OK, having trouble uploading to SMS right now so I'm going to post the wmv version for now, and will figure it out later....I want to post a QT version to StopMoShorts, but I think I'll need Mike's help for that....
Til then, here it is, in all its glory :)
Pepper's back and Doc is hesitant at first. He approaches her, reaches up, and cradles her head in his palm. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to animate them into such an intimate pose, so I animated them out of it :) I set up both puppets like in the pic, animated the shot backwards, then reversed it in editing....this is the one that I set up for last night, animating it was difficult because of the closeness of the puppets, and because the only motion (mostly) is in Doc's thumb and Peppers head, so I had to make sure not to move the rest of the parts....gripped them in their off-camera/shadowy spots, like the back-left of Peppers head, or Doc's left arm or tied-down leg....this is also where Doc's orangey campfire light and Pepper's blood red light sort of subtly meet and merge....into an only slightly unpleasant pinkish hue....yeah, this is just after Pepper vomits Peptobismol all over hubby....kidding, I don't really hate it that much :) better luck next time though with combining colored lighting....I continue to look to "The Devil's Backbone" for its brilliant use of blues and ambers....
...getting down to crunch time, I think I'll be able to do the shots I want but technically I could actually end now....I won't though, gotta get it done the way it plays in my head, which I've mostly accomplished here...some scenes could play out a bit longer but I'm trying to keep it moving quickly....may have to cut the sex scene......
(kidding again........ain't I a stinker :)
I'm at about 1 min 45 sec out of 2 min 15 sec, so far its 6MB, I'm guessing a final file size of 10MB...I work the rest of the week so its gonna be tough 'scheduling the shoots'...makes me feel like I'm in college again, cramming...maybe next round I'll make the short in the middle month so I can sit on it for a few weeks and tweak it before uploading...I doubt that could actually happen with the way I procrastinate :) I had to stop for awhile tonight to watch the big game, I'm not typically a football fan but it was the first home game played in the rebuilt-Superdome since Katrina so pretty much everybody was riled up....felt great...I left off animating on a shot that I am most excited to film, so that I'll be amped to get up in the morning and get something done before work...see, I have ways of tricking myself....reminds me of an episode of Seinfeld where Jerry talks about the two sides of his personality, morning guy and night guy, and how much morning guy hates night guy...:)
This shot only amounts to about 3 sec of screentime, as the wedding pic burns in the fire....I may reshoot it to prolong it a bit but for now I'm truckin' on...I took a printout of the picture-prop about 1" long, curled it, and attached it to one of the mesh flames in the campfire prop. I got out a little orange and black paint, and a pair of tiny scissors, and for each frame, I painted an outline on the photo, orange first then black, slowly making its way into the center of the photo....I trimmed the excess black area with the scissors, until nothing was left. Then I added another little flame effect on top of the shot in the 'editing room', and in the end it turned out pretty cool, something I'm sure I'll develop more in a future short....
So yeah, three seconds done today, but I'm past halfway, about 40 sec left? The next shots all involve the Pepper-red light, which I'm anticipating problems with....should probably do a test run first...
...coffee drying on the final pages of the book prop...
...a couple more completed pages...
...and my first few storyboards....my schedule for tomorrow's filming, hopefully I'll be able to do more...titles and music are already set up in Vegas and waiting for clips...
Today when I got home from the workplace I took the morning's leftover pot o'coffee and haphazardly dunked about ten of the tomes pages into it....I wasn't fully prepared for the way the wetness reactivated the gluestick, the tissue paper became slimy so I 'posed' the pages apart and took a blow dryer to it...the silver of the page shown through at first, not too pleasing, but as it dried it darkened nicely, almost has a glow now....one or two of the pages are ruined but I intentionally created more than I need...used a lighter on some pages, sparingly after setting a small fire which claimed another page :) Next came the brown paint pens and some inside sketching...at first I thought these would just be test pages, the 'flip-by' pages in the short, but after seeing them in action in the clip posted below, I think they are detailed enough...I was going to have fine linework going on but I think that would just end up unreadable on camera...Here's some eye candy... 
Here's a little test clip I shot after working on aging and detailing the book's innards a bit....a more detailed post about the aging is coming soon....
Bottom left: "magnesium" eternity, the infinite flame
Bottom right: "mercury" transcendence over death
I also got crackin' on the tiny tome, sort of combining suggestions from earlier and creating something that should work fine for me. First I sandwiched a piece of foil between two sheets of white tissue paper, using a glue stick...then I cut out pages and folded them all in half...the foil shows at the edges after I cut them but it gives the book an old-timey 'bible' feel, so it works...probably won't show up on camera anyway...
Then I bound the pages together with thin lines of superglue down the spine, stacking pages until I had a little pamphlet.....Cliffs Notes :) The pages hold their shape, and stay in place, so yay...
For the cover (not pictured, coming soon), I used 3 pieces of balsa, one for the spine and one for each cover....I ran a few strips of wire on the inside cover from one end to the other, crossing the spine, so that I can control the openness of the book, and also to prevent warping from the latex, which I've started to coat on the outside of the cover....it will look like sewn skin, no face like Evil Dead but close :) After I finish the cover, draw (some of) the inside pages, age them, and attach them together, I'm ready to film....shooting for Friday...
Next I made 5 wire-mesh cones to be the 'flames', various sizes....wrapped each in plastic, and attached them to the base...
A little orange and red paint, and its ready to go...I may try to do a little animation test with it if time permits...
I started off with the sleeves, made two tubes, attached them up at the chest, then bunched them up and wrapped a thin piece of wire to hold them in place...then I added the torso piece, and a little collar... 
I cinched the waist of the shirt with a piece of wire, and next came the pants, which I basically bunched up and trimmed in the rear to make fit...added a paintjob on the shirt, a little liquid latex and white paint, thinned out, in a couple of coats...then ribbon-suspenders and little moon-shaped belt buckle care of my wife's private bead stash :), superglued on...
I almost like him better without eyeballs, with just the suggestion of them...like I said, gonna sleep on it...tomorrow is hopefully a prop day, I plan to be filming by the end of the week, which'll give me roughly two and a half weeks to shoot and edit....I leave you with a shot of the lovebirds...
Then I started experimenting with lighting. I really want to introduce a sort of character driven lighting here, bathing Pepper in red light, and signaling her approach with a red glow that follows her as she makes her way to the Doc....I think I can pull it off...That's three lights so far, the moving Pepper-red lamp, the moving campfire lamp, and a third, constant light source to kind of make everything flow together better...
Wrapped extra strips where I wanted to build up mass, like the belly...I've decided to go for suspenders, high pants, and rolled-up sleeves instead of a suit, as he should sort of appear in repose in the film.......heh...another StopMoShorts short about waiting :) Funny that my deadline-oriented concepts have an element of time to them...well here he is, ready for the dressing room...
I also sculpted and baked a little Sculpey picture frame, which'll be painted up, and made a little bag o'somethin', undoubtedly some ancient element necessary for resurrecting the dead...
Added ears made from Das air-hardening clay, and superglue-&-Q-tipped his beard and mustache. I actually haven't decided what I want to do about the eyes...I thought it might be cool to go with glasses, and try to get a campfire-y kind of reflection in them, or I might just stick a little clay in the sockets and paint him some eyes...going to avoid any kind of moving eyeball, no beads or replacement parts...
Here's the happy couple now, Doc and Pepper...they really do make a nice couple :)
Next-- Props? No. Props? Yes. Many props, including a Photoshop'd wedding pic of these two in their younger days, and a miniature copy of the Necronomicon complete with pages of passages and diagrams...ugh....haven't exactly figured out the 'readable book' thing, I'm thinking pages made of either fabric laced with wire or wire mesh coated in latex...suggestions welcome ;) Thursday is a day off for me so look for much progress...
A pair of shoes on the floor of the bedroom that I grew up in, my parent's house in Metairie. Taken on September 15. I still cannot wrap my mind around the fact that a year has gone by.
