Robot Chicken Star Wars Episode III - ewok village

posting stuff i made for the robot chicken star wars episode III special in one big chunk here. i wish i had a camera with a fish eye lens because a lot of these sets were BIG and it would have been nice to get the whole thing in frame. working on this project was a fantastic experience :]

ok, so this set. was my baby. when i found out i was going to make the ewok village i got kindof really excited. i think i filled my life quota for nerdyness during the build for this set. i love ewoks. i want to live in the ewok village and drink ewok juice and yell YUB YUB from my ewok hut and raise my tiny spear. i don't know what ewok juice is but i'll leave it alone. anyway...

BEHOLD! the construction of ewok village.


utilizing some forced perspective on the bridges.


little platform i made to fit around a little tree


the little ewok hut on the platform in the tree was a recycled element from an older r.c.s.w special, but i think that was the only re-used element. that and one of the platforms.


you can see a bit of how i constructed things in this behind shot.


this is where that fish eye lens would have come in handy. you can't even see the other bridge on the right.


i tried to get some good shots on stage but there was never really a good time with this one. i did manage to come away with a few decent pics though.



i made a bunch of those trees in the background, too. me and two other coworkers. we made over 40 trees in total. half of the trees were used here for the ewok village and the other half were swampy trees used for the dagobah swamp. sadly, no pics of those.


i think this is my favorite shot

naboo

this was the largest set element i made. i carved the cliffs of naboo out of two 8x4 foot sheets of styrofoam. i killed two hot wires trying to carve these cliffs (but in all fairness they were already dying).



the scenic artist painted these up and then i wend back in and added some greenage.


each cliff had a crevice for a waterfall carved out. the water was added in digitally later.


after all the buildings were set up i wend back in and added more greenage. a lot of it. (i did not make the buildings. but don't they look fantastic!)


this set was too much fun to photograph. i decided that that i am going to retire to naboo in my older years and this will be my summer abode. it is the most charming, i do think.

odds and ends

tiki torches


graphic that i did some magic voodoo to for the wampa gas station skit


i would like to know where this prop ended up... there was quite a bit of activity going on around me when i was painting it in my computer. i tell ya man, i work with the BIGGEST nerds <3


guitar hero guitars for the seth green and george lucas puppets. made out of that material that is like styrene but is thicker and softer. ack! i can't remember the name. anwyay, both were meticulously carved and sanded to look as identical as possible. YES the whammy bar animates!


got pictures of the paint job only after the shot was animated. only one pictured because the other wandered off to seth's office and didn't make it back, so i was told.

inside the sarlacc pit

this one was a buddy effort between me and teresa. we got skillz and we know how to represent, yo.



the back wall of the pit had soft spots made from stretchy fabric. the set designer made an animateable mechanism that pushed into these spots to give the effect of something moving or being digested behind it. as you can see it was super effective. it actually digested teresa.


you can sort of see the mechanism below. the top is all me and teresa, well what was left of her anyway. lots of chicken wire, fabric, glue and latex made this monstrosity come to life.


i got the BEST photographs of this set.

tatooine set

first set i made for the robot chicken star wars episode III special. this is uncle owen and aunt baroo's house on tatooine. the house started as a salvage from a previous r.c.s.w special. it was just the large dome and square base at first. i added the sections that stick out as well as had to hollow out the inside of the dome which was a solid piece of styrofoam.



the house actually goes below ground so we had to do a few special things to get everything functional such as cutting a hole in the main floor of the set and adding another floor below that for the puppet in the house to stand on. you can't see them in the shot but there are stairs that lead down to the door. that little hole to the right of the door is a control panel of some sort that i made a graphic for.


finished set with a coat of paint from the scenic artist. props (most of them) and side structure are mine as well.


and that concludes the pics of the r.c.s.w III build. i hope you had as much fun looking as i did building :]

hoppy day monster zoetrope

a zoetrope i made for the shadow machine art show. took me about two weeks to build but the planning took quite a bit more than that. most zoetropes are cylindrical shaped and have slits cut in the side and spin to allow for viewing of the images blurring together and giving the illusion of movement. my zoetrope (if i can even call it a zoetrope... i wasn't sure what else to call it) is more like a conveyor belt that needs to be cranked and relies on a strobe light to give the illusion of movement. oh, and it's inside the mouth of a monster.

here's a video of my hoppy day monster in action so you can see what i mean



there are seven bunnies that make up the hop cycle. you turn the crank clockwise to see them in action. turning the crank counter-clockwise shows the cycle in reverse.



i can't really remember where i got the idea to make a zoetrope like this, i just really like zoetropes and the whole concept of camera-less (and computer-less) animation. i have been loosely calling it a tank-wheel style zoetrope (i need to come up with a better name). my first goal is to make the zoetrope belt much longer to accommodate for longer cycles of animation. after that... well you'll just have to wait and see what i have planned ;]

also, there have been many, many other styles of camera-less animation devices but as far as i know this is the first one to utilize a crank wheel mechanism of this sort and display the animation on a belt rather than in a cylinder. let me know if you have seen any others like this!


me with a co-worker. that is her piece on the right so we had to take a picture.

my piece went over really well at the show. it made all that hard work and lack of sleep so totally worth it :] i can't wait until the next one!

Hoppy Bunny Thanksgiving Dinner Diorama

a little wall hanging diorama i made for my grandmother.













size comparison pic with a dime

fuel tv set elements

set elements made at shadow machine for some fuel tv bumpers. i think there were ten in total.

i didn't make all these buildings but i made some of them.


computers for the inside of the spaceship. the set designer laid the groundwork for the set.


i didn't paint the set but here it is all gussied up with my pride and glory, the anal probe


beginnings of the pool for the desert set


it took the better part of a day getting the pool filled out with small pieces of cardboard to make it this shape. tedious but the results were very nice.


cardboard lettering.


the whole set all done and painted up (again, not by me). the set designer did most the work on this one, i just did some of the detail work like the boarded up wall and stone detail in the middle. and the pool, of course :]


didn't manage to take pics of a bunch of the other things i worked on but you get the idea :]

props for fuel tv

here are a few of the props i made at shadow machine for those fuel tv commercials. this first one is a motorcycle. the production designer made the initial frame (mostly from brass tubing. it has to be sturdy for the puppet.) and i did all the fleshing out with cardboard. the wheels and handlebars actually turn!



another cycle with the initial frame built by the production designer that i covered up with cardboard. this one also has moving wheels and handlebars.



a dumpster with an animateable lid.



firehydrant with a removable top pipe. in one of the commercials the puppet smashes into it and the top pipe opens and a paper replacement series of water shoots out.



bad ass skull.



drum set with animateable cymbals.



animateable gong.



here's a fun one, it's the anal probe! lots of animateable stuff on this guy. the front mechanism rotates and has four claw-like pieces that move, there are some dials and knobs on the side that move and the whole unit is able to pivot on these three jointed arms i made (held up with the help of some armature wire). i was happy to see that the animator was able to get some good results out of all these movable pieces i incorporated.



i am not sure what to really call these. title cards? tags? either way they have the fuel tv name and logo and were placed at the end of each commercial. i made a few different variations of these.