Rolling

Hey ya'll here's a film I made called Rolling

Rolling from Matt Christensen on Vimeo.

Rolling Film behind the scenes

Here's some behind the scenes photos for the film, but mostly a lil tutorial on how to fix a broken puppet.

the head of this puppet broke off, as well as the spine and tail.  all had to be fixed and they weren't a big deal. this puppet broke a lot because of how much it moved every frame.  it's kinda ascary at first but whatevah, it aint a big deal.

first i dremelled a hole into the bottom of the head

then i cut open the body to reveal the neck. i cut off the neck and added this wire tiiightly to the armature.  i then slobbered it up wit 5 minute epoxy and then rubber cemented it closed.

while it was closed i clothespinned the foam together so that it held tight.

i then covered him in plastic and 5 minute epoxied the head on.  the plastic is to prevent the 5 minute epoxy from getting on the fur.

aaaand he's good to go! since there was such big movements in the frame it was easy to put him back in.

and then his spine broke.  opened him back up.

made a new spine and dremelled some holes and glued back in.

My Vimeo Page

Check out my vimeo page here:

https://vimeo.com/friendofacowboy

Party Tip

floaty

Molds for Middle Eight music video

These are a bunch of molds for puppets and one for one of the spikes that comes out from the ground.  I've shown how I do molds before so I aint gonna explain again.  

 Tongue man

 Pointed head man

Slug man

Orange dildo dude

Spike

For claying up sculpture a two part mold (once again, i've shown that in pictures in previous posts) ur gonna want to use this chavant (that's a brand) clay called Clayette. Used to be u would always use this brand called Klean Klay, but they went under.  Some places will say you can use Van Aiken clay (that colorful plasticine) but if ur gonna use silicone at some point dont use van aiken, it fucks shit up.

Middle 8 Music Video

Hey Y'all,

I just finished this music video for The Middle Eight. Check it out (watch in hd if ya can):



Here's a bunch of behind the scene photos

I found this jewelry case on the sidewalk, made it my case for mouths, nuts, bolts, clays, eyes and stuff. it was great to have this beautiful, fabric, gold, soft case to care for my stuff. The serene tree was nice to see too.


I lost all my interior photos so most of these are about the forest

First the trees start as this armature.  The branches are wire wrapped in yarn so i can shape and animate them

I cover them in this sculpey product called mold maker.  Mold is a miracle clay. you sculpt with it then bake it then it's flexible after. Great stuff.

I painted them with latex mixed with acrylic paint.

Then painted with a darker mixture as a wash. 

To add volume to the yarn thats hanging I crimped the wire back and forth for the final touch.

I made this trail with a forced perspective so it looks loooooong

I figured I didn't want to make a ton of trees and i didn't have to, so behind them I have a couple planes of painted trees with yarn hanging from them

There it is.

Trees 

Trees with puppets there

Lighting was a bunch of fun. I really like using really strong gels. This thing i cut out to give the light more shape. As if there are clouds or somethin

This shot was a lot of fun.  I Sculpted these spikes, made a quick mold and casted a few of them.  Cut them up and replaced them at different length to have them coming out of the ground.

When the spikes receded into the ground I wanted there to be a warm light coming from the hole so I shined a scoop light with a red gel on it up.  It's crazy how much you can destroy a set then rebuild it quickly. I had to cut large holes into the trail for this, when done I just filled the holes with clay and put more rocks over it.  Simple

I had a fold out table that I worked on near the end of the video.  You can see the nose guy I made here.  He's sculped out of that moldmaker stuff that the trees are sculpted out of.  Great stuff. 

Work area

My friend Trish Gillespe helped me make these volcanoes.  There are six of them at different heights and widths so that they can animate shooting up and down. Snapchat me at friendofacowboy.  

I had to repurpose a lot of these puppets.  I animated the interior first.  This guy was the straw man before, painted him to look like cigarette chick. Got help from my brother Sam here. Luv u brudder.

ugck

 My friend Nashwa Zaman helped make this house.  I'm really happy wit it.

 But the house had to be destroyed.

i'm a hard worker

Studio