Handsome Family video has been progressing, or, if you prefer Darwin to Baron d'Holbach, evolving nicely.


Thanks to Asterisk, I got to scan and color in the final group of character designs last night (I've been without a scanner since almost February now).

With that out of the way, it's time to move onto the fun part (at least for me). While Chris starts sketching out boards, I'll be launching into the actual puppet construction. So, as I use to say to my Elementary School students, ikimashou!

I begin by making the armature. It seems like a no-brainer, really but I figured it was a good thing to mention. If you don't start with the armature as a base, you're going to have a hard time fitting it to your mold later.


Usually, I would draw the character with the armature's outline to scale on a sheet of paper. In this case, I'm going with a realistic size and shape so a simple Google search will do for the image, with on outline sketched over top.


Then I bend the wire to match the lines.

Because lots of things can conspire to go wrong during a shoot, I always make multiple casts of the same puppets (especially when they're the main character). So, it's a good idea to make all the duplicate armatures now to ensure they'll all match. Usually I do this by taping a new piece of unshaped wire to the shaped one and then bending it to match the other's curves exactly.


Next, tie-downs! Groups of matching screws, nuts and wing nuts are great for these.


Our main character, the mackerel, doesn't have to move (in fact, he can't) so the tie-downs are simply to secure him to the set while we shoot. I've decided to use two tie-downs: one near the gills and one at the tail.


And for anyone who's wondering, that gray stuff is plumbers epoxy. Apparently, few people have ever heard of the stuff (at least that's what I can gather from the number of times I've mentioned it and gotten blank stares). It's toxic, smells and is disgusting to work with but it's an armature necessity.

That's it for now. Next time? Clay and tin foil!

Red fish, blue fish...

As promised, here's the most recent update in my 'How to Make a Music Video (for the Handsome Family)' Series. This past weekend, I accomplished two things.

One - ran around Manhattan scouting fish markets and taking reference shots. I popped into the Essex Street Market but mostly wondered about Chinatown.




The Essex Street Market is nice and suitable for our needs, but I can't help but feel there's a better, more perfect location out there somewhere.


Chinatown is just scary. Amazing fish, but still scary.






Trust me, I've had some fun times out in Chinatown, poking around shops, getting ice cream and hearing horror stories involving chickens and electronic tic-tac-toe games. The environment, while being really wonderful for a documentary style shoot, would probably just end up as a headache-inducing nightmare for anyone trying to actually set up staged shots. Plus, 3 out of the 4 markets were mean to me.


These guys weren't though!




He let me take all the pictures I wanted and even posed for me! Not really useful, but fun none-the-less.


They even had mackerel, the star of our show. Which brings me to Two - character and some rough armature sketches.


Drew these up Friday, scanned and colored them in Saturday. We're trying to keep the fish semi-realistic without it actually being mistakable for a real fish. The heads will most likely be replacement, with the gills hiding the 'match-line'.


Vegetables with obvious Muppet influences. No eyes, though. Once again, as close to realistic as possible.