Story reel mark 2 gets Green light!

Yippee! After months of hard work of story development, "The Astronomers Sun" has been given the green light and will be moving into production. It is only through the blood sweat and tears of story development that you can really feel the accomplishment of approval and it's been a real pleasure to work with Simon and Jess to help craft their story. A debt of gratitude must go to our editor Dave Long, who's brought pathos and rhythm and to the story reel whilst working to intense deadlines. There are of course small changes to be made, with the main emphasis on getting the running length down. Peter and I have been planning the next couple of week’s ramp up into production with Simon and Jess and had a sneak peek at the work in progress. There’s plenty to do – but that’s what we like!

Jess NEVER wants to make another wig again!

This has been one of the hardest things I have had to do on this film. 

Henry's hair.....

Luckily I had just found a new hairdresser called Jo who could cut me hair just the way I had it done in Edinburgh and she asked if I would be her hair model...OF COURSE I replied:) I told her all about the film and she was kind enough to give me some extension to use for Henry's hair. This stuff doesn't come cheap and it was 100% human hair so I was pretty grateful!! She also offered me her help and any hairdressing tools I might need. 

It started out well but then took a turn for the worst. 

Let me show you...

Here I am poking Henry's head with a home made rooting fork thingy. I just used a needle and chopped off half of the loop and glued it into something I found. 

Pushing single hairs into the front part of Henry's hair line was an insane task...i had to do this for all 6 heads.... :*( 

I was seriously contemplating giving Henry long hair and making him look like the guy from crash test dummies...alas I knew Si wouldn't like that at all!!

Here's where it all started going wrong...His back removable wig bit is a separate piece to the front as I wanted to save time. I tried to poke the hair in the way a humans hair would grow....this was a mistake!! It would have worked if I hadn't made his hair so thick...it was REALLY thick and extended off of his head like a crash helmet. I took a break and slept on it. 

Next day I look at Henry's hair and called my hair dresser to see if she could give me a few tips.

He was looking like Goku from Dragon Ball Z...this wasn't really what i was going for!

I did discover the night before if you dip the unruly hair into boiling hot water and then into ice cold water you can style it much more easily. it kind of shocks the hair into doing what you want it to do. Probably best you only do this with real hair. 

Here he is with his hair all wet and ready to be cut at the hair dressers.

Hehe, I was just messing about...but I could see something was very wrong... well obviously. 

Took them into the hairdresser, lots of people stared as I carried 6 heads on sticks in a box from my car to the Salon. Jo did not expect that they would be so small and she feared that what ever she did she might ruin them...this seems to be becoming a pattern. So, she gave me a razor, some more hair a few tips and sent me on my way, but not before telling me how much Henry's screaming head looked like her ex husband.

I pondered for a bit and then started again. I decided to make his hair really fine this time and then paint each layer I poked in with black silicone sealant. This worked better. I'm almost there, I think... who knows!

 

Mark and Anna and other things...

My last post was probably the cheesiest thing I have ever written. I think I was so happy that things were going right. So this post is going to be mainly pictures...Si, that Cat in a bucket is the best thing I have seen in ages...my dad would say "Hey Jessie, that would make a great animation" all the damn time, that man never stops trying to come with ideas for me...hehe.

Anyway back to the progress we have made.  

Anna measuring Marks wood...hehe

Anna is an incredible artist and a dab hand at the old airbrush. I got her along to help me out and although she doesn't think she did well she did. She let me know I was doing a good job and gave me a few pointers. She did as much as she could but the idea of airbrushing with chemicals and silicone is just a totally different process to airbrushing with acrylics. She was so scared of destroying what I had already done. I know that if she had taken the airbrush she would have done an amazing job but she encouraged me instead which turned out to be the best help she could have given me. She then turned her attention to the masses of wood that needed to be measured and cut. I could have kissed them both!!!

Sparks getting excited with the electric saw - We had to keep a close eye on him. 

Mark LOVES the camera, he's only pretending to saw, Anna actually did it all! No I'm kidding, it was a team effort and both Anna and Sparks helped out so much whilst I was messing about with an airbrush they did all the hard work - we are truly grateful. They worked into the night and in the dark. Bats and bugs were flying at them and miggies (im sorry I have no idea how you british people spell that word) were biting their heads. Marks hand was vibrating and shaking afterwards...I know what he's thinking to that comment.

Heres a hand.

The pocket watch - this is an important prop, you will have to wait for the film to see why. Its made out of a tiny watch and some sheet metal I bashed into shape suing two teaspoons. My dad felt the need to call up to my room to ask if i was in any kind of trouble.  I think he thought I had fallen over and couldn't get up again or something. My parent are having to get used to a lot of strange sounds, smells (chemicals for those of you who were wondering) parcels and phone calls. 

Two of Henry's heads after I learned how to use an airbrush. 

Me learning - if you ever wanna do this give you self more than a week! Im a little bit concerned with how its all gonna look under the lights. We shall have to wait and see.

The observatory roof. My dad did all the CAD drawings for it and got a shop fitter to make it. It looks pretty awesome. 

The Scariest thing I ever found in the woods....

Need I say more.

Here's what the body looked like after the latex had dried. Although this method has many properties which we wanted, the process was too complex and unpredictable so as Jess has now posted we have switched to using silicone and things are moving a LOT faster now.

Assorted Images of Post Production

Before I was relegated to storyboarding Jess and I were actually able to work together in constructing the set and making the characters, here are some pictures of us working in the studio.

The armature has to be sprayed before the mould is filled to avoid it rusting. We spent most of a day driving around trying to find the right stuff!







The mould is painted with liquid latex to form the skin of the puppet.








Jess pouring some chemicals, note the appropriate safety apparrel.







The foam latex expanding out of the mould. It looks like we crushed Gromit!!








Lucky the latex isn't low calorie or she'd have eaten it all!








Si.

Story reel number two

Another week has gone by and another story reel has been sent off. The storyboards took a lot longer than I had anticipated but thankfully there was enough time to get them finished before going to Jess's on Wednesday to capture them on David's rostrum (thanks David!) Thursday and Friday night were spent editing at Duchy Parade Films in Harrogate. We got straight down to it the first night and got all the frames numbered and timed out.

This new version came together a lot faster so on Friday we just had to add some new drawings I did during the day and put some sound to it.

Here's Dave Long deep in concentration, poor guy had 4 people barking orders at him none stop. Truly the patience of a saint!





Dave's speed on the controls is incredible, he's like a concert pianist on an editing keyboard.






Peter keeping a watchful eye on proceedings.....between coffee runs.





Two heads are better than one, or in this case probably equivalent to one!



Peter sent the DVD's off on Saturday morning so now we're just waiting to hear back about how it is received. So this week will be spent preparing everything else essential for the start of filming.

Si.

Thank the lord for silicone!!!

Well folks I decided on Thurs that I would scrap everything that I had done with Henry's body, arms, and heads and start all over again. I was finding the liquid latex way too unpredictable and back painting latex is just insane. It worked for my lil old lady in The Owl House as she only had one head. Henry has 4 and they all need to be consistent colour wise.

Luckily I was prepared and had ordered some silicone (silastic rubber) from a company call Thompson Bros in Newcastle before hand. They were SO helpful and provided me with all the info I needed. I then needed to learn how to airbrush, oh and purchase one too. Luckily I have a dad who is like my knight in shining armour...I'm not kidding, he just gets things done. He got it for me as a gift and also bought me a compressor...I think I might be his pension? So next task, learn how to airbrush and research how to paint silicone.

I found it's not a straight forward process and you need to mix silicone pigments and silicone sealants with toxic chemicals...it's safe to say I had jumped in at the deep end. Help was at hand though and a quick phone call to my friends at Mackinnon and Saunders set me on my way. Sara Mullock, my super hero at M&S arranged for me to chat with Joe, one of the talented genius who paints up all the models. He was a great help and I felt confident to go for it.

I also needed to purchase a thinner called Toluene and found a local solvent company in Tockwith called LSS (Leading Solvent Suppliers). Thanks to a very kind gentleman called Derek Walker, I came away with just what I needed and free of charge... Derek also had to do a check on me to make sure I was not going to use the chemical for erm...other things.

Next job was to order some silicone pigments. At first this felt like a lost cause but then I stumbled across a site called ModelLife. These guys are great and they provided me with a load of pigments and a bunch of information.

So away I went and you know what, this was the best decision I think I have ever made. I have now 2 silicone arms ( I attempted to do this with latex and expandable foam around 14 times...each time taking 5 hours or more) I have 3 heads, two with animatable jaws and I'm just working on the final head and then I shall start on the Body...I am as happy as a monkey!!

First animatic

Si, Jess, David and myself working with the brilliant editor Dave Long put together the first version of Si & Jess' story in drawn form at the end of April. With editing, scratch track recording and instant rostrum re-drawing all happening at once, it was alot of fun, if hard work!

Now, work is near complete on the monster amount of drawings to finish the second animatic pass. Once more to be assembled at Duchy for the end of May. A fresh supply of coffee and biscuits at the ready.

The telescope...ahem having a little too much fun...

I wont say much..heres some pics of Ally and I making stuff, including the telescope.

Ally Cross

ts been busy and we have had SOOOOOOO much to do. So to help us get things done we invited a good friend and fellow animator to come down and help. Ally is an awesome person and so much fun to work with. She is talented and precise and is a brilliant to have around. Ally worked hard and produced the most wonderful roll top desk.

See the making...




 

The desk is made out of Balsa wood and then stained with watered down acrylic. After that Ally coated it with a wood varnish...beautiful!!

Good work Ally!!!