I like to use the descriptor 'experiment' for a lot of the things I do. It really helps to displace responsibility for my actions. You can get away with a lot of crappy stuff if you call it an 'experiment'. You were just messing around, seeing what you could do. You weren't trying to make anything good. If it's good, cool. If it sucks, it doesn't matter.

The perfect cop-out.



I learned some valuable lessons from this initial stop-motion project:

• It's very important to lock down your camera's tripod.
• It's very important to lock down your subject matter.
• Pet's should be isolated for the duration of the shoot.
• Crouching is not comfortable for long periods of time.
• Make sure subject is in focus.
• Pants are optional.
• Dancing is forbidden!

I thought I had everything fairly secure and there wasn't going to be much jitter. After assembling the frames, I found I was obviously quite wrong. I thought about reshooting or modifiying the frames, but after working with it I realized the subject matter didn't warrant the extra effort. It just wasn't interesting enough to devote more time to. There was no vision.

I intend the next one to be much more interesting.

Sometimes you just reach a point where you say, "It's not getting any better." I've reached that point. Not in a good way though. I keep trying to tweak things without really improving them. Time to just call it done and move on to the next project.
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I've written previously about my fondness for the propaganda-styled imagery. It was brought back into the public eye with the Obama "Hope" image and its subsequent countless parodies. The annoucement of more Battlestar Galactica Minimates as Toys'R'Us exclusives gave me a chance to get in on the act.
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These guys look a lot better without the chest caps. The proton packs and belt equipment had to be moved around a bit to maintain all the proportions, but I think it looks good. I have discovered what I think will be the hardest part of this image for me. Stay Puft's face is really giving me troubles right now. I really want that angry "You shot me!?!" expression, but all my attempts end with poor results. What you see above is the best I've come up with so far.

I think I'll let that part sit for a whlie and work on the background and hairpieces for the guys. I'll probably finish out the proton packs first. That's a solid goal I know I can accomplish.

This is going to be another one of those light-on-text-heavy-on-pics type posts. There's really not too much to say about taking photos of Minimates, having them printed at various sizes, surrounding them with frames and suspending them on a wall. Which is exactly what I did.
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Oooh, progress. I've made the lines smoother and more consistant. Obviously there's color as well. These probably won't end up being the final colors but they're close. I made the heads turquoise to force me to decide on giving them hair or leaving them as blanks. I'm leaning toward 'hair' even though they'll hardly look like Minimates at that point. The chest caps really detract from the Minimate-ness, I think I'll try an alternate version with standard chest-blocks. That should help.

I'm looking forward to the shading and proton streams. I'm dreading the inevitable facework.

We've all heard how bad the economy is. Some people have been hit harder than others. When things get tough, sometimes you have to do things you're not proud of just to get by. Last spring I needed to make some quick cash so I started up a new Internet venture. As a word of caution, the following post may be Not Safe For Work. Click at your own peril.
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I think I've decided on an alternating big post-little post type format. Today is the little post with a preliminary wallpaper design featuring the new Ghostbusters Minimates. I threw it together pretty quickly to just get a feel for how the Minimates should be layed out. It's a good first start, but needs a lot of work. I'll move the ledge closer to the Ghostbusters and probably swap the two leftmost. I'll probably crop it a bit tighter too.

Anyway, I'll probably be showing these in-progress shots as the 'little-posts' for a couple weeks. As long as I don't find some extra time and complete it all this weekend.

Unfortunately Stay Puft doesn't look angry, just old and tired.