AMBERSONS 3!!

At long last, "ADVENTURES WITH THE AMBERSONS, Episode 3" is up! Special thanks to all the folks who helped bring this film to life: My producing partner, Doug Draizin; the great folks at SuperDeluxe.com, especially Daniel Weidenfeld; the fantastically talented and hilarious voice actress, Lisa Guarino; my bud for life Tommy Keiser for building the "Witch-o-Mater" that figures heavily into the third act; my after effects guru, Behn Fannin, for lending his magical touches--err, torches, I should say; and most of all, my main man Gary Green, for just supporting me while I pursue this insanity. Enjoy!

The passing of a friend...

Yesterday saw the untimely and very unexpected passing of a cherished member of my extended family: Gary's sister, Kelli Seely, and her family, lost their beloved French mastiff, Benson.

Benson was not an old dog. On the contrary, he was less than three years old. He entered the Green family about the same time I did. I remember Gary's description after the Seelys brought home the new puppy: "I don't know if I can't stop looking at him because he's so cute or because he's soooo ugly..."

Everyone's first reaction when they saw Benson, with his gigantic face looking like something that might have resulted from the unholy mating of a walrus with a giant catfish, was one of delighted fascination. His farts could clear a room. He could eat a whole sofa and still have room for a pair of expensive shoes (see pic). His snoring rattled the window panes. He loved having his head rubbed, and when he planted his enormous skull in your lap to be petted, you were literally pinned down until HE decided you could get up. He was the sweetest dog I ever knew.

Benson apparently died in his sleep while napping in the backyard, possibly from an aneurism, according to the vet. He didn't appear to have suffered any pain. We're all really sad about this, but Gary noted that Benson had an AWESOME life, with all the food, attention, space, an incredible family and love a dog could hope for. My heartfelt sympathies go out to Kelli, husband Jeff, and daughter Lauren during this unexpectedly sad time.

Thanks for bringing so much love into our lives, Benson! We will miss you!!

MYTHIC JOURNEYS: The Tree Girl

Right after the arrival of the awesome Wendy Froud-designed puppets for MYTHIC JOURNEYS, director Steve Boe commissioned me to construct the next puppet member of the cast, a forlorn and bark-covered beauty called "The Tree Girl".


"The Tree Girl" is one of a series of sculptures by Virginia Lee, a fantasy artist whose works have graced many a feature film (sometimes working with her father, Alan Lee, who won the Oscar for art direction on LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING). Steve was really captivated by the piece and asked if it could be turned into a stop motion puppet. "Suuuuuuure," I casually replied. Inside I was jumping with excitement to get started on a really unique puppet-making challenge. Virginia graciously gave us permission to use her beautiful sculpture as the starting point for our character...


The first task was to construct a wire armature. Since the lower half of the body was going to be a solid piece, I used only one wire. The arms were several bundled smaller wires left looong at the end to build her finger-branches off of. Some steel epoxy anchors the torso and pelvic regions...


Next I cast a head in plastic. This head comes from a mold I made that is pretty neutral and can serve as a base for many variations...


Five holes are drilled into the plastic head, for the wire branches to go into. The branches are held in place with a little JB Quik...



The head here, some of the wires have begun to be coated with Magic Sculpt, but there's lots--LOTS--more to do before the head will be done!


Also start adding Magic Sculpt to the body at this point. Magic Sculpt is the best for sculpting features that don't require flexibility...


Half-done head joins half-done body...


The head sculpt complete. The face has been altered by shaving off part of the old face and building new features with Magic Sculpt...



Sculpting complete and puppet base-coated. I built up the arms, shoulders and next with liquid latex and cotton and tried to smooth it in with the rest of the body. I also built up the joints where the "fingers" join the hands, tho the fingers themselves aren't flexible. Little beady eyes add some personality...


The finished puppet...I brushed on another layer of liquid latex to strengthen the skin and create a slightly rippled surface, like tree bark. Stipple painting and dry-brushing with black acrylic gives some nice definition.


Steve took the groovy portrait seen here and at the beginning of this post...it's fun to have built a puppet to act alongside Wendy's magnificent designs!

Project C: Snow Princess

As I spend time preparing five new AMBERSONS Episodes and the MYTHIC JOURNEYS project, I'm also in the early stages of designing & building sets and puppets for SNOW PRINCESS, a short, gothic fantasy written and directed by Audrey Holland. I saw an ad Audrey placed looking for scenic artists and animators for her film on the StopMotionAnimation.com message boards and introduced myself. Audrey and I share a lot of the same inspirations when it comes to stop-mo, and I'm thrilled to be working on her project.

The set above is one of seven that I'll be designing for SNOW PRINCESS, (the puppet is an old cast member from DREDD MANOR standing in for scale) in addition to animating the film (with a little help, hopefully!). It's going to be fun to work on something a little bigger scale than I'm used to. Lots more details to come about this exciting new work...

Got Myth?

Things are so busy right now I can barely keep my head facing forward. The AMBERSONS getting extended is huge, really huge, but actually, that's just one of FOUR exciting projects that are currently being done under the Red Hatchet Films banner. I'm going to need some sort of numbering system to keep myself and you, my tens of readers, from getting confused. Let's call AMBERSONS "Project A".

Now, on to "Project B"...

Several months ago I answered an ad on Craigslist (YAY, CRAIGSLIST!) looking for 2D and 3D animators to assist with the production of a documentary on the Mythic Imagination Institute, an organization devoted to enlivening the imagination thru the study of mythology and its relevance to contemporary living. I wrote to the director, Steven Boe, and asked if he'd considered using stop motion. He said he hadn't but was a fan, so we talked sporadically in the ensuing months about how to use stop motion to tell one of the key stories in the film, an ancient fable called "The King and the Corpse." At one point, Steve told me that Brian ("The Dark Crystal", "Labyrinth", all those "Faerie" books) Froud and his wife Wendy (Henson puppet designer and builder of "Yoda" and the Gelflings from "Dark Crystal") Froud were connected to MII and suggested we ask THEM to create our three main puppet characters for the film. My thought: "Good luck..."

He asked them.

They said yes...

Wendy Froud undertook the design and construction of our three main characters: one king, one corpse, and one sorcerer. She'd never built stop motion puppets before, and had a few questions, which we answered over emails as she and Brian are based in London. After a couple months we got an email that the puppets were on their way, along with an almost apologetic explanation that she'd run out of time and couldn't work on them any more. The box arrived, and this is what was inside:





Could you just freakin' die?? Steve took the pics and added the groovy backgrounds but these are the actual puppets, and they look alive...suffice to say I cannot WAIT to start animating with them! It's going to be awhile as we still have sets to build along with other puppets, storyboards, etc., but to have such a gift from such a talented artist for our film is a breathtaking thing. Thank you so much, Wendy Froud, you are magic!!!

There is much more to tell about this exciting project--as well as projects "C" and "D"--but it will have to wait for now...stay tuned!