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slothpaladin

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Posted: Feb 11, 2005 - 12:28 PM

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Here is a lovely damsel in distress. Every good movie needs one. I originally made her hair orange but I did not like it. After showing it to my friends we decided that her clothing needs to be more earthy colors and her completion need to be lighter.

I have also been working on a set the last two weeks but it is still not finished. It is looking really good though, more on that later.

Damsel Carrot 1.jpg

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Carrot head

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DamselInDistress.jpg

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_________________
-Chris

Check out Trinket
http://www.chris-boyer.com

slothpaladin

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Posted: Feb 27, 2005 - 10:33 AM

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I have been working on a bar set and an extra, not finished with eather but here is a look at them, this side of the bar is finished, but if I change the angle I am missing some stuff. I think I will make this resolution (1280x730) the resolution of the movie, with my new 300GB hard drive it should not be a problem even at 3.7 Gigs a min.

FramTest.JPG

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_________________
-Chris

Check out Trinket
http://www.chris-boyer.com

slothpaladin

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Posted: Feb 30, 2005 - 11:31 AM

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I will start making ball and socket armiturs soon for the first time, here is my first test. I was also wondering how I was going to make an ale keg for the other side of the bar but I finaly figured it out.

B&S Joint.jpg

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Ale Keg.jpg

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_________________
-Chris

Check out Trinket
http://www.chris-boyer.com

slothpaladin

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Posted: Feb 12, 2005 - 01:48 PM

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Ok I have been rather busy latly, but on my stop motion so its all good. Last week I made another bust thing, once that was compleated I started working on my armitures, it look about three days to make and I think that it will be so much nicer to animate then twisted aluminum, it is not quite done as I have not been able to fine a torch to sodder the balls onto the threaded rods and the torso is to short, which will be very easy to fix.

Vixen-Good.jpg

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Armiture 1.jpg

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_________________
-Chris

Check out Trinket
http://www.chris-boyer.com

slothpaladin

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Posted: Feb 05, 2005 - 01:38 PM

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Well, well, well. It's long past time for a jurnal update.

A little more then a week ago I finished up the entire story board for "The Vampire Beyond the Crypt". It was about 55 pages long with two frames a page. Apart from the fact that it is only just above stick figure level it looks very good.

After that I took a brake from the vampire project to join the Brickfilms 24 hour animation contest. Brian and I created Radioactive B-Movie in about 14 hours and we did some very nifty lighting tricks that we have never tried before. The guy at Brickfilms that ran the contest ask anyone who was in it and that had the means to film a documentary of them making the movie, we were able to do this and you can see it here (right click and save is a bit over 40mb and 9 min long)

After that little adventure was over I started working like mad on the real project. I now have all three female armitures done, I only need the vampire and hunter armitures now. And here is a lovely picture to keep you happy.

Dance.jpg

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_________________
-Chris

Check out Trinket
http://www.chris-boyer.com

slothpaladin

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Post subject: The Master Plan

Posted: Feb 21, 2005 - 11:46 AM

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I guess I should lay out my plan for all to see. I was not planning on revealing this but after reading Marc's news post about stop motion's death here in the US I thought people who care about this ought to know.

If you have seen my work you know that I am no pro, I have not gone to any major animation collage and have no formal stop motion eduction, or for that matter any formal animation eduction. Also if you have watched most of my films you may know that each film (for the most part) surpasses the quality of the last.

I am trying to make my current project, The Vampire from Beyond the Crypt a proper indie short, 6-8 minutes long. I am making sure all people who are helping out with the project are filling out proper paperwork and that I will retain all legal rights to the project I am also shooting this short in high definition. I want to take my stop motion from a hobbiest level to a professional level.

But why would I do this? What could I possible gain from the extra effort, as there is not much market for shorts under 10 minutes (as far as I know). My goal is to go to film festivals with the short AND a 25 to 30 page script for another, more marketable project. We, my writer Robert and I, plan to do everything in our power to get a funded indie 30 minute stop motion film, and why would producers be willing to fund people who could not go about a job in a professional manner. I have researched it and the budget I would need to produce a far better film then my current project is classified as a low budget film. My friends, as far as indie films go, stop motion is cheep.

So am chasing a pipe dream? I may very well be. I taking a step of faith here, a step that could screw up my future, and am funding my current project with my part time network job. Feel free to criticize me, to attack my futile plan. I may very well take what you say to heart but it will not stop me, only make me proceed with a little more cation.

Well, thats all I have to say folks. I don't think there is much hope for mainstream stop motion here in the US, but I think there could be hope on the indie side of things, that is if people are brave enough to try it.

_________________
-Chris

Check out Trinket
http://www.chris-boyer.com

slothpaladin

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Posted: Feb 23, 2005 - 08:46 PM

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Well I finished my fisrt puppet, I have not got the replacable mouth system work out yet though, tomorow I am going to run a short head movement and blinking test, I have a four stage eyelid system in place.

Have_a_drink_on_me.jpg

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_________________
-Chris

Check out Trinket
http://www.chris-boyer.com

slothpaladin

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Posted: Feb 27, 2005 - 08:56 PM

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This is a blinking test, DivX compresion.

BlinkingTest_DivX.zip

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Download

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BlinkingTest_DivX.zip

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_________________
-Chris

Check out Trinket
http://www.chris-boyer.com

slothpaladin

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Posted: Feb 07, 2005 - 08:36 AM

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Wow, my blinking test was downloaded 82 times!

I changed my dress for the damsel, my male clothing was far more complex then my female stuff so I desided to upgrade her outfit, this is still just a bust, and is not the final puppet, I have also started on the full vampire puppet, I have not got to the head yet as I am waiting for my gallon kit of V-1068 to make head and mouth molds. I also made a sword and really liked how it turned out, I will be making another shortly.

Damsel Bust Take 2.jpg

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Sword and vamp body.JPG

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_________________
-Chris

Check out Trinket
http://www.chris-boyer.com

slothpaladin

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Posted: Feb 12, 2005 - 08:45 PM

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So what's been happening on my vampire film? LOTS!

This week the costs of vampire have risen above $700, what I originally thought the movie would cost to make, and from the looks of things I'll need to spend at least $200 more not counting film festivals. But have no fear, my meager paycheck keeps trickling in and should cover the costs.

Just today my silicone to make the replacement moulds arrived and I whipped up a very small batch to test the stuff out, I made sealed mould and put the head for my damsel puppet in it and poured the stuff in. On the gallon container all it said was that the catalyst to silicone ratio was 10/100. I thought the mould would be ready in a few hours, but it was not, I then went off on the net looking for some information and found this I recommend anyone who is planning to use moulds and replacement parts, it's not about clay but you should be able to apply it.

Hopefully I'll have a lipsync test before this week is out.

Also, someone over at www.brickfilms.com made a post about several stop motion programs, one was called Papagayo and is a lipsync, and I have found it to be way better then Magpie, although some people say it crashes a lot (it has not crashed ever on mine, I am using Win XP Pro)

Papagayo.jpg

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_________________
-Chris

Check out Trinket
http://www.chris-boyer.com

Last edited by slothpaladin on Feb 13, 2005 - 07:06 PM; edited 2 times in total

slothpaladin

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Posted: Feb 13, 2005 - 06:54 PM

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Lights, silicon, ACTION!

Well today I cut out the head from the mould I made yesterday and all looked good, I put a batch of female flesh (one part flesh one white) on the double boiler and spooned it into the new mould. After finishing that I popped it in the freezer and waited for the clay to harden, once I had given it due time I pulled it out and checked the new head. Because I had spooned the clay in, one spoon at a time it had a nice layered effect! It looked like a mummy. So I melted the clay once again, threw the mummy head back in the pot and the poured the liquid clay into the mould strait from the pot, after putting it in the freezer and pulling it out once again I had a perfect replica of the original head.

Knowing full well the it was working fine, I made a bunch of stuff for the moulds for the other puppet heads.

I also got some new lights in the mail that are just great, ordered theses at the start of the week and I think it should greatly help the lighting in my movie.

_________________
-Chris

Check out Trinket
http://www.chris-boyer.com

slothpaladin

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Posted: Feb 14, 2005 - 08:41 PM

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Ok, more lighting tests

You just have to see this one full.

and here is how I did it.

_________________
-Chris

Check out Trinket
http://www.chris-boyer.com

slothpaladin

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Posted: Feb 17, 2005 - 07:28 PM

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JAWs, in the plural.

Well, tragedy stuck last week, when I made that mass of molds (both heads and jaws) I did not have enough silicon, so I mixed up some more, this new batch was not mixed correctly and the molds that it was poured into where no good, however the mold of the damsels sisters head and the mold of the hunters jaw both turned out great. Even though the other molds failed I was able to rescue all the other sculpts and made new molds for them today, tomorrow we shall see how they turn out. After mixing and pouring the silicon for the new molds I decided to use my time wisely and start making duplicates of the hunters jaw, I decided to make 11 mouth shapes and one spare jaw, after pouring one I would set a timer for six minuets, put it and put it in the freezer, I put Chicken Run on to stave off my boredom while I waited for the new jaws to harden. Here are the fruits of my labor.

After taking this picture something occurred to my so I checked it out. I opened up Marcs Zombie Pirate clip with Captain Quill and Rupert and sure enough, Quills jaw was moving up and down, I realized that I would need to resculpt a few of the mouth shapes so that my replacement mouths are not just glorified paste on mouths. And I'll add teeth and a tongue as well.

_________________
-Chris

Check out Trinket
http://www.chris-boyer.com