global mechanic blog » behind the scenes

Vive La Rose Paintings: Final Touches

Justin — Thu, 20 May 2010 21:34:02 +0000

As you can see, the paintings are almost done now. They’re brightening up the studio downstairs. It’s really quite beautiful to see them all lined up whith the sunlight passing through the bamboo blinds. The paintings are beginning to feel more like a cohesive set with a common language of blobs, sepia washes, dense line-work and a tendency toward flatness in lieu of modeling and light-rendering. The next time we update on the Vive La Rose paintings, you’ll be seeing the finished product!

Don’t forget that the finished paintings will be showing (along with a screening of Vive La Rose) at the Christina Parker Gallery, in conjunction with the Nickel Film Festival and the 15th biannual Sound Symposium.

Vive La Rose Paintings: Continuing Some More

Justin — Thu, 06 May 2010 22:48:23 +0000

It appears as though Bruce is starting to finish some of these paintings. Check out the figure-drawing on the two fish pictures. Beautiful. And what about those water pictures? They’re looking mighty wet! We can see that Bruce has added quite a bit of turpentine to the potatoes to try and get that watercolor effect in the boiling potatoes painting. To get the effect of the steam, he’s used a drybrush with white paint. He’s also added sepia washes to the paintings of the woman to tone down the candy pink backgrounds. Next Bruce plans on adding some punch to the cod jigger and finishing the figures in the piano scene.

The finished paintings will be showing (along with a screening of Vive La Rose) at the Christina Parker Gallery, in conjunction with the Nickel Film Festival and the 15th biannual Sound Symposium.

1998creative Interviewed by Sad Magazine

Justin — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 21:14:32 +0000

Chris and Justin were recently interview on the Sad Magazine website by the wonderfully talented Rebecca Slaven. Go check out the interview. It’s gots lots ofs links!

Vive La Rose Paintings: Continuing Further Still

Justin — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 18:35:15 +0000

It looks like Bruce is close to finishing some of these paintings. He’s switching it up as he goes, adding cold wax medium to a few of the paintings of the woman (steam moving over the extreme close-up of her eyes and nose bridge, for her whole body to differentiate it from the other figures in the piano scene and in her hair for the face close-up). He then dragged water-diluted india ink over the wax for a nice resist look. It appears as though the fish are getting fishier now, with indigo oil-bar line work watered with turpentine, plus a little ochre. You can see in the photos that the Vancouver Spring is shining through the windows giving the studio area around Bruce’s painting project a comfortable glow.

The finished paintings will be showing (along with a screening of Vive La Rose) at the Christina Parker Gallery, in conjunction with the Nickel Film Festival and the 15th biannual Sound Symposium.

Vive La Rose Paintings: Continuing

Justin — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 22:14:54 +0000

Today, Bruce worked a lot with red. As you can see, there is a lot of it in the background of the transfigured woman: mixed transparent red oxide, venetian red, cadmium hue deep and a little mars red. He also worked on drybrushing the edges of the woman’s hair and dress (she’s becoming a spirit at this point in the film, so she needs to dissolve into the background). It appears as though the roses will need several more washes and we seem to be running out of black. Look at that texture. Worth it? Totally.

When the paintings are finished, they will be showing (along with Vive La Rose) at the Christina Parker Gallery, in conjunction with the Nickel Film Festival and the 15th biannual Sound Symposium.

Vive La Rose Paintings: Tests, Roughs, First Layers

Justin — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:43:28 +0000

Bruce’s film is going to be in a gallery show! The Christina Parker Gallery, in conjunction with the Nickel Film Festival and the 15th biannual Sound Symposium, will be showing selected artwork, props and set elements from Vive la Rose along with fifteen new 24×36 paintings of defining moments from the film.

This is the first in a series of work-in-progress postings bringing us from the beginning of Bruce’s painting process, to the finished product. We will be posting more photos as Bruce completes more of this project.

BRUCE AND TINA = GENIE AWARD NOMINEES!!

Justin — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 17:50:32 +0000

CONGRATULATIONS YOU GUYS! POWER COUPLE OF THE YEAR!

1998creative INTERVIEW on VAN ANIMATION!

Justin — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:15:29 +0000

1998creative was recently interviewed for the studio spotlight on vancouveranimation.ca! They talked to them about the 10 commandments shorts and the future. Click on the link above to read the interview. Congrats you guys!

STEALING THE INTERNET: BEHIND THE SCENES

Justin — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:31:54 +0000

After weeks of making a series of big messes in the studio and on our laptops and big-shot computers, we’ve finally sorted out all of the mislabeled files and come out the other end with the production stills from our most recent 10 Commandments short, No. 7: Thou Shalt Not Steal. This shoot was a little bit more hectic than other shoots. First of all, animating bananas is one of the hardest things to do besides maybe animating water without something to hold it. So we had to get creative. Also, bananas are soft like apple sauce. They wilt quickly under hot lights. Not pretty (As you can see from one of the photos where the banana goes brown on us). Furthermore, we spent quite a bit of time making the set this for this short; almost as much time as we spent shooting the film. But in the end, it all worked out. We learned a lot. So here are some behind the scenes production stills for you to take a look at. Enjoy:

-Justin

KEEPING IT HOLY: BEHIND THE SCENES

Justin — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:26:08 +0000

How dee,
Today we’re going to be showing you some production stills from the last 10 commandments short. It was a hairy shoot. We thought we would try and get the video out before the super bowl (because of the football theme) so we only had a week to finalize the idea, make props, test shoot, shoot and then do the editing and foley. It was a challenge to say the least, but we got it done and we’re proud of what came out the other side. Take a look at some of our photos (the quality isn’t exactly fantastic. We were using the nice camera to make the film so i just used my iphone for these stills):

So there you have the basic layout of the set and some of the art room. The two are very close together in the studio which is great because you can come up with an idea for a prop/set dec, walk 20 feet, make it and then have it back in the set pretty quickly. I thought it might also be fun to show you guys some close ups of the details in the short (like the photos and the beer can design). Take a look:

Okay, that’s all for now. Check back soon and we’ll have another 10 commandments short with some more production stills and maybe some more design images as well.

-Justin