This is the much anticipated hover-craft shot from the Jonny Quest openting titles. Very cool.
How to make a Hover-Craft in 4 easy steps!
Step 1. Raid the local hardware
store for plumbing PVC, plastic and fittings.
Step 2. Cut into the desired
shapes. Note the flanged lip from the PVC piping.
Step 3. Assemble into something
resembling a retro-60's hover-craft.
An admission here:
Since I was a kid watching
my mom wash dishes, I just knew that one day
I would figure out a use for
the sink strainer. Makes a dandy exhaust port, don't you think?
Step 4: Douse with a good coat of chrome spray paint and, ta-dah! You're done!
In the mean time, the set required many, many stalagmites (did I spell that right?)
Here Brandi is up to her armpits
in wood putty, her medium of choice for this project.
The shot calls for 4 different
henchmen but, since I would be compositing this anyway, I just made one.
I started with a typical action
figure.
Some Super Sculpey is applied
to cover the joints.
And then a coat of paint to
complete the sinister look.
As the hover-craft float along,
I realized that reflections were required in the "chrome".
To facilitate this effect,
I created a series of vertical stripes.
These were then animated moving
slowly left to right behind a white matte to define the edges
and then superimposed onto
the shiny skin of the hover-craft
before compositing into the
final shot.
The painted stalagmites on
the stage. Groups were shot moving slowly left to right.
Groups closer to the camera
were moved at a faster rate than those further from the camera.
This forced the feeling of
depth during the shot.
Me animating a head turn for
one of the henchmen.
And this is what the composite
looks like after I finished!
(click on photo for larger
image)
The completed clip is at the
top of the page!
Thanks for looking!
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this website are copyright 2009, Roger Evans. All rights reserved.
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