Back in (pre)production....

Yes, once again, I'm printing out tiny little labels, all stolen shamelessly from the intrawub---- well, some with extensive modification.

Can't really do much with them though till Im done animating my current scene... it wouldn't do to have bottles disappearing and jumping around randomly! I actually did grab one bottle on the set before I realized what I was doing... need to try to get it back in place via Framethief. And I even had it hotglued down... my heart sank when I felt that glue bond snap suddenly! But at least it was only ONE bottle... and I ended up taking a few from the far end that are off camera for measuring.

Just wanted to post this to show I am back to work on my film now... Prammaven, call off the claydogs!!

This film has seen me through a lot of growth so far, and some serious upgrades of studio equipment and animation skillz. But it's time I get it done. Long-term goal is by the end of the year, but I hope to finish it before winter sets in and free myself up to start in on something else.

Bottlefactory

Man, that's tiny!!

I've never really done this kind of work before, especially at this tiny scale!!! But as I go I learn, and 2nd or 3rd generation comes out looking pretty good. That applies to the bottles and to the labels (the vodka label is obviously still under development).

I did discover how to get bubble-free castings without needing a vacuum chamber.... all it takes is stirring very slowly. I also learned to spray the bottles with clear coat before pouring up the silicone molds, and also to spray the castings the same way.... makes them come to life! I only wish I had smoothed down the sculpts with solvent before baking them... I had no clue there were fingerprints all over everything!!

Now I'm learning to steal - um, borrow - elements I find online to make the labels look official and snazzy - a coat of arms here, a graphic element there (in some cases a complete label, with only minor adjustments). The earlier labels are looking downright crap in comparison to the newer ones. Guess it's time to redesign them now! But it's all worthwhile - I'm learning valuable skillz.

After the first one they go down easy

And here's the first one

Hittin the bottle - plus possible Prometheus prerelease????!!!!

Wow, did you ever notice how everybody uses the most worn out cliches for their blog titles? And also (allegedly) alliteration. Oh well... whatever you can come up with in about 12 seconds I suppose. Anywho, like I mentioned last post, I've been busy making bottles lately. Here you can see the first few castings, alongside the original sculpts. I've improved my technology along the way.... the first few bottles came out pretty rough-surfaced, covered with fingerprints that I couldn't see in the sculpts, so I started sanding them down and gloss-coating. They came out much better, though I wish I had caught it before baking the sculpts so's I could have brushed them down a lot smoother (beats the hell out of all that sanding, which doesn't get everything anyway). And don't ask about the colors.... they're crazy I know. Only the dark green wine bottle looks right to me. I'll get some glass paint and try to fix them.


Here are the molds, cobbled together from whatever I could find that looked the right size (some of them had to be extended slightly with epoxy putty - the containers weren't quite tall enough). I'm using EasyCast clear casting epoxy, made by Castin' Craft. I originally went in search of their more familiar polyester resin, which stinks to high heaven (it's the same stuff used in fiberglass) and discovered this odor-free 1:1 ratio epoxy, which sounds a lot better to me (I always hated trying to figure out how many drops of catalyst to add to that polyester crap!). I got their mold release, used it on most of these, and tried one without.... turns out you don't need it in a silicone mold. Good, because it's a pain to apply!


Here's the biggest problem.... tiny bubbles. Thousands of them! The instructions said this can be caused by using the epoxy cold and to warm it in hot tap water for 10 minutes to avoid it. It doesn't work! At least for me it didn't. But I guess I can live with it. Heck, bubbles almost look right in beer or champagne bottles (only they shouldn't be frozen in place!)

Here's a nice little trick I discovered too.... after they set up completely (which takes three full days, during which time they're like soft, pliable and very sticky gummybears!) and you've cleaned up the castings, hit em with a coat or two of clear gloss spray. It takes off any dullness and makes them shine like nobody's business. Next up, making labels and painting the caps.

In related news (sort of) I just found this on the Bright Eye Pictures website:

"I hope to have the DVD (Prometheus' Garden) ready for sale on the Bright Eye Pictures site..... by December 1, 2007. "

Posted the 1st of September, but as yet there's no mention of it on the site, or on Bickford's site. Getting excited though (and I also just found out there's a lot of cool stuff on the Bright Eye site.... goin to check it out as soon as I hit Post).