Costuming for Underwater

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

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: 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 

Research

I'm really enjoying this book. Not exactly a light read, but I'm learning a lot about goddess worship throughout history in contrast patriarchal systems of worship. 

Early Ideation

This sketch is the first visual representation for this film. 

After a series of fantastic and vivid dreams, I started keeping a sketchbook next to my bed to help me better remember these ideas. It paid off! While interning in LA, I had a dream about a goddess that separates the earth and sinks slowly to the bottom of the ocean where she encounters a series of interesting creatures.  

Early goddess sketches: