A Dreadful Opportunity Part I

A few weeks ago I received a phone call from a close friend on mine from college, Lindsay Nack.

Lindsay had decided a few months ago that after 5 long years of growing her gorgeous dreads, it was time to cut them off. As you can imagine, this is an occasion to be documented. Lindsay, being a photographer herself, knew that pictures must be taken and they were.

This was not really enough though. Lindsay wanted to document the actual cutting of the dreads. A YouTube search revealed that most videos posted of cutting off dreads kinda suck. We can do better than that.

So Lindsay called me for advice on how to make a stop motion video. Lindsay lives in Portland and I live in LA, so at this point, all I did was attempt to explain the issues and techniques behind turning her head into a puppet. I realized very quickly that I was way too excited about the opportunity to not jump on a plane and fly to Portland and do it myself. How could anyone really resist that?

So before flying all the way to Portland to shot a video in a single day, I figured I should make a plan. I set up a rig for the camera that was made of things around the house that Lindsay could find herself.

So we both gathered the supplies we needed, I packed my bags and flew to Portland. Stay tuned to find out what happened to these lovely babies.

Storage Woes

I promise I am not being lazy about making things and posting about it. My entire life has been put on hold and into storage since the end of January. I moved out of my apartment. Unfortunately, I have yet to move in somewhere else. So for the time being everything, sans a couple suitcases of clothes and other necessities, is in storage.

I have been itchin' to get back to work on something but I have no idea where anything is and probably won't for another couple weeks. I know I have been attempting to buy this condo since April of '09, but I really think we might be getting close now. Cross your fingers and maybe I will be able to unpack and start blogging again by March :)

Blake Thomas Puppet Idea

I am in the process of making a Blake Thomas puppet with the idea that I could make a music video for one of Blake's song once it is finished.

The video quality is not very good here, but this is a live performance of the song I want thinking about using. I am open to suggestion though, if any Blake Thomas fans would like to see a different song used. Just leave me a comment about it.



Watch this. He just needs a to be a puppet, right?



So this is my initial concept drawing.


I think it is all in the eyes. Sad eyes and red hair.




The Jim Henson company made a few muppets for a preformance of The Country Trio. Each puppet looked like it's puppeteer: Jim Henson, Frank Oz, and Jerry Nelson. I would like to go for a similar style with this puppet. I posted one of their performances below.

Holiday Game House Animation

I created a holiday animation for Real Arcade's Game House website. It was a super tight schedule and most of it was finished in my spare time over the Thanksgiving Holiday. Considering the frenzy I was in (30 sec. of animation in less than 2 weeks), I did not post anything about it at the time. But here is the finished piece. Enjoy!

Where The Wild Things Are - More Halloween

Where The Wild Things Are - Halloween Night!!

Where The Wild Things Are - 0 days to Halloween

Where The Wild Things Are - 1 day to Halloween

Makin' stripes.


Hand sewing the whole freakin' thing.



The belly is not ALL natural.



Painted on the eyes.

Where The Wild Things Are - 3 days to Halloween

So there are no pictures today since last night my sewing machine decided to quit on me. Apparently it does not like furry fabric. So I brought a bag of fur to work with me and I am feverishly attempting to sew it all together by hand. Lets just hope no one at work says anything about what looks like a dead animal in my lap. Wish me luck. Only have a few more days...

Where The Wild Things Are - 4 days to Halloween

Made some teeth.


Made a nose.



Made Patrick try on the hula hoop belly suspenders.


Shading and painting.

Where The Wild Things Are - 5 days to Halloween

A little paint around the horns and mouth.


Spray adhesive the hair in place.



Pattern out the face.





Transfer the pattern to the fur, cut it out, and apply.

Where The Wild Things Are - 6 days to Halloween

Got the eyes secured on here. Then I took the pattern I made for his hair and actually cut it out.



Then I skinned a wolf... I mean I made my Max outfit. Which is really not very interesting actually. Just cut out the pieces, sewed them together and then dyed the whole business gray. Here it is drying and dripping and turning my tub gray. Actually the tub was kinda gray to begin with.





The hair pattern.



Comb-over.



Added some horns.