Recognize the Artists
Michael Bay and Paramount are launching an unprecedented Oscar campaign for “Below the Line” artists.
I can’t remember another time when a director and studio actually made this kind of effort to promote the people who create the sound and visuals effects for their film.
I certainly prefer this:
Over this:
10th Annual VES Award Nominations
I’m pleased to announce that I’ve been nominated for a VES award for my work in Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
The official nomination is for Outstanding Created Environment in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture. My guess is they didn’t have a category called “Holy Crap did you see that?!” 🙂
Happy Birthday!
It’s my daughter’s birthday this weekend and she decided she wanted a “Bath and Body Works” theme since she just LOVES that place. She’s got enough of their merchandise that she could start her own warehouse!
Here’s a picture of the cake I made for her party.
It was a big hit with all her friends and many of them ask if I would make their birthday cakes. I might have a new line of work if this visual effects stuff doesn’t pan out. 🙂
“MORAV: Missions” Live Action Series ‘Pilot’ by Fon Davis — Kickstarter
“MORAV: Missions” Live Action Series ‘Pilot’ by Fon Davis — Kickstarter.
This is an awesome looking project a friend of mine is funding through Kickstarter. Fon is a really talented guy and I know many of the people involved with this project. Several are ILM alumni – so you KNOW that they can produce a fantastic looking film. Take a look and consider throwing them a couple of bucks.
The Thing (2011) Red Band Trailer
I love John Carpenter’s version of The Thing. Every year in the dead of winter I turn off all the heat (and the lights) and watch it wrapped in a blanket, shivering in the night. I remember seeing it for the first time in an almost completely empty theater in my hometown and I loved every second of it. I was venturing into makeup effects at the time and Rob Bottin’s work just blew me away! His outstanding work still holds up today. With that said, I’m a little hesitant about this movie, but I’m really hoping that it doesn’t let me down.
Iron Man Helmet Part 2
Here’s the second day of work on the Iron Man helmet. I spent about an hour grinding off some of the excess casting material and got completely fed up with this crappy rotary tool I’ve got. So I went out and got myself a decent Dremel tool – MAN what a difference! I ground through a huge section in no time. It pays to use decent tools. 
The back section is holding together nicely (it should with the amount of fiberglass I stuck on there) but I can see already that I’m going to have a hard time marrying it to the front part.
Not sure if its the sculpt or a result of the damage, but I need to put a spacer inside to bend it outwards to line up on both sides.
We’ll see when I can get around to working on this again. With New York Comic Con and another trailer deadline coming up fast, I foresee some six day weeks in my near future.
Iron Man Helmet Part 1
My friend Shawn Thorsson recently gave me a casting from an Iron Man helmet mold he’d gotten.
The back section was split, but hey – it was free! ( as in beer)
The section that had split was REALLY thin and delicate. So the first thing I had to do was carefully tack the section together with a little superglue and baking soda (to help fill in the gaps) and then lay up some fiberglass to help keep it together and strengthen the area.
Ok, no laughing. Its the first time I’ve ever used fiberglass….. While that cured, I turned my attention to the main piece and decided to start cleaning up the flash and the edges.
I know I’m going to add lights to the eyes, so I’ll have to cut them out as well and sand down some mold seams.
Well, that’s probably enough for today. Tune in next time when I do… Something else 🙂
A visit to the TWiT Brick House.
I was over at the Petaluma Market with my daughter and we decided to stop by and check out the TWiT Brick House.
For those of you who might not know, TWiT stands for This Week in Tech. Its a very popular podcast and part of a whole network of shows based around technology. I’m lucky enough to live in the same town where the show is produced and today was the official grand opening of the new studio.
My daughter and I stood outside the open door and looked in. One of the people there invited us in to look around for ourselves.
Here’s the set for the main shows. There are smaller sets around for different shows.
Check out these cool looking chairs from one of the other sets.
Here’s the main control switcher. The producer/director uses this to switch cameras for the various shows.
It was nice to see that even the TWiT guys are into comics.
Here’s the Ham Radio setup they had in the corner.
I was hoping to get to meet Leo Laporte (the brains behind this whole network) but he was doing his radio show.
I’ll have to come back again another time and see if I can get a picture with him and may hang out to watch a live version of TWiT or MacBreak Weekly.
mrfusion.org 