Filling in the gaps

Today I had to mock up another wee book for the film. As the actual book doesn't exist yet, I used the front cover and then just winged it for the back as I imagine it could be. I thought the cover was perhaps lacking some male essence. So here we are - nice, don't you think?

In the end, I decided to tone it down and found a lovely torso that echoes the front. Here's the finished pic. Tadaa! 

Curious woodcuts

I've just been scrolling through my files for the animation. Wow. Among thousands of images of Victorian buildings, dirigibles, corsets and parachutes, compound bows, steam powered things and ********* all sorts of secret things I have found some odd woodcuts that I can't quite work out the purpose of.

Maybe it'll come to me.

Side on

I'm trying to work out who Violetta looks like.

For one of the last sequences, I'm going to need to do dolls in profile, which is quite hard to make up from a 2D frontal face picture. So, I'm looking for an actor that looks like this face, and then I'll find a picture in profile to use as reference.

At the moment I'm thinking maybe Lillian Gish, but I'm not totally sure that's who I have in my mind's eye. Any ideas, anyone?

Long road

This interactive animation is fantastic.

Meanwhile, I've broken the screen, the light and my mind.

300 frames today. I hope they work.

Waving. Not drowning. Not quite!

Hello to the fabulous Kristina! I'm feeling a little ashamed having just read her blog post on all the things she's doing WHILE PREGNANT. While I was pregnant I basically managed to brush my hair once a week and empty the fridge* daily. And that was about it. So, Kris is an inspiration and a good reason to get my arse in gear today.

Yesterday I was set to film but having located the elusive special cable I needed, I then lost the jiggery screwy bit for the top of the tripod and had *cough* a bit of a meltdown.

Luckily I have a fabulous partner who knows not only how to calm me down but also how to fix the old tripod (Junior hacksaw, drillbits, screwthreads, something) so that today I shall be shooting for sure. Hopefully I'll have the first few scenes down by this evening. The sets, props and set up should be ready to go. So, onward. To the studio!

*into my mouth

Hiccups

Still on the hunt for a stand-in tripod (ta-boom *tish*). Progress has slowed somewhat while I work that kink out and while I do some writing, too.

Meanwhile, I'm in total, heartbroken awe at the wonder of this film:

Things like this sort of make me want to dash into the shed and sort of make me want to give up and go and be a plumber for a living. It's not strictly steampunk, but I think the ingenious mechanisms are enough to make it relevant.

Balloons

Ah, this is so pretty. And as it's a time-lapse it's actually really useful for noting how balloons should move in a stop-frame.

More cool animation

With paper, too!

*Sigh* I wish I had nine months to spare. And a glamorous assistant.

More steamy hearts

Clockwork Heart by *Vlahdimir on deviantART

Amazing.

the search for a heart

Clockwork Heart by ~LeggRoom on deviantART

Well, for inspiration for the heart I'm planning to make for the film. This is lovely, isn't it?

Films and animations

Have you seen this? A lovely way to spend half an hour.