The Cosmic Cabbage

The Winter is setting in and the main narration set is nearly complete. It has undergone a few transformations over the last year and is almost ready to be photographed. Some final tweeks and adjustments will be made to the paint job and the leaf tops will be added around the edges. More to come.

Getting ready for Kickstarter

    This summer I have been busy getting re-established here in the Czech Republic. It has been a great experience. With the help of some new friends, I have procured a studio space at the Forman Brothers Theater Studio, and have met some talented and inspiring artists who work in theater and animation. I have had an opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at how the Czechs design and create their unique and beautiful scenes and contraptions, not to mention a look at the amount of work it takes to pull something like this off.  It has been a real growing experience for me. 
     Materials for DIY building are not as readily available here as they are in Ohio, and I have gone back to combing scrap yards for inspiring objects and raw materials. It has helped to shape the esthetic of the final versions of the characters and the main set. Though I have not shot any footage this summer, I am happy with how things are evolving.  The latest versions best embody the functionality and esthetic I have envisioned. 
    I have found a co-director, Celso Destefano, a recent film student from Brazil who has been working on films and animations here in Prague for the last 2 years, as well as an American musician named Paul Fisk who is going to work on the soundtrack with me. Things are moving steadily in the right direction and doors of opportunity are opening before I knock.


This Fall, the goal is to finish and upload my Kickstarter video to raise funding to pay student animators from  the Prague Film School, as well as get some equipment and program upgrades to make the animating and editing process as efficient as possible. 
 Checkout the photos of the latest progress. The ball is rolling again, so stay tuned and I will keep you updated with the progress.


  Until next time, Vydrž!


Final Escape Pod -100% recycled materials

I saw this old iron at the scrap yard and
knew it was an escape pod waiting to fly.
Add a piece of old copper as wings....  

 a few old deodorant bottles as engines ...

some lights...  

and you are ready for take off!

Sign Language

HAND SHAPES

I was a Sign Language Interpreter for over 10 years and am fluent in American Sign Language. This had a major role in the development of the animation, the frog's character and armature design. The frog's hands are individually sculpted hand shapes that are real symbols used in ASL. They are switched out much like the phonetic mouth shapes are when animating speech.  The hands move from one language symbol to another with 2 to 3 transition hand shapes in between to make the movements smooth and readable.

Space Ships

 The Mother Ship is designed like a lamp and is mounted to a stand that allows for multiple set configurations.

Mother Ship Abduction Set


              

The Escape Pod had a few paint jobs

 before deciding on the silver.

 The final has a plastic canopy with a 

 carved and painted frog inside.

Frog Crusin'

Set Development

The Interpreter

Almost...

Almost...

That's it.

2011

2011

Early Frog