Started work on cut number 14, which is of the mummy holding some dude in a really tacky powder blue leisure suit over his head. Eventually, the rocky ceiling collapses and they meet the demise appropriate of anyone that wears a powder blue leisure suit with a red fez.
 

Balsa wood strips are cut for the wooden wall of the cave/mine shaft.
 

Wooden dowels are then cut randomly on the edge to give them the appearance of rough-hewn timbers.
 

Here Brandi stains all the wood for the background.
 

A bit of hot melt glue to lock the panels together.
 

In the scene, the man in the tragic blue suit is physically smaller than the mummy. As the mummy puppet is 12 inches, we had a choice to either scratch build a puppet or look for something that was off-scale and slightly smaller. There was a funky movie called "The Warriors" made in 1979 and its cult status, combined with the internet, resulted in commercially available action figures which were only about 9 inches tall.

The man in the blue suit also had to look scared or like he was yelling. So we chose "Cyrus", the leader of all the gangs, as a starting point due to his unique facial expression.
 

The Cyrus puppet came with several different sets of hands, which will be convenient during animation. After removing his larger robe and spray painting his leisure suit (shiver) power blue, we had the beginnings of an appropriate figure for the scene.

NOTE: Since his suit was made of polyester, it had to be spray painted. The paint also stiffened the fabric, which makes for a nicer look.
 

Brandi added a red fez made of clay, trimmed his long hair using a belt sander, added white side burns and gave the coat a trim. A bit of weathering on the coat to make it look dirty and he's ready for the set! I'd say he looked scared. I know I'd be scared in a powder blue leisure suit.
 

And this is what the set looks like so far. No lighting yet other than overhead flourescents. But this gives a rough idea of where we're headed.

Finished the set up and animated the shot!
 

This is a frame from the finished clip. Click on the picture for a larger view.
 

This is what the set up looked like. Note the rounded front of the rotation stage. I reused a previous foil rock wall for the ceiling of the set and had to hot melt glue the mummy's hands to the puppet. I resorted to a flash light to get a small enough fill in the back of the set. The bluish glow in the bottom right hand corner is my lap top with an animation program on the screen.
 

Me makin' da mummy move.

The completed clip is at the top of the page!
 

Thanks for looking!

HOME

All information, videos, photos and graphics in this website are copyright 2009, Roger Evans. All rights reserved.
For those that enjoy the creak of leather, click HERE for my gallery of western art paintings