A Rejigged Showreel.

James O'Neill Showreel from James O'Neill on Vimeo.

My showreel featuring model work and animated bits and pieces new and old.

The Dodger Warp

             

A little animated tribute to Doctor Who that my work partner Alex Creed and myself have been toiling away on for the past several weeks.

Some Stop-Motion, some Jammie Dodgers, two Doctors and a TARDIS, what more could you ask for.

Give it a whirl and share if you like. 

Special thanks to Justin Dolby for the seamless sound design.

 >>The Dodger Warp <<

Production Rages

Principle photography and since wrapped and editing is well underway. Our plan is to complete the short film by the end of the week in time with the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who on 23rd November.

Here are some more production snaps.

Not Quite Yet

A little teaser picture of sorts.

More to come.

Doctor Progress

So, Friday 8th November saw the start of the production of the little animated project my working partner Alex Creed and myself had written.

The day was primarily spent assembling the set and experimenting with the lighting. Unfortunately neither of us had proper cameras on us at the time and so had to use our phones, which left a lot to be desired. 

That day proved enormously helpful as it gave us a heads up for future problems we would encounter during the next week's production schedule. 

Already Alex has gone away to make adjustments to the set to accommodate the props and puppets more comfortably.

So far so good and positivity is high, I hope and am sure it will continue as things come together. 

More to come...

Experimenting with latex and casting.

For my upcoming animation which will start shooting next week I have begun experimenting with animatable hands using pretty basic latex casting techniques.

I first sculpted a hand out of Super Sculpey and baked it.

Then when it was cured I pushed it into a two-part mould making compound called Siligum which sets almost instantly.

I then popped the hand sculpt out of the mould and dusted the interior with talcum powder, I then painted in a thickish mixture of casting latex.

I repeated coats of latex until it was of good thickness.

Without removing the latex "glove" from the mould I began cutting small lengths of wire and twining them into finger shapes, then laid them into the mould and "glove" and brushed more latex over them.

I repeated adding the latex and when it had dried added a couple drops of glue to the wire armature to ensure it was held in place.

At this point when everything had dried and solidified I popped the hand from the mould and trimmed the latex flashing around the edges.

I then cut small panels of sponge and stuck them in place to bulk out the structure without adding too much weight. 

To finish off I gave the sponge parts a wash of glue to seal everything together. This somehow caused the sponge to contract tightening the latex, so a spot of serendipity.

As of yet it is still the translucent yellow that the latex forms into when set, to get the proper skin colour I shall mix my usual flesh tone paint with a little latex and apply it to the hand.

Obviously I could have added the paint to the latex when brushing the first layer into the mould but…well, the thought never occurred to me. Obviously. 

Production should last approximately a week and should with any luck be ready to show about a week or so after that.

More to come….

Tinkering

Acquired a somewhat sticky and cotton woolly animation armature from a friend today and started tinkering away with it to create the skeleton structure at the core of the animation puppet I'm currently building for the project I am currently working with my project partner on.

(Above: Bits and Pieces)

(Above: To scale)

More to come....

The Old Girl

Some more pictures of the essentially finished TARDIS prop for an approaching project.

More to come...

Bluer

More painty pictures.

(Photo heavy)

More to Come...

A Little Bluer

More pictures.

(Photo Heavy)

More to Come...

Not-So-Blue-Box

Some pictures of the TARDIS before painting.

(Picture Heavy)

More to Come...

Hallowed Room

The room where Mr. Prigley reflected and where Violet Winterborne was haunted.

Last week when all was said and done and I had a moment of free time, I found myself lingering in the old Rostrum Room at college where I had shot both my BA Final Major and FdA 2 Final Major Project. 

Weird feeling, knowing that I'll most likely never have reason to be in these old rooms again.

Very sad for some reason.