Clash of the Titans Remake (and appeal)

Hello everyone,

First let me say that the reason I haven't been active on this site for a while is because Fidget The Witch is currently on hold while I tackle a very exciting project with Nick Hilligoss (L'animateur) and Ron S. Cole. (In the fall of gravity).

But don't worry - Fidget the Witch has not been shelved and forgotten about... I will still be producing this short film and writing all about the process here.

In the meantime, I'll use the site to give you some information on what I am up to outside of that project.

However - to the main purpose of this post.

It has been announced that Harryhausen's last feature film "Clash of the Titans" is to be remade by Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures. Over at the SMA boards some of us realised that while we can't do anything to stop thhis remake from happening, what we can do is try and inform Legendary Pictures (and WB) that in doing this remake they have an opportunity to show the world just how far stop-motion has come in the past 30 years.

Since the original Clash of the Titans was released stop-motion-animation has not sat still - It has seen an explosive evolution which is little known to the general populace (who are deluged with CG every day of their lives). Stop-motion has incorporated the best of digital technology and the best of mechanical motion-control systems to become a creature-effects technique which can easily best CG in every possible way.

We believe that using stop-motion for the creature effects on this remake of Clash of the Titans will do several things;

-Turn the remake into a landmark in it's own right
-Give the audience something new and amazing to watch on screen
-Pay homage to Ray Harryhausen (A remake with CG creatures would be more of a slap in the face!) who made the original so memorable.
-Herald in a new era in creature effects with stop-motion and animatronics being placed back on the map, where they should be.

So we have put together a video to ask Legendary to seriously consider the possibility of using stop-motion for the creature effects in the Clash of the Titans remake. The video also informs viewers that they can help...

By writing a simple postcard or letter to Legendary Pictures to let them know that you support the idea of making this movie using stop-motion-animation for the creature effects, you will at the very least be bringing the idea to the attention of the film's Producers.


Legendary Pictures
4000 Warner Blvd.
Building 76
Burbank, CA 91522

Without further adoo - here is the video (links to the video on other video sharing sites follow too)...



Youtube :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPe-M6E8nbk

Google Video :
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2376886867925172326&hl=en

Myspace :
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=37891142

Yahoo Video :
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/3050817/8705632

Revver :
http://revver.com/video/1020741/clash-of-the-titans-remake-appeal/

Shingles (Phase 1)...

Guess who got a Firewire card for his temporary machine! Still haven't gotten round to repairing my workhorse, due to work commitments... So I took a look and found this amazing piece of kit. It even comes with some (limited) capture software. Good in a pinch and at the measly price.

It's time to talk about SHINGLES (not the disease!) people!

Some might say what you are about to see is overkill on the detail side of things... I say forget that! The more detail the BETTER!

SO... Let's get to it!

To make these shingles I needed several sheets of balsa wood (1.5mm thick), a crafting blade, some wood-stain (does what it says on the tin!) and a brush...


I cut the balsa wood in numerous strips of varied width. Then we gave each side (top and bottom) three coats of wood-stain. Kjestine applied the wood-stain at this stage. That was a slow job in itself, as she had to wait for one side's first coat to dry before doing the next side, and so on... But she did a great job.

When I cut the strips it obviously leaves perfect straight edges along the length, so my next step was to get in there and micro-detail the strips to give them the miniature hand-crafted look I keep harping on about (some visual detail on this later in the post). This left me with a load of strips with irregular widths and irregular edges...


...and some detail...


Next it was time to take each strip and slice it into irregular lengths of Shingle. It was important to do everything irregular to give a really dishevelled look to the cottage when it is complete...


Of course, now that I had cut the strips into shingles, they have more of those pesky sharp perfect edges on them... They HAD to be removed... One by one! This was a monster job and provides a good chance to show some detail of the micro-detailing mentioned previously... Cutting small irregular strips off the sharp edges of wood to give it an appearance of having been hewn by miniature men with miniature axes!

Thus...

...

...


So, now I had hundreds upon hundreds of individually hand-crafted wood shingles. Each one stained on the top and bottom, but not along the carefully detailed edges! So next came the process of giving each shingle a single coat of wood-stain around the un-treated edges...

...and a detail shot (check out my cheapo-crappy brush; I was loath to use a good one with wood-stain, and it did the job just fine)...


After they had all dried, I counted them, and found that I had PRECISELY 600 shingles. I hoped this would be enough to cover the entire roof surface (including the witch's hat roof-peaks). I was soon to be given a reality check, as it was now time to lay each of the shingles onto the roof structure of Fidget's cottage.

So, I got started...

...I applied a little glue to the bottom of the shingles and placed them onto the roof...


I had actually expected this whole process to be boring due to it's repetitive nature. However, in actually going through it, there is a sort of joy in taking so much care over something like this... knowing that every little effort you make will have a huge impact on the quality of the images that result in the finished film. I really enjoyed doing this!


It became clear, as I was about half-way through laying the available shingles, that there weren't going to be nearly enough to cover the entire roof...


So, I got as far as filling the main roof space with shingles. The witch's hat peaks are still bare, and I estimate I will need a further 400 shingles to complete the roof.

I have just got hold of a new batch of 1.5mm balsa wood, and I am raring to go! As soon as the shingles are complete I can get onto the windows and the door!

And, here is the cottage as it sits at the moment (sitting on my animation platform, which will be covered in a later post!).





Well, lots of detail... but it's been lot's of work!

Got to get back to work now... more updates coming soon! Check back often!

Pre-Visualisation...

As Promised...

As mentioned in my previous entry, I am very busy with commercial projects. Prop, Puppet and Set fabrication are on hold at the moment, and will be for another few weeks while I get my current contracts completed. So, this time round I am going to show a pre-visualisation shot I did before production began.

This shot is for the section where Fidget is flying through the tree-tops of the forest. I had decided that this particular sequence would probably work quite well without building a set, and would probably be quicker to produce using digital compositing of 2D elements. So only fidget herself will be stop-motion animated in shots where she is flying through the tree-tops.

For this shot I created a 2D drawn mockup of Fidget against a blue background (for chroma-keying)...


...I then created a strip of twelve simple scribbled 2D pine trees...


...and, lastly, I made a 2D sky background...


I composited them together in PremierePro, using several layers of the tree scribbles. I then added tints and gaussian blurs to give a sense of depth. Next, I animated the various elements using the keyframing feature in PremierePro. Finally, I added some wind noises for when Fidget zooms past a tree-top, and a little spooky tune for a bit of fun.

...and here it is...


I am pretty happy with how it turned out, and I can almost imagine how it will look with the actual puppet and a bit more time spent on the 2D elements and compositing. This is definately the way I will be taking these shots.

The final sequence will involve cutting in to close up, and may also involve some different angles. Now I know it will work, I am thinking about variations on this theme, which could allow me to produce a sequence full of exciting flight shots!

Quick Note...

This is a quick entry just to let everyone know that my video capture machine is on the blink, at the moment. The work I did on the Shingles is shown best in some video we shot and so I can't get at it to show you until I get the machine going again.

In the meantime I have a big deadline coming up with work (I'm making a computer game for the Council here) and I am giving all my time to that right now.

I did manage to do a test for ground-cover on the exterior set the other day. I may do a second-try at that and document it here shortly. Then there is a pre-vis shot I made before any of this began which might be a good thing to include (and it has VIDEO!). I really want to have this blog updated very regularly as it is a great way to keep track of the project's progress and keep motivated! Especially with the encouragement of other producers/animators. Guess I just need to learn to get in the way of a routine with it.

I'll do what I can to get some new stuff up soon!

(This message will likely self-destruct once I get new stuff on here).

Set : Witch's Cottage Ext...

Alrighty... On to the first of the sets. So far I have only started Fidget's Cottage Exterior. I am about a third of the way through the creation of this set. Lets take a look at some photos of the construction and how it is coming along...

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Sets : Fidget's Cottage (Exterior)

This was a real challenge for me. I haven't built a miniature set... well... ever, really. I tended to focus specifically on character animation/motion tests for the most part, so now I had to start thinking outside the box a bit.

I know, more or less, how it's done... But knowing and doing are two different things. Thankfully, it seems to be going well and I am happy with progress.

Okay, the first thing I did was to build the general structure out of Blue Styrofoam. I just got a load of 25mm A4 sheets of it, and hacked out the overall shapes, holding them together initially with masking tape, and then strengthening the joins between them with glue, and oval nails.

Despite the strong glue and nails, the structure felt a little wobbly, so it came time to build an internal strengthening structure out of Balsa wood. I read a lot about house building (alternative approaches, such as straw-bale-only and timber-framed-straw-bale houses) So I had a good idea of what was needed to give the structure strength... Batons with diagonal struts to hold them fast.

Here is a shot showing the blue foam and the balsa wood frame which gives it strength...



This "timber" frame also provided the support required for holding up the larger of the two "Witches Hat" peaks that extend out from the main roof structure of the cottage (see sketch further above)...



The next step was the main structure of the roof itself. For this I placed five strong twisted-aluminium "beams" from one side of the roof area to the other. Between these I threaded a "spider-web" of very thin wire. This bound the roof structure together and gave it added support and strength. Extra wire framing was added to make the internal stuctures of the "Witches Hat" roof peaks, with blue Styrofoam as their faces.

I then went along this "wire-web" and introduced a series of irregular kinks and bends. The reason for this is that my plan was to make the roof look ramshackle and worse-for-wear.

The next step was to add the papier maché to form the roof itself. For this Kjestine helped me, as I had never made papier maché before. We used the strip method. You take thin strips of newspaper and brush wallpaper paste onto each side and then ley them on your structure. We did this, ensuring to leave a notable overhang as you sometimes see on really old cottages. I then painted the top half of the papier-maché with black paint.

Here is a photo showing the wire mesh with the papier-maché on top...



I decided it would be best to do the render of the building next. For this I chose a simple "repair and filler" powder. You mix this with water to make a paste, and the result is a white plaster. The first thing I did was to take a piece of Styrofoam and apply the "plaster" mix. I scored the styrofoam roughly with a craft knife, to give the plaster as rough surface to grip onto, and then applied the plaster.

The results were very good. The plaster adhered well and looked pretty good...



...But I thought that putting on a white plaster finish might not fit the aesthetic, so I substituted the water in the mix for very thick black coffee! This provided a more natural earthy tone to the render. A more realistic base for the paint effects I'll be adding at a later date!

I applied the render and it took a lot longer to dry than expected. I think that might be down adding coffee into the mix rather than plain water. But it worked out great in the end... and now the model has a very nice coffee aroma! ;o)

...and here it is after all that (You can see it was still drying in this photo... It took several days to fully dry!)...



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I was really pleased with the results so far, and glad that it was starting to look like my concept sketch. But there was, of course, a special touch missing... The wood shingles!

...and I will cover those in another post!

_________________
-Paul J. McConnochie
Producer / Director / Animator
Vortex42
www.vortex42.co.uk

Furniture...

Well now for some furniture.

We have, so far, made only the Table and two chairs, and the rocking chair. The Cauldron, Oven and Caspar's bed are still to come.

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Furniture : Table and Two Chairs

These were made out of balsa wood by Barry. Barry built a wooden frame, and then cut irregular boards for the top of the table. He attached the boards to the frame with glue. He then cut four legs and stuck them to the frame with tiny dressmaker's pins and glue.

I really liked the overall design (especially the irregular lengths of the table-top boards) but there were a couple of things I wasn't terribly happy with... The table-top boards don't overhang the frame enough (the corners of the frame actually meet the edge of the boards on top)... This is something I could do nothing about, so I decided just to move on to something that could be altered.

Barry had made the frame and legs very bulky, which was the style he was going for... rustic and bulky... But for the aesthetic of the film, I preferred "rickety" to be the order of the day... So I hacked away at the chunky legs and frame, and cut strips from the edges of the table-top boards, to give it a more rickety look... I did the same with the chairs...

I think that through collaboration we have reached a suitable conclusion... I really like Barry's wierd shaped chair backs, as well as the fact that he made the seats irregular heights!



...and some detail of the table-tops and their "micro-detailing"... This just involved cutting away the sharp edges along the boards in irregular strips, to give the impression it had been cut at a miniature scale using miniature tools... Check out the irregular widths Barry gave to the wooden boards : Nice touch!...





...and some detail of the chair backs, featuring Barry's cool irregular design and also to highlight why I love using balsa wood for minatures; The grain is ideal for representing small scales, as you can see in the rough area on the face of the chair back...



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Furniture : Fidget's Rocking Chair

Super-proud of this one. I sculpted this out of some very fine pieces of balsa wood. This was my first time using balsa in years, and I am really over-the-moon at the results! That stuff is amazing to work with.

First off I saw Barry making his chair backs, with that really cool design, so I decided to mirror that in the rocking chair as can be seen in the photo. It will help tie the cottage interior together if there is a slight similarity in the design.

I took a long time over the micro-detailing on this chair. Carefully cutting away irregular strips to give that miniature hand-crafted look to the pieces of wood.

Once I was happy with the shape of the partsI used glue and tiny dressmaker's pins (as nails) to hold the pieces together. Then I stood it up on it's rockers to see how it worked out... and it fell over backwards!

The centre of gravity was too far back due to the extreme leaning angle of the chair-back. So what I did was to make a strut for between the front two legs to pull the balance forward (it will be easier to animate with a more centered balance). I used SuperSculpey firm which I textured after baking in the same way as I did with Fidget's wand... The weight helped enormously and the centre of gravity problem was no more.



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As you can see I used the same colour of wood stain on all these furniture pieces. I am considering to add a coat of Matt clear varnish over this to bring down the specularity... I am not sure this will work, so I will need to test it out to make sure.

Phew... This log is tiring to write! Glad I got up early this morning! Perhaps it is time for a cuppa.

_________________
-Paul J. McConnochie
Producer / Director / Animator
Vortex42
www.vortex42.co.uk

Props...

Okay, so now I will post some photos of the various props that we have already done some work on. So far all of the props have been made, and given a wash of primer. The next step will be the painting, which we will be doing next week (time permitting). Some of them need a final "wash and a brush up... a bit of water on the back of the neck, old boy" before they actually get painted...

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Prop : 2 x Spellbooks

These are made with Extra Firm Scupley. I used metal tools to get sharp edges on the "brackets" and book-bindings, as well as the name-plate on the front. Some simple scoring to suggest pages inside. The book names will be painted on with acrylics and a fine-headed brush (preferably sable, if I can get one in time). These were made by me. The books have a block of hardened epoxy inside to bulk them up, thereby saving on sculpey.



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Prop : 3 x Containers

Again, made with Extra Firm Scupley. We decided to do three different irregular and rustic shapes for variety. These were made by Kjestine.



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Prop : Fidget's Ladel

This ladel has a thin aluminium armature inside, which was useful in ensuring it kept it's shape while being sculpted. It also meant we could use less Scupley to make it, and that it would bake more evenly. Barry made this.



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Prop : Rotten Fish-head

This prop also required a small aluminium wire armature due to the finicky nature of it's shape. Having made this though, I am now considering to re-make it using clay, because I would quite like the fish to flop as it hits the floor... This version may be too rigid and not look quite right in the finished film, as it is being thrown to Caspar. I sculpted this.



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Prop : Pie Dish and Toddler Pie

I sculpted the Dish and Pie in two seperate parts. This is so that I could show the pie dish empty before the pie is made... rather than making two pie dishes. The Toddler Pie itself has some gruesome detailing in the fingers and eyeballs poking out through the lattice pastry. Not to my personal taste... I prefer apple & blueberry pie! I sculpted this one. This should be a fun one to paint!



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Prop : Fidget's Broomstick and Wand

These items were both made using wire inside to help retain their shape while sculpting. The texturing on each was achieved in a different way to allow me to experiment with which would be most effective. The broomstick was textured before baking, and the wand was textured after baking.

Barry made both of these items, and textured the broomstick... I then textured the wand after baking. For this I used a sharp, small-pointed sculpting tool... It took about 2.5hours!!! I really like the results, as the wood texture grooves are quite deep...

However, in comparison with the pre-bake textured broom-stick which still looks effective, I am not sure it is worth the extra time required to texture a wood effect after-baking. One reason it took so long is that it is a small size. Anyway, both are done now.

I really like the gnarly shape Barry gave to the wand... It is a welcome departure from the boring straight version I drew in the design stage.

They have each received a thin coating of wood stain on top of their primer coat. This was to see if that would be sufficient... I think I will be painting over them with acrylics though for the finished piece. The stain is far too specular and glossy...

I'll be using a special "miniature reed" product for the broom -brush-sticks!



Basically... I like the depth of my post-bake texturing, but I like the style of Barry's pre-bake texturing... Maybe I should do another test doing Barry's less regular texturing after baking... Any thoughts?




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Well I hope you liked the props. If you have any questions or suggestions, then fire away. I will post photos of them again after they have been fully painted and detailed.

Next up... The furniture.

_________________
-Paul J. McConnochie
Producer / Director / Animator
Vortex42
www.vortex42.co.uk

Fidget the Witch...

I have officially started pre-production on the first "full" stop-motion film project here at Vortex42. Up until now I have been focussed mostly on developing the necessary skills. This project will be a complete short film made in stop-motion. So without further ado, let me get right to it...


Fidget the Witch is a 1x2min stop-motion comedy short for kids.

The story follows Fidget, a wicked little witch, who loves nothing more than yummy toddler-pie... But she has a jealous familiar, called Caspar, who can never settle for rotten fish-heads at dinner-time, when there is toddler-pie to be had!

The idea is for this to be a naughty and cheeky tale with humour in a similar style to the cheeky re-telling of classic children's stories in "Revolting Rhymes" by Roald Dahl, or the Horrible Histories book series.

The film has no spoken parts, as I wanted to avoid lip synch in this particular production. The reason being that I would like to try telling the story entirely visually and with incidental musical cues (these will be composed after the film is edited together).

The story features three characters :

1 : Fidget the Witch
2 : Caspar the Familiar (cat)
3 : The Ill-fated Toddler

The puppets are being constructed, each, with a twisted-aluminium-wire and epoxy armature, and Newplast clay. I am using small hex-nuts for tie-downs... I will give more detail on this at a later date.

The story takes place on four sets :

1 : Fidget's Cottage (exterior)
2 : Fidget's Cottage (interior)
3 : The Tops of the Trees
4 : The Clearing

Set number three will be created digitally using only photoshop and premierePro.

The other three sets are being constructed using a wide-range of materials including Styrofoam (which I have just become aquainted with and am just realising it's potential!), balsa wood, plaster and papier maché.

There are a range of props required to tell the tale :

1 : Fidget's broom
2 : Fidget's wand
3 : Pie Dish
4 : The Toddler Pie
5 : The Rotten Fish-head
6 : 2 x Spellbooks
7 : 3 x Containers
8 : Fidget's Ladel

The majority of the props have been made using "SuperSculpey Extra Firm (Gray)", with an aluminum wire internal structure where required for strength during crafting. They have been baked in a small convection oven which I found on Ebay (brand new) for a very low price, and plan to use for making Foam Latex puppets on a future project.

In addition to these props, there are some furniture items required :

1 : Fidget's Rocking Chair
2 : Dining Table and Two Chairs
3 : Under-Window Table
4 : The Oven
5 : The Cauldron
6 : Caspar's Bed

The chairs and tables have been made using balsa wood. The oven and cauldron are to be made using "SuperScupley Extra Firm (gray)", the same way as the props.

The puppets, sets, props and furniture are being made by myself, Barry (my friend/assitant) and Kjestine (my Fiancee).

During production we are shooting some of the process in order to put together a short "Making Fidget the Witch" film to accompany the short.

In the meantime, I will periodically post photographs and information on my progress with the film to keep you up-to-date. In my next post I will post some photos of the props and furniture we have been making. Following that I will show progress on the first of the sets (the exterior of Fidget's house). In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this sketch I made of the final design for Fidget's Cottage (exterior)...



Well, I hope I'm giving plenty of detail. This is the first time I've tried telling people about a project while it is in production! If there is anything I am missing out please remind me!

Kind regards,

_________________
-Paul J. McConnochie
Producer / Director / Animator
Vortex42
www.vortex42.co.uk

Welcome...

Hello and welcome, one and all, to the blog for Vortex42.

My name is Paul McConnochie and Vortex42 is my film and animation production company. Based in Scotland, I tackle a very wide range of projects from live-action, all types of animation (drawn, cgi and stop-motion), as well as flash games and website design. I've been running Vortex42 since leaving College in 2002.

This blog is here to keep you up-to-date with the activities here, and to provide you an insight into the production practices involved in some of the projects I undertake. Over the next while I will be in production on a short stop-motion film, and the majority of the posts here will be related to that project.

Well, if you have any questions you need only comment or email. Thanks, and please check back regularly for updates...

_________________
-Paul J. McConnochie
Producer / Director / Animator
Vortex42
www.vortex42.co.uk