Thursday, August 12, 2010

Teeth notes

One of the things I wanted to do with this film was give the characters really nasty teeth, or at the very least interesting.

Here's some teeth notes I made for a friend.
















Don't underestimate teeth, my friends. They can give you important data about a person.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

BACK??

Oh yes.














The film has been on a bit of summer hiatus, but now is the time to get back to work and finish the beast.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

The teaser's up


The Plague Bearers Teaser from Zoë Moss on Vimeo.

As the school year comes to a close, we see our first glimpses as a more finished film.

As the teaser says, you can expect to see the finished film in September! I'll be working my butt off to make it so.

On a side note - I'm walking the graduation stage this Friday! OHHHH!!!!!!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Producers' Show Sighting

If you were at the CalArts Producers' Show in North Hollywood tonight, you may have noticed these:


To first-time visitors of the blog, you may be shocked to learn that I am actually graduating from the Experimental school this year, and *not* Character! However, some of my best friends are in Character and I love to support them. I also can't pass up an opportunity to put my own little stamp on things. Heck, maybe I'll be screening The Plague Bearers in a showcase like this before too long :)


To my regular readers, I will be making a very important announcement about the film in the near future...

Monday, April 26, 2010

Before I head off to bed...

First finished clip from Zoë Moss on Vimeo.


You get to view the first finished clip from my film.


Note: this may or may not be finished. I think there are a few things I'd like to go and fix, but until then... let's just say it's FINISHED!!! HOOOOO!!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Monday, April 5, 2010

Busy, yet no pictures today

AAAHHH, it's busy busy busy. Why? Because I've started on the keying phase. All the blue is going bye-bye. I'm being helped by two friends and I'm happy with the results thus far.


So, just so you know, I'm not dead and neither is the film! We're just busy as can beeeee.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Animation: 1st stage completed

So, if you've been checking the blog any and wondering where the updates have gone, I'll tell you - I've been animating, so all my energy was on that. However, here's some crazy news - the principle animation is complete! Thanks to the combined efforts of myself and my friends Mick and Arica, we got this project one major step closer to completion. It was an insane weekend, but we did it.

I would also like to add that Jake was there and his support was a huge help in this.
Friends helping! It just makes the process more optimistic.

I've been asked about the set-up of my film as well as questions regarding the software.
I'd love to go into this subject when I'm less distracted, but I can tell you that I was an inbetweenie kit and two kino flows with fluorescent light (I meant to use tungsten! but it actually worked out in the end). The bluescreen was just blue fabric taped on a foamcore board. I didn't make it, but it could very easily be done on one's own.
The software I used to shoot was the one and only Dragon. Effective, easy to use, and lovable. Made for stop-motion people by stop-motion people :P


One night at 3 a.m....

DAD'S NOSE BROKE OFF!

And in the middle of the shot, no less. Poop. I fixed that up, though.
We're always creating art at butler.

Mick's hands!
Mick helped me animate - the dude is like some kind of angel. He works at Shadow Machine and seems to know how to do pretty much... anything. Ever.

Mick went above and beyond on the project, which I will talk about later, but I will say this - I am so thankful to have amazing friends. Mick deserves 20 cakes and then some.

AND SPEAKING OF CAKES...


My birthday was on March 1st! WHAAAA!!! My friend Kelsey, who also helped with the family's costumes and made the Mom's kickass dress, made me a surprise zombie cake, filled with delicious confetti flavor. It was delicious and you could taste the love. It was wonderful and I wish I could have it forever.


Tuesday, March 9, 2010



Just something to relax.

Man, Addison looks REALLY weird in cute but insanely creepy sort of way.

One thing I'm really excited about is how f'ed up everyone's teeth will be. Just wait and see.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Scene 12 from Zoë Moss on Vimeo.



Oh MAN! This shot took forever. It may have been the most difficult to animate thus far. But, it is done and aren't we all just better off for it? Yes.

Cough Cough

Scene 10 - Father Coughing from Zoë Moss on Vimeo.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

A bitter sweet moment



Too bad I'm going to ruin it. >:D

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Scene 16

Scene 16 from Zoë Moss on Vimeo.

Yeah, mix that soup and have a mental breakdown.. Yeah, just like that. You're doing so fine.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

In and out like a ghost



Oh my, what do we have here...

Friday, February 19, 2010

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Too busy to write


But not a day goes by where I don't think about posting.

I've got a funny (read: not so) story about why I haven't posted pictures of them with clothes - you see, the first Addison puppet body started breaking before I even got to animating, so I had to make a new one. And sadly, I had to make new clothes for him.

My friend Kelsey has been helping me with the human costumes, she made the dress for Mary. I am so blown away by how dead on it looks. The other two costumes I did, I think I learned the most from Addison's shirt, which was finished today. I actually made a pattern for him and made his sleeves separately from the body of the shirt. Fun fun fun.

I'll be posting more, I think?
I'm in my shooting space, so I'll probably be posting FOOTAGE.
Animation soon.
Things are going by so fast!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

It's not that I've forgotten you...

Oh, production blog. It's not that I've forgotten you, it's just that I've been INCREDIBLY BUSY!!!!
Well, here. Enjoy some work I am currently doing and will continue tomorrow.



Man, I wish I'd done this back when I had Dan Hansen's lighting assignment for his layout class.

Oh man.. I should mention that I start shooting next week. I'm a little nervous, but pretty excited to get started.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

The Animatic (ver. 1)

"The Plague Bearers" Animatic (ver. 1) from Zoë Moss on Vimeo.


Well, I said I'd post it eventually! So glad to actually do it.

I'm really sleepy, so I'll post more about it later. But basically... YEAH! Please enjoy.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Addison

So, this is Addison, the littlest protagonist. He is but an impressionable lad.



His outfit's gone through a couple of changes, but I like the simplicity of this final one.

Wiggly eyes


Just a test of tests on the Addison puppet. I'll post pictures of the whole thing when I'm not in a hurry! whoo whoo!

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Their new clothes


So, I'm sorry for saying that I'd have posted pictures of Addison by now... but I haven't had a chance! I think I can get some tonight or tomorrow though, I promise.

For now though, enjoy some all new costume designs. These are the final designs, a don'tchaknow. I feel that Mary's costume is 100% easier to look at now and still authentic... hopefully. I hope someone feels the same way I do XD

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Mom and Dad are both so wretched...

So I've been working pretty much on my puppets for the past two days. The wonderful result of that is that my mom and dad puppets are both finished, at least as far as painting goes. I still need to fill William's belly up with clay (his stomach is hallow for an effect in the film) and get their clothes finished, but aside from that.. they're looking pretty good!

(I also need to buy some colored scupley for their eye lids, but that's hardly a hassle.. unless they run out of brown and peach hues! YOU DON'T THINK THEY WILL, DO YOU???)

So, here we go.

William without hair.

William with hair.


Closeup shots of the body.

Mary with her new 'do and little kerchief hair thing...


What the body looks like.


And here are some super nice detail shots of the puppets. GOD, I LOVE THIS CAMERA! so nice, so crisp.


For anyone wondering how I did the hair, here. I shall tell you. Listen now.

I took cotton swabs/balls and mixed up a watery concoction of acrylic paint and.. water. I dunked cotton swabs in the mix, made sure color got soaked up into it, flattened the water out until the swab was as dry as could be (damp), and then once it was kind of dry (okay, I'm impatient), I hot-glued that stuff onto the head. To do that, I pull out bits at a time so that it was like wool and then I would layer it onto the head. The more you get on there, the more it looks like hair, you see.

Mary's hair actually has wire in some of the lumps, but the build up technique is the same.

I'm actually really happy with the texture of the hair because it's near exact what I wanted. Hell, it's probably just what I wanted. So, yay! Success. Anyone who's been around me this past month has had to endure me asking them "hey, do you know any good tips on how to apply hair to the puppet's head?", so if you're a curious stop-mo fabricator in training I hope this tip inspires you. I don't know what a professional would say about my technique (it's definitely going to have a chattering effect, but I actually welcome the idea for the gritty look it may grant the film. That, or it will look terrible and I will regret everything.), but for someone starting out who's confused about how to approach hair, maybe this will give you a start and you can improve your hair technique later on.


And yes, tomorrow we shall have little boy.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

LOTS AND LOTS OF PICTURES!

Oh man.. It's been far too long! I'm so sorry for the long break, but I've been very busy.

But, lots of pictures shall hopefully make up for the pregnant pause.



I found that I had to repair Addison, so guess what I did over the break?
A nice detail shot of the old head (notice my attempt to bulk up his face to be more round...) and the new one. Also, this and the next two pictures were taken with the camera that I'll be using to animate! It is such a nice camera. A canon rebel SX if I'm not mistaken. I'll check officially later. (photo taken by Jacob)

Me working on his head. (photo taken by Jacob)
Nice shot of Addison with body included. (photo taken by Jacob)

AH, PROGRESS!