Mantecoza Steam Horse – Guest Blog by Diane Cook: Part II

Hello! In order to share this fine article with more people, I invited Diane Cook to re-post her experiences in modeling a steampunk style mechanical horse. Diane has generously agreed and offers these reflections. This is part 2:

Most of the horse was now spackled, but there were still more pieces to add. David was not convinced that this model would hold up and the spackle would eventually crack. I tested the main body for pliability by squeezing it slightly. Anywhere that seemed weak was reinforced with pieces of wet muslin coated with carpenters glue. Once that dried, it was covered again with a layer of more newspaper. By doing this, I was able to feather the new skin into the older one. A light layer of spackle was applied and later a thick latex primer.

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Mantecoza Steam Horse – Guest Blog by Diane Cook: Part I

Hello! In order to share this fine article with more people, I invited Diane Cook to re-post her experiences in modeling a steampunk style mechanical horse. Diane has generously agreed and offers these reflections:

Arizona has a small independent film community that relies mainly on volunteers to work on their projects. Last summer, Emmy award winner David Stipes and I met many aspiring filmmakers at Phoenix Comicon.

One project that caught David’s attention was the steampunk fantasy, Mantecoza. It centers on the character of Sebastian King, an average office worker, who is suddenly thrust into the neo-Victorian world of Mantecoza, where he struggles to learn how to be a wizard in order to fulfill his destiny. The realm of Mantecoza presents as an alternate steampunk fantasy reality, which the Wizard of Mantecoza accesses by a magic ring.

After meeting with the creator, Sue Kaff, and looking over the script, David felt more steampunk qualities could be added to the film. His idea was to build a miniature model of a steam horse for a forced perspective shot. Although the model would only be about 12 inches tall, with the camera close to it the model would appear larger and in scale with the live action background.

Inspired by Dutch artist, Theo Jansen’s strandbeest, David created a concept design of a horse powered by steam.

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Building the “Normally This Weird” Death Ray Weapon part 2

As I began working on the Death Ray weapon for the web series, “Normally This Weird” I quickly had a number of realizations. The most sobering was that this was not going to be as easy as I thought!

I had forgotten how important a well tooled and supplied workshop can be to efficient model and prop building! I had taken for granted the quality of the shop when I was at Cascade Pictures, or the one in my own studio. Unfortunately when I went to work on Star Trek and got immersed in the digital world, I let my tools go to others.  Now, what should have been straight forward tool cuts became laborious chew-it-out-with-my-teeth kind of endeavors.  Read the rest of this entry »

Building the “Normally This Weird” Death Ray

Sometime you just have to do a project because it is too cool to pass up and you just know it will be fun.  

While I am semi retired (I am not retired yet!) from the visual effects biz, I still get the bug once in a while to do “just one more project.”  My son, Nathan Stipes, has been the Art Director and de facto prop master on a web series called, “Normally This Weird.”   http://www.normallythisweird.com/      It is a creative, web-based series of episodes written and directed by Phoenix film maker, Nathan Blackwell.  

The series covers the strange adventures of a normal young couple who move into a neighborhood filled with some kinda’ unusual people. You have an eccentric inventor who is married to what may be an alien disguised as a 1950  ‘June Cleaver’ housewife.  There is the ‘Men in Black’ style FBI agent and his men constantly trying to expose the strange goings-on. And more! 

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Battle of Galactica rare matte shot

Battlestar Galactica was so popular during the late 1970s that Universal Studios created a special Galactica themed “ride” or event as part of their back-lot tram tours. It was named “The Battle of Galactica” and opened in 1979 and ran to1992. 

Courtesy of Dale Long. http://byyourcommand.net

While the ride was being designed and constructed, Universal wanted to generate excitement and buzz about their new attraction. A promo / publicity film was to be shot and shown to generate excitement and attract people to the show. The major drawback was that nothing was finished enough to be photographed or to show off. Read the rest of this entry »