Festivals!

Panthalassa recently screened at its first festival, the ASIFA East Animation Festival on March 1st, 2016, at the School of Visual Arts in New York, New York. It was so cool to finally be in the audience for a festival one of my films has been in!

What's the next festival on deck? 

Flick: The Fledgling Filmmakers' Festival on April 23, 2016, at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

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.

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.

Upholstery

Next, I refined the foam by hand and applied primer. From there, I upholstered the pre-dyed fabric. To do this, I soaked the fabric in a 1:1 mixture of white craft glue and water. I pulled the fabric tightly around the set and used pins and staples to hold the fabric in place while it dried (over several days).

Hundreds of Pins Later... 

I also started sculpting additional forms out of Sculpy to dress the set with once it dried. 

Future Tube Sponge

I sculpted over the heads of pins to make a bunch of quick additions.

Hot Wire Construction

After checking out the prices of manufactured foam cutters online, I decided to do a little digging and learn how to make one myself. I checked in with some friends I made while interning in LA, and they gave me great advice. 

Materials:

 12 foot, 16 guage extension cord

Nicrome wire. 16/28 gauge wire 

Bots, washers, and nuts

Scrap wood

1K Variac Dimmer

There are a lot of different ways to build one of these. I found this link to be a good resource. Reading the comments was very helpful:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Hot-wire-foam-cutter/

It actually works! Best results with the Variac set between 5 and 7.

Spring Break Studio: Dye Tests

I spent my first evening of Spring Break in my apartment doing a batch of dye tests while catching up on Brooklyn Nine-Nine on Hulu (btw, great show, check it out). I have two main fabrics to work with—a textured white cotton material and a more complex woven upholstery fabric. The cotton took the dye really well. The upholstery worked better than I expected, but it did come out a bit darker than I would like. 

So far so good. The process of using iDye packets is pretty simple and worked as expected (no surprises... which was a surprise). The dye is a powder that you add to water, then add fabric, bring to a boil, and simmer for about 30 minutes. The tests took all evening because I did 4 batches. 

A little goes a long way with iDye—a dusting of dye powder did the trick. 

Huzzah! I didn't burn anything. 

Scarlet, pumpkin, and pink iDye pigments compared to the original fabrics above.
 Far left: upholstery fabric treated with pink iDye.

Testing 1, 2, 3...

First off, I’d like to say that the teachers at CCS are ridiculously awesome. They will do whatever they can to help their students. They have great ideas and are constantly popping into my studio with advice or just to check in. CCS instructors rock!

One of my instructors lent me a large tank to do some key/materials tests. I whipped up puppets (in literally 30 minutes—gotta stick to that production schedule), and spent the evening filming in the studio.

A few quick keys later, and now have some pretty solid test footage to work with. I feel like I’m in a good place (production schedule wise) going into spring break.  

Senior Thesis: Aquatic Puppetry Test 1 (4 sub-tests) from Casey Follen on Vimeo.

Runner Diaries: Munro Crafts

An instructor turned me onto Monro Crafts in Berkley. The have all of the usual craft store items (particularly related to jewelry), but they also have some really specific things that you can’t find anywhere else. I was super impressed by their selection of polymer clays and sculpting tools.

Munro Crafts Bead & Jewelry Supply

3954 12 Mile Rd, Berkley, MI 48072

(248) 544-1590

So. Many. Beads. 

I'm a sucker for good adhesives. I officially love this shop. 

Runner Diaries: Thrifting

 My hometown has recently upgraded to a super thrift store. This place is huge— back in the day it was our grocery store. I popped in to see what I could find, and ended up staying way too long. I found loads of great stuff for my sets and puppets.

Uhhh, who knew there would be crazy long line? Guess I'm not the only one on a budget. 

Walled Lake Thrift Store

730 N. Pontiac Trail, Walled Lake, MI 48390

Near W. Maple & Pontiac Trail

1.248.669.1443

Killer fabrics! I'm hoping to use the blouse on the far left as a coral texture. 

Runner Diaries: Haberman Fabrics

Found a great fabric shop in Royal Oak. I definitely recommend skipping the trip to JoAnn's and checking this place out. 

905 S Main St, Royal Oak, MI 48067
(248) 541-0010 

This place is amazing! Probably the best selection I've found in Michigan. The staff are great and very helpful... and didn't think I was crazy when I explained what I plan on using the fabric for—always a plus.

This is what I like to see!

I want to use this fabric as a base coral texture by adhering/stiffening it and attaching it to my scenic sculpts.
Now I just need to learn how to dye it. 

Couldn't resist! I found this beauty on the bargain rack. I have just under a yard, but if I can even out the coloring, the little bit I have may go a long way. 

Runner Diaries: Research Trip to Tropicorium

One of my instructors turned me onto a place called Tropicorium in Romulus to do some research. They breed coral there and really know their stuff. I spoke with the owner—he absolutely loves what he does and is overflowing with information on salt water creatures. I learned a lot from that trip. 

I took the video below to study the way that UV light interacts with various corals and creatures. The video isn't great, but it gets the job done. I can also look back on how the sea life moves with the current, which will be helpful later on when I'm ready to animate. 

Tropicorium

20080 Inkster Rd, Romulus, MI 48174
(734) 782-2622

Lion Fish

I think I found a tank! Bad news... it's at least 200 lbs.  

Japanese Dragon Moral Eel