This is the mystical MacGuffin of my film. It's rumored to be a sword given to Sisyphus by the Greek Goddess Circe, but it really doesn't matter. Glowerston collects old relics and he wants this one. This illustration is a prop for the reshoot coming up on the 28th. Nemo (of Nautilus fame) discovered this sword in the wreck of a Dutch ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

This is the sword Mulvey and his stalwart manservant Grimmauld go looking for, and find, in act one. However, during the course of the adventure, it is damaged and leads to a parting of the ways between the inventor and his benefactor. I can not wait to make this next piece!

I almost named it insidiarum fabrica, which is "plot device" in Latin. As it stands, it means "Sisyphus' Despair."

It's a mystery, what can I say? I'm pretty happy with the image and when I printed it out, it's pretty much life size...

Another piece of advertising art!

This is the advertising poster you can see from the street in the opening shot of my film. It's on a billboard and I think Dr. Grymm looks quite handsome in his brass goggles. The main logo was actually designed by Joey, and the photo was taken by the guys at Ajar Studios. I had to clean up the border and add the taglines and posterized treatment of the good Doctor.

Movie Posters!

Here they all are. I sure hope you like them! I would love to print these out into postcards. Now remember, the guys don't have all their facial hair and Kat didn't spend a lot of time on her hair, so this is just the costumes. But I think the digital set looks pretty decent and the integration works despite my limited four light setup (and the occasional power failure!)

Let me know what you think!

I know you guys are probably sick of this view..

But things have been winding down at work, and while I still have to be there, I now have a little time on the side to make my digital set pieces look really nice. So, you'll notice the new crates. Doctor Grymm Laboratories has provided the gravity retardants, the aether manipulators and the blasting caps. The barrels contain gunpowder, cavorite, saltpeter and methyl nitrate. There's a travel poster on the wall, and I've done my best to simulate bright daylight streaming from above. What do you think?

More to come!

Some beautiful period accessories for my film!

While I have been drifting in the white noise of overtime, my friend Karen has been knitting up a storm of Victorian era awesomeness. This is called a misers purse- a design of brilliant innovation to keep pickpockets from stealing your coin. It opens in a very unique way, with sort of a crisscross pattern that you have to pull apart and then separate the yarn in order to get at your money.

Not only is it beautiful, it's practical too.  You can see some of the other stuff she's made for Adventures in Science over at her blog!

Thanks, Karen! It looks AMAZING!

Final poster... All aboard!

I thought I would post the final version of my advertising poster. I switched out the M's for G's (Mark convinced me that Glowerston would never allow Mulvey to admit authorship publicly...) and everyone liked the leafy things on the sides. At the show, I printed out 20 4x6 on really nice card stock and I actually sold five! (Six, if you count the guy who just walked away with one, but that's not really a sale...) One visitor actually bought the framed version I made to advertise them. (I made a matte out of leather and it looked pretty neat!)

If you want one, drop me a line and I'll try and get it to you!

Well, it's late, but...

Looks like everything is on track for the Steampunk Bizarre. I printed out those posters (an 11x17 version for framing, and 19 6x8 postcards for purchase) and they look fantastic. The only thing left is for me to edit a sort of "making of" video that will be eternally looping behind some of the props.

Originally, it was just going to be the story reel and some art sort of stuck together.

But as a test, I decided to make a three minute intro to everything with the fictitious producer, Herman Ivey Copperthwaite. He's something of an idiot.

I donned part of some costumes I had lying about, trimmed my facial hair into something ridonkulous and put on some makeup, then hopped in front of my camera for the better part of four hours. We shot everything I needed.

I imported all that footage, and by eleven Friday night had a pretty funny six minute piece, complete with dialogue cards (it is silent, after all)! I was down in San Diego seeing King Lear at the Old Globe on Saturday, but on my return I printed out the posters, framed `em and then got started on making keys and putting Herman into some old movie studio pictures I found.

I've done five in about four hours. And, they look pretty good. This was sort of the proving ground for Adventures in Science, and it's going to work. Hopefully my story is compelling enough.

I'll post the finished result once the Bizarre is over.

All aboard the Hypatia!

Well, it's finished, more or less. I am still debating about the leafy things going up the sides there, and I'm also thinking about moving the Glowerston coat of arms down where the GAS logo is at the bottom so the whole thing is balanced better.

Nevertheless, these will be for sale at the Steampunk Bizarre in larger scale. I'm actually quite happy with most of this; I haven't really done any printworthy art since I was in my early twenties (ironically, Joey helped me out there, too!).

The Hypatia looks great (IMHO!) and I think I've succeeded with the Victorian ad quality; the red white and blue coloring of the type is just patriotic enough. (Glowerston wears patriotism on his sleeve- think Halliburton and you know what I'm going for.)

Any opinions you have are, as always, most welcome!

Mulvey's Lunar Oxygen Rebreather (or... The Tube)

One of the things that was suggested in early versions of the script was for Mulvey to be doing something (anything) while Grimmauld was arguing with him. I heard the same kind of comment from several people so I decided to introduce Mulvey's intent to go to the Moon here.

He's trying to build a device that will allow him to breathe on the lunar surface. Most of the Victorians had mixed ideas about what mysteries the Moon was hiding and a big one was whether there was an atmosphere or not. In Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon, the French Adventurer Michel Ardan plans to travel aboard the projectile and, upon arrival, wants to hunt for whatever game might be found there. In  Around the Moon, one of the men aboard the capsule fancies seeing buildings of some kind on the dark side of the Moon. For my story, Mulvey and Grimmauld actually do land on the Moon, and they do need these tanks. I wanted something similar to the tanks in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

I drew an early storyboard that illustrated some kind of tube like device with a light on it, but of course I would have to build it. And what I discovered was that my initial drawing wasn't really detailed enough to look physically interesting.

So I did a better, bigger sketch of it but that still didn't really work out, as it still looked like a tube. In fact, Teresa frequently asked while I was building the damned thing "So how is your tube doing, honey?" which had implications I wasn't sure I wanted to answer.

What it came down to is improvisation while I was building. So under the tutelage of Dr. Grymm, I finished it up and while it still looks like a tube, it also looks like it does something.

Exciting News!

Hey guys. Sorry it's been like a month or two since the last update.

I've been sick as a dog for the last week and a half (since returning from Europe!) and despite that, have some interesting stuff that will be going up on the blog by the end of the week.


One of the most exciting things that's happening right now is that a good friend of mine who's pretty much embedded in the Steampunk movement is putting on an art show out in Connecticut. In addition to his day job, Joe builds props for movies, designs puppets for plays, illustrates graphically and somewhere in there has the time to curate the Steampunk Bizarre.

This year he asked me to be a part of it.

So despite being sick, I've been madly scrambling to get `er done. My biggest fear is disappointing my friend with substandard stuff (you should see some of the real artists who are contributing to the show! Amazing!) so I've been working my butt off to make some good art.

I'll be contributing some props and miniatures from AIS as well as putting together a DVD with the completed story reel, some tests I've been doing and I'll be selling a poster advertising the Glowerston Steamaeroship Hypatia.

It will be inspiring and fun and I'll be able to hang with some really cool people.

Come back on Friday. I should have some interesting things to post then!

More snaps of the mooring dock interior

I'm trying a new rendering style, and I think I'm pretty pleased with it so far. I am going to continue to tweak these shots as I go, but I'm rather pleased with how it's looking.
Here's a closeup of the boxes and barrels I've made, with a cool overhead light to punch it up a little. The only thing missing now are the signs.

Another greenscreen test...

Well, it's rough. The matte on the foreground element looks pretty lame- I've got to figure out the settings to get an alpha channel into FXHome.

Nevertheless, I am pretty excited about this test for a couple of reasons. It looks pretty good. Once I get that fg matte looking better, it will look real. The train holds up. At the distance I shot it at, and the lighting system I used (an overhead 1k and a side diffused 1k) it blended pretty nicely in color with the image.

One other issue- I'm still not completely sure that the output settings I'm using from FXHome are correct. I am choosing the same output (HD 1080i60) but it plays back choppy. Weird.

Well, I hope you enjoy!

My first greenscreen test!

This is the official first test of computer, software and camera used together to composite an actor into a background. We learned some things tonight.

1. The greenscreen has to be more evenly lit. Part of the problem may be that I painted the garage wall and I'm getting some weird highlights on the wall, despite the fact that the paint is flat, not glossy.
2. I'm not sure my garage is big enough. Initially, I thought that it would make a cool little studio. Trouble is, the ceilings only eight feet off the ground. And it's only about fifteen feet across. Not wide enough, damnit!
3. Can't do totally dark clothes and composite over a dark image.

Regardless, this looks promising!

The mooring dock is almost done!

This is where the picture of the entire cast is taken at the end of the prologue.
Well, after several days of modelling, I've finally finished the mooring dock interior. Now all that's left is filling it up with stuff. You know. Stuff. Like big wooden crates, signs, a Glowerston Industries logo, and some other stuff to make it more... Lived in. Regardless, I'm pretty proud of this image... I've never lit anything before and this is looking pretty real-

The bathysphere interior... Very rough.

I thought I had a more detailed drawing. But alas, I do not. Ideally every rib is the same, and styled in a Harper Goff Victorian shape. This interior is not "Steampunk" in that it is very utilitarian, since Mulvey designed the thing under duress. There will be a lock box under one portal which, when opened, will provide access outside of the vehicle to bring the treasure inside. On the opposite wall, a bunsen burner to heat water for tea.

For though his location may change, a gentleman remains a gentleman.

I will be doing a more detailed drawing tomorrow.
And here it is...

The Glowerston Coat of Arms

In case you were wondering, the Latin reads: Power, Control, Perseverance. Glowerston was a war profiteer, hence the crow and the cut up snake. (Which, incidently, is the design Ben Franklin drew for his infamous Unite or Die cartoon!)

The evolution of a matte painting...

This was a picture of Boston I found online. It's perfect for one of the establishing shots for my film, but there's a couple of problems. First, there's still people in it. Well, people AND a horse and carriage. In order for my shot to work I need to remove them. Here's what that looks like...

Second, because it's going to be an alternative version of Boston from the 1870's, I will be making the buildings taller by at least one floor. It's the Fourth of July, so I'll also be adding those red, white and blue bunting to some of the windows and adding some Victorian signage to the shop there on the right.

Eventually, I will be compositing people and digital vehicles on top of this to give it some life.

Fixing pictures like this is tricky, no doubt about it.

Some rough costume designs for Fanny...

These are some designs I drew based on a Victorian costume I found (I love the hat with the feather!) and sort of a neo Victorian pirate I've been doodling for the last year or two. The first picture is Fanny in the prologue and the second is Fanny in the third chapter. Quite a difference, but she ended up living in China with Wu for fifteen years until Glowerston found her and had Wu killed. So, she's a badass.

Gauge design for Huzzah the Moon!

So I will be printing this out and putting it in the gauges for the backpacks. I've bought a bunch of old water and air pressure gauges from the 1900's on Ebay, which I have to take apart to clean anyway, and this inserts quite nicely.

I love steampunk!

The viking ship!

Here is the third ship. I based it roughly on a model ship I found online. One of the great things about cardboard and hot glue is how easy it is to change; I realized my initial attempt was too wide and the rear of the boat was too thick. So, I just took out the scissors and chopped it up, re hot glued it and then put more paint on it.