Las Ventanas

Here is a new look at the puppet mad scientist lab that I am building.  At the moment, I am working on the windows and plan on giving it a bit of a stained glass treatment.  My alternate plan is to have a old school multicolored Christmas tree light wheel shining behind it.

Mini Googly Eyes Make Great Mini Rivets

One of the coolest tricks I ever learned was from Dave Lowe's blog on using googly eyes to make rivets in props.  I used miniature googly eyes for rivets on this prop for the puppet mad lab set that I am working on:

Parts for the Lab

Here are some parts that I am building for a lab set for the puppet music video/short film that I am working on:

JACKBOOTS ON WHITE HALL

Here is something all of my puppeteer readers and friends might get a few chuckles from:




(via AICN.com)

RIGHT PLACE WRONG TIME

Here is a sneak preview of what I have been calling the Sock Puppet Mystery Project. This is the first two scenes or so of the script. Keep in mind that most of the characters are sock puppets. Comments and criticism is welcomed so don't hold yer punches, there Nancy.

Before you read on I feel that I should apologize for the terrible formatting job that Blogger has done. But one can expect such things when going from Celtx to Blogger using cut and paste.

Also this goes without saying (C) Tim Shrum, 2009 so Swiper no swiping! That is until I finish it at least ;) then you will see what cool things you can do with it on your own. Enjoy, schlock heads!

INT. SOMEPLACE BAD

Darkness surrounds everything.

OS are SOUNDS OF SOMETHING GRINDING AND GROWLING.

Everything slowly enters into blurry vision.

JOE - The hero - awakens in the middle of a pool of YELLOW GOO on a cold cement floor.

He sits up and looks ahead and discovers what the GRINDING sound is coming from a CHAINSAW skittering all over the cement floor.

To make matters worse, no more than five feet away, is a weird long and extremely thin HUMANOID CREATUREN who has been cut in half and is crawling towards Joe in the same pool of ooze.

Joe scrambles to his feet. He eyes the CHAINSAW again. But it's too far.

He takes a few slippery steps back.

The CREATURE continues to crawl towards him.

Joe takes a few more steps back - again both keep one eye on the Creature and the other on the CHAINSAW.

He almost trips over a BONE which has a end that is broken off into a JAGGED POINT.

Joe grabs it and like a knife points the jagged end down.

From the shadows behind Joe, CIGAR CHEWING DOC SAVAGE ERA/PULP HERO, enters into view. His left eye is covered with a RED EYEPATCH.

DOC

Great thinking, kid. Now, the way I see it, the only way to kill it is to-

JOE

How did you-?

DOC

Shut up and listen; you need to stab it in the head.

JOE

What!?

Doc

Now don't go pissin' yer diaper, kid. Look at it, the freak got cut in half with a chainsaw, and it still wants to kill you. These things probably don't feel a thing-like zombies.

JOE

Really?

Doc

How the hell should I know? Just kill it before it gets its claws on you.

Joe looks back at the Creature, and with trepidation, he approaches it.

JOE

I'm really sorry about all of this. Really, I am.

He slams the BONE, jagged end down, into the Creature's skull. It screams and hisses and even tries to grab Joe a few times. But soon the Creature is dead as Elvis.

DOC

Now the chainsaw.

Joe grabs the CHAINSAW and shuts it off.

OS is a LOUD BESTIAL ROARING SOUND.

He runs towards a SMALL WINDOW. Doc follows behind.

cut to:

EXT. SOMEPLACE BAD

A BLUISH AND PURPLISH GLOW bathes the STONE EXTERIOR and ODD SHAPED WINDOW of wherever Joe is trapped.

JOE

Oh, this can't be good.

cut to:

UPDATE

In case you wondering why there is so much radio silence around these parts it's mainly because I have many boiling pots on the burners. I'm still in the middle of working on a short film/music video and also a possible web serial involving sock puppets doing violent things to each other on a mysterious Lovecraftian island.

There is so much that I want to write down and share but really I don't have the luxury of time. But you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook to get the daily low-down. Now I gotta sign off and crank out the pulp.

COUNT SCHLOCKULA

Here is Count Schlockula-the third monster in a project that I am working on. The other two can be found here.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIM

The rest can be seen here.

HENSON ALTERNATIVE PRESENTS S.U.D.S.

The Henson Alternative label has created a new upcoming show called Simian Undercover Detective Squad or S.U.D.S. The teaser can be found below with the actual series being released in the Fall if 2009 at Film.com.

This is how the series is being described:

"S.U.D.S." follows the inept undercover adventures of a grizzled orangutan detective and his rook ie simian partner in a human world.

For more details head over here and The Henson Youtube page for more coolness.

WHAT I'VE BEEN WORKING ON IN MY SECRET LAB...

Here is another sneak peek at the second puppet that I created for the music vid/short film that I'm working on:

The body itself is a paper towel tube which had a mouth piece cut out and another tube inserted inside for the teeth. It is able to move its mouth up and down by use of a string that I pull on and a rubber band inside pulls the mouth back upward to it's original position.

The bandages was a tea-dyed cloth that I cut into strips and the head itself is constructed mostly from paper clay which I am still not sold on using the material ever again yet.

Related:
Franken-Joe
Drawless Animation

FRANKEN-JOE

Want to know what I've been up to these past few days? Here is a sneak peek:

SPOOK HOUSE DAVE

What do you get when you mix up a stew of old soap operas, puppets, and classic monsters? You get SPOOK HOUSE DAVE. (more details here)

Spook House Dave's Bleeding Heart
by Spookhousedave

(via SECRET FUN BLOG)

AMERICAN ROBOTS IN AMERISPACE - PILOT EPISODE

Here is some nifty Drawless Animation for your Thursday:



(more can be found here)

ANOTHER SNEAK PEEK

Work is going slower than expected, but it's all baby steps, really. Stay weird!

SOMETHING AHEAD OF THE ROAD

Here is a bit of a clue as to what I've been working on:

THIS IS ALL KINDS OF AWESOME

The work that went into this is just beyond amazing:


BEHIND THE SCENES:


In the Behind the Scenes video there is so much that can be learned for anyone even remotely interested in adding creature fx to their next flick without being a slave to CG. (via Puppetvision)

MONSTER MOVIE TRAILER

This made me smile when I saw this over the weekend. The dino puppet is what makes the awesome sauce. Dig it!

UPDATE: 3-26-08

Things are slowly looking up for me. I'm not so depressed about how events are unfolding. I've been reading Stephen King's book on writing and getting a bit motivated from that.

I've started work on the next podcast episode which should be out in a week or two. Doing a podcast seems to be more of a arduous task for me, as of late. There is long hours put into it that amounts to nothing more than thirty minutes or less of pure drivel. In a ideal world I would do several episodes back to back and then just upload them a few weeks apart at a time, but I never can get it together long enough to do just that.

As for the Robot Suit and the Sea Monster Suit; everything in that department is looking up. My brother was the first to try it out and when the head is placed on the body it all comes to life. It's weird to see it in action. The robot's head is far too small for the body, which I dig, it gives it a cartoonish look to it which is what I am looking for anyway. So it all snaps together nicely.

Drawing has taken a backseat for now. My main concern is just writing and props. Speaking of props I might try my hand at creating a BEN-10-esque Omnitrix bracelet and a DICK TRACY inspired communicator watch. My daughter gets a kick out of BEN-10, so I am sure she will dig the Omnitrix Bracelet prop. It won't be a duplicate per se, but definitely inspired by it for sure. Stay weird!

TWISTERS AND SNOW

To say that the weather around these parts is acting strangely would be a gross understatement. In less than 24 hours we have seen two twisters, thunderstorms, strong winds, and a impending snowfall.

I woke up yesterday to a relatively warm day, went to the local wal-mart to pick up a few things for a day at the park, and when I left the store it was as if someone had flipped a switch to freeze. It was a windy and very cold day at the park. Not exactly something I would recommend.

The wife and I joked about Strawberry Spring/Indian Summer and sure enough the last several days or so was nothing but that-a illusion. A taste of what could be. However, I did manage to do some latex work outside and the robot puppet's body is coming out a bit more smashing than originally imagined. So I guess it was a bit of a even trade there. Stay weird!

MR. A.M. ARILLO

This is a puppet that I have been working on and off for the past few months. The body isn't completed at the moment, but I am working on that hurdle.

I neglected to get step-by-step photos to share which I personally regret. I like to be able to see the progression of my work and it sucks not to have those photos nearby.

Anyway, the is made from a half-gallon milk jug cut in half and the back cut out. The top spout has been cut off and for reuse. The jug was then spray painted black and with a yellow coat on top. I rigged a crude mouthpiece for the inside and cut out inner mouth shape from a sheet of black craft foam.

For the eyes I used the spout and a lid off a separate bottle and spray painted them black. For in the inner fake lens, I just got empty a 2 liter bottle of soda reused it's plastic which was spray painted a bright red and cut circles out of the new material and glued it inside the robot's eyes.

As mentioned the next challenge is to give this guy a body. So stay tune kids!