Til Death Do Us Part

Til Death Do Us Part from Debra Chow on Vimeo.

ALL DONE. (Well, no... tweaks still need to be made, but this is what I screened at last week's Festival of Animation at UCLA.)

Tip: To avoid having to watch the video lag (BOOOOOO), let the entire short run through once (buffer, buffer, buffer - on mute?!?) before your official viewing. Enjoy!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY LITTLE BROTHER!!!
You're officially old.

I Will Rock You

I need rocks for my train scene. You'd think that'd it'd be easy to just go outside and find some, but the rocks in my neighborhood just simply aren't cutting it. That said, I've made some using some lightweight hydrocal casting plaster. These babies are now set and waiting for a coat of paint...

One More Time

One last scene to build and shoot... and then EDIT, EDIT, EDIT!!! Editing is going to take me an eternity, but I'm really looking forward to getting all my raw footage down...

GO GO GO!

Think I'm going to award myself with a mani-pedi now *GRIN*

Skeledog

Mortimer during the kite scene... *teehee*

I Feel the Need to Feed

Come and get it! (Ethel and the vegetarian lion.)

Accesorize

Flavor Flav (did I spell that correctly) sports a clock. Ethel, not to be outdone, sports a t-bone steak. Haven't keyed the (cornflower) blue screen yet because I don't know how. But I'll figure it all out on Thursday. Adobe After Effects, here I come. Be nice.

Choo-Choo!

Nearly at the point of film production schedule at which I'm going to have to start building out the train track and town. I've been surfing the web for inspiration, but most of the model train landscapes out there (see above) are too elaborate for what I'm going to need to satisfy less than a minute of screen time. Nervous. *chew on finger meat next to nail bed as to avoid biting nails* Eew.

Ready For a Close Up

Starting to shoot Ethel's grieving scenes. You might as well start addressing her as Meryl as she's just that good. Check out her tweaked brows and sad "muzzle". Aww...

Good Grief

"For some moments in life there are no words."
David Seltzer. Uncredited screenplay writer for Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Test shot from the opening scene. It's taking FOREVER to light and frame...

Golden Girl

Ethel's room is nearly finished. Here she is, showing it (and Mortimer) off. Everything's handmade with the exception of the lamp (it actually works when plugged in) and night stand. The miniature picture frames are made out of thrifted brooches - deconstructed. The artwork? Also thrifted. I kid you... I whipped up all three under five minutes. I'm afraid you can tell...

Next!

Going to give my leading-lady, Ethel, a break. Next up: opening and closing scenes featuring Mortimer, the empathetic Hungarian sheep dog...

Animal, Dance!!!

If I have time (which I surely will not), I will animate a walking elephant in the background. But as I just pointed out, I won't have time. So please, imagine an uber-cute ginormous elephant... stomping in the background. This scene would be that much better...

And just in case anyone's curious, my "ingredient" list:
1) Cages. I wanted the zoo to look more "Madeleine" and less "San Diego". Bought inexpensive bird cages from Michaels. They were originally painted an antique-white (which I actually liked), but I ultimately spray-painted the heck out of them. Lined the cages with actual dirt.
2) Bushes. Composed of clumps of "Clump-Foliage" that model-train connoisseurs utilize. Love the stuff.
3) Cage at back. I glued aluminum bars onto cut pieces of textured paper (originally a shopping bag from Cusp).
4) Sam (the toucan) and Seymour (the chimp) are composed of floral wire, tape, and Sculpy.

Shoot Me

Trying to keep up with my production schedule. T minus 6 weeks...

Hope y'all are having a happy weekend. Beans and I attempted to go running earlier today. You know, in my hot pink sneaks? FAIL. We were both panting after 8 minutes of movement. Pathetic! Well, whatever. 8 minutes today, 16 minutes tomorrow... :)

Goody-Goody

Am motivated to animate because I spent much of my afternoon watching "How to Train Your Dragon" in IMAX 3D. To my surprise, the movie was amazing. LOVED it. $17 well-spent! The dragon, "Toothless" reminded me of Beans. (They're both black.) So cute. I now want a pet dragon...

Above. A test shot of Ethel on her stroll. (Rough animatic HERE.) Ignore her robotic legs. I will address them in the final shot...

note the cardboard buildings, the floral wire tree, and the clay hydrant. they've all been featured here before... it's all coming together! *whew*

Play Time

Staging my next scene. It's looking a bit like Sesame Street. Totally unintentional.

Saved

With the help of my advisor, the brilliant (and helpful) Ashley Hoffman, I've learned that I can key out the blue (er, purple) screen! Here's a still from the zoo gate scene with a temp background. Amazing, no?

Whew. I was afraid I was going to have reshoot the scene due to my improperly-lit blue screen. Thank you so much, Ashley, for salvaging an otherwise failed-shoot. I promise to pay more attention to lighting in shoots to follow!

Special Needs

After Effects, why do you hate me so? Trying to figure out how to best remove and replace my blue screen with something fabulous. Struggling. *le sigh*

Home Sweet Home

Seymour is a homebody.

See More

...of Seymour. An extra in my zoo scene.

Dear God

Dear God, it's me, Debra.

Gravity causing my armatures to topple is caca.
Hot lights that heat up my garage are caca.
Hot glue guns that scorch my fingers are caca.

I'm having a bad animation day. A little help from you, or the Universe, for that matter, would be nice.

ARRRRRRRRRRGH!!! *me pulling out my eyelashes* (I do that when I'm stressed.)