January 9th, 2012
Here is a test of the wave system I’ve devised for long shots of the Gladisfen upon the sea. The waves are cylinders plastered with spiral ridges. When rotated frame by frame the structures take on a screwy wave-like motion, abstracting yet still describing “the motion of the ocean.” The following animated gif loop is a test without lighting or final paint. The ship also needs its second boom attached so it can lift the bathysphere into the briny sea.
Unfinished ocean wave apparatus test.
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January 1st, 2012
This mysterious clip “activates” forthcoming animated sequences. “… And there was darkness on the face of the deep.”
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January 1st, 2012
The former H.M.S. Ready was the vessel used as a platform for the bathysphere descents. Due to the tug’s retrofitting for the bathysphere, another ship, Beebe’s faithful Gladisfen, was called in for towing duty. For the sake of time, yet woe to historical accuracy, I’m eliminating the Gladisfen from the scene and letting the Ready propel itself into action.
This model is actually a bas-relief sculpture. The ship is flat on the back making it ideal for animating the contour diving scene on a layered animation table.
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December 16th, 2011
Dollhouse lighting! I’ve been having trouble lighting the puppets from the inside of the bathysphere set. The discovery of bulbs described as GOW and GOR (grain of wheat and grain of rice) allow for setting up actual 3-point lighting inside small, confined spaces. I hollowed out a plastic toy flashlight and put in a GOR bulb. Puppet Beebe can now illuminate his instruments more realistically.
Thanks to Shelley D. for the lighting tutorial!
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November 23rd, 2011
A coat of ultramarine blue will camouflage my intrusive incursion into the deep. I will slip in undetected and observe what nature hides from the air breathing world. I will be the first man to reach the depths only dead men have reached.
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October 26th, 2011
“She’s birthed of fire and true to your specifications, sir” the engineer said, as a bead of sweat cleaned a streak down his sooty brow.
“If the calculations are true,” said I, “She’ll hold back the entire weight of the ocean.”
“That she will. I guarantee by Hades forge you’ll get to Hell and back. The only weak spot in the plans is your nerve.”
Here we see the rear entry portal of the bathysphere from the inside. The sphere is cast from a basketball. Plasticine was then molded to form detailed protrusions.
The exterior hatch bolts were cast in plaster from mold impressions of a bolt head in plasticine.
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July 7th, 2011
Bathysphere made of clay.
Her sphere is a bit untrue and the windows a bit googly-eyed, but she’s sea worthy. She’s tested for pressures of 2 feet of water or 0.867 pounds per square inch (the depth of my fish tank.) The original bathysphere was a steel ball with three windows (one of which was covered with a steel plug because of leakage problems) of fused quarts. At sea level we experience an atmosphere of 14.7 psi. Seawater depth pressure doubles every 33 feet which means that at 2,200 feet (its deepest dive) the bathysphere must withstand a depth pressure of 3222.06 pounds per square inch. Imagine an elephant and several comically large anvils standing on your little toe, but that pressure all over the surface of your body. Squish.
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June 7th, 2011
It has come to my attention that my animated Western Red Rider’s Lament is currently ranked as the #2 least popular Western of 2011 thus far. Yay me! My pal Jason H. has the #6 least popular Western, Agnes and Me.
Sucking Out Loud
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May 30th, 2011
Jumping into a new project is exciting! I’ll be descending into the deep abysmal sea guided William Beebe and Otis Barton. Together Beebe and Barton descended a half-mile deep into the ocean, breaking all previous human descent records. They did so in a craft build by Barton and dubbed by Beebe, the “Bathysphere” (bathos), “depth” (sphaira), “sphere”. I discovered their amazing exploits through the book “Descent: The Heroic Discovery of the Abyss” by Brad Matson.
I am approaching the project from the bottom up. Starting in the deep-end, attempting to recreate the gelatinous, transparent denizens of the deep with inflatables. Plastic sheeting, a half-baked idea and a crimping iron are my current deep sea exhibition equipment. As I haven’t built an inflatable before, there’s obviously going to be a learning curve.
Here’s the first attempt …
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February 7th, 2011
The Blizzard of 2/2/2011 violently blanketed Chicago with snow. It was the third largest snow storm in Chicago’s history. This exercise looks at Chicago’s empty streets filled with a violent snow storm while on the other side of the world violent protests in the streets of Cairo, Egypt call for the resignation of President Mubarak.
Shot entirely out the front window of my 2nd floor apartment with a Sony TRV-900.
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Rocking on the Waves
