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

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. 

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. 

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.