Visualizing Essimer: Props, Sets and Animatics

Over the past few days we have been hard at work with preparing for the upcoming film shoot.  We began our prop making adventure on Good Friday and still have more to create.

My contributions include a number of odd jobs, the kind that make one feel that they haven't really achieved anything but are important never-the-less.

One thing I do have to show from the past nearly week are a number of masks I have been working on for costuming.

This is a mask for one of the Bone Cultists.   I carved the design (loosely based on Jade's concept art) from polystyrene and then covered it with paper mache.  While I was working on the next lot of masks, Bex did an awesome job painting up the mask.

These other two masks are for the Bounty Hunters.  They have been designed by Jade to contrast with the masks of the Bone Cult.  These masks are were cut from MDF then covered in boiling water to allow the wood to bend.  They aren't quite finished as they need to be backed with black mesh and foam to allow them to fit onto the face nicely.

The major thing I have been working on this week is the 3D Animatic.  The Animatic is an important part of pre-production as it helps to visualize and time out the action of the shots, as well as exposing any continuality issues.  Since time is running short, I arranged for the full VFX team to work with the Previs team to help them get this done.  By making use of assets we already had (such as my character from last years 3D animation) and working on this as a group we were able to get the Animatic done in less than 2 days.