Aquatic Elements Begin

This week marks the start of my work on all the underwater elements of the film. On deck is a kelp forest. 

Opener Work in Progress Render

After a long week of shooting and compositing, this opener is finally coming together! 

Panthalassa WIP Opener from Casey Follen on Vimeo.

Password: ThesisWIP

Animated Paper

A few paper elements will be animated. Each petal has a wire armature running up the back. This particular flower was inspired by the ones I used to find when I was studying abroad in West Ireland. 

Puppet Making

Set Dressing

Shooting this week! I'll be getting through the first part of the film—everything above water. I'm excited to finally get a chance do some set dressing too. 

#GiantStatus

With a Little Help from My Friends

It didn't take me very long to realize I was way in over my head this semester. After weighing my options, I decided to try asking for help. Students and recent alumni have come through big time—donating their time to help me get it all done. I could not be more grateful. 

Autumn Helping Sculpt

Scenic Painting

Autumn and Danielle helped to cut-out and rig this vine element. 

Costuming for Underwater

Still a ways to go on costuming this marionette, but she's headed in the right direction.

Scenics and Puppet Progress

Style shift!! I'll be making the environments more painterly and planar, and less sculptural from here on out. This change is both aesthetically driven and time saving, so it’s a win-win. Huzzah! 

It’s all in the details

Jellyfish progress. The body collapses and should allow for a little bit of squash and stretch once in the tank. 

Two down, one to go. I'm changing the goddess puppet from last semester. The marionette will be more pose-able and have white costuming instead of red. 

Casting a Face!

This is how you know who your true friends are. Andrea spent about 25 minutes under the mask—10 minutes  under the alganate and another 15 waiting for the plaster mother mold to cure. 

Plaster and burlap mother mold... and pink straws, because breathing

Fabulous!

De-molding complete. From here, I'll be modifying the sculpt to create the character's face. I'll be adding eyes & brows in clay for animation next week.

Oxberry Testing

I would really like to use motion control on some of my shots,  but do not have access to a traditional system. So, I'm modifying our school's Oxberry system to capture my "underwater" sets. 

Shooting tests. So far so good! It took me a few tries (and hours) go get a basic understanding of how to run the Oxberry, but I think I'll be worth it in the end. This way I can do multiple lighting/effects passes for my environments.