Successful Kickstarter Campaign!!!

WE DID IT!!! Yes we are one of the 40% successful projects funded via Kickstarter! 

Lets start off by saying a MASSIVE thank you to all who backed the project. It has been an amazing month! We actually reached over 61% of our target. Meaning we can give everyone a fantastic behind the scenes featurette for you all to see how the process is made from start to finish.
So what now. Well, we have just received our funding and the first purchase will be for the featurette, we are buying a good quality SLR camera with HD capabilities for shooting the doc. This will then be our upgrade camera when we work on hopefully the next Dan project.
We have been busy skyping important people working on the project, like Nathan Britton our composer. He is currently working on the first 2 minutes of the film. You can hear Nathan's work here
https://soundcloud.com/nathanbritton88
Our graphics guy David Chaudoir is busy working on the end credits which is going to look fantastic. Not giving anything more away. But take a look at his video below, you'll see what kind of people we are working with. Its amazing!!!

http://www.freelancemotiongraphics.co.uk

Our 2nd Zombie is being created at the moment by Darren, we are so lucky that with your money we can give him a fully working ball and socket armature for the zombie. We are using the best in the business by Animation Tool Kit, its the famous Ray Harryhausen Armacreature kit. They are fantastic. Dan is already using one, but we are now able to put the zombies in them too.

http://www.animationtoolkit.co.uk

Andy has been busy working on a unique poster for the film. I think he has come up with a cracker!!! What do you guys think?

I have been busy animating away. We have 2 minutes shot. Another 3 to go so i'm well into it. But we may have an animator on board to help the work flow, watch this space!!!

That's all for now, please keep tweeting and ace booking

Pete

Kickstarter Launch

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/danofthedead/dan-of-the-dead-stop-motion-zombie-film
Hey everyone
I know its been a very long time, but i've been solo busy working on Dan of the Dead. Where do I start???
Well.... we have a trailer launched

But more importantly, we have a Kickstarter campaign which is LIVE right now!!!

We have worked incredibly hard to get to this point and we hope the backers come in so we can produce the highest quality stop motion short possible. This is where we need your help!!!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/danofthedead/dan-of-the-dead-stop-motion-zombie-film

please share the link, blog about it or even pledge if you have time. Kickstarter is a fantastic format for individuals to achieve small goals. This small goal will help Dan of the Dead become a reality and hopefully be watched by many people around the world at festivals.

Any help you can give would be a bonus.

Sorry for the big plug, normal blogs will resume

Cheers for your continued support

Pete

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/danofthedead/dan-of-the-dead-stop-motion-zombie-film

Filming has started

Hi guys

Well this has been a long time. I apologise but there is no point blogging if I have nothing to report.

Well I am happy to tell you all that Dan of the Dead is being filmed!!! The first 3 shots have been produced and I am in full swing.
I have recently moved house and brought the studio with me. Luckily I have a spare room which is where the magic is happening.

I have dressed the set, recorded Dans voice and started shooting. It's been an amazing feeling to finally see my work in action.



Here is a shot of Dan and the Zombie on the dressed set. We have burgers and chips, crisps and bloody stained walls.

I would love to show you the opening shots of the film but as I am shooting in order for continuity reasons (blood etc) I will leave you all in suspense. Don't worry some shots will be posted soon.



Here is the rig used for the opening shit of the film. It took 3 attempts to get it how I wanted but I am happy I've done it justice.


Dan has a lot of walking in the short and unfortunately animation supplies armatures are not good enough for magnetic tie down. Not enough metal to magnetise. Here is animation toolkits rig for making him walk. It's perfect and I recommend everyone gets one. www.animationtoolkit.com eventually Dan will be re-fit with animation toolkits ray harryhausen armature kit. Also available from the website.

That's all for now. I will keep you posted more often now I'm animating. Please let your friends know about Dan of the Dead

Cheers

Pete

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Almost ready for filming

I've not posted for a while. Been busy with the day job. I now have a 3 axis rig set up for the filming if Dan of the Dead. You've seen the Emotimo I have. Which gives me pan and tilt. The Emotimo also has an external plug for an extra motor. I've attached it to my slider.



So I now have track as well as pan and tilt. Here is a quick video of it in action with pan, tilt, track and focus. All done through dragonframe

I'm sorry there isn't more to add. But I will be showing videos of voice recordings and hopefully a video blog.

Thanks again for all your support. Big things happening very soon

Pete


- Posted using BlogPress from iPhone

Test Animations

Hi everyone
I know it's been a few weeks since my last post but i've been busy doing test animations and storyboarding the pilot which is coming on great!!! I really feel I have the pilot how I want it now... I'm gearing up to filming next week, very exciting.
So here are the test shots, some of them were to test the Emotimo rig, some for lighting, others just foe fun. Just trying to get plenty of character into Dan now.

I also made a shotgun the other day, i'd been looking on eBay for a couple of weeks and not found anything the correct size, so I decided to make my own.

I think it looks alright, just need to sort Dan's hands out so he can grab hold better, maybe fine for the pilot but not sure for the series?

I'll be posting some animatics up later this week

Keep checking my blog, I always like to hear back from everyone

Pete

Zombie has arrived - Emotimo

Hi all,
Oh have I got some news to tell you lot!!! Firstly I have my Emotimo rig for filming pans, tilts and slides. But you're not bothered about that! You've just read "Zombie has arrived" - so without further ado, here is the first of many Zombies in Dan of the Dead.

Beautifully sculpted and fabricated by Darren Longthorne, he spent many days working away in his workshop, we still have some shredded costume to add on yet, but you can see what it's gonna look like.

I think he fits in perfectly on the set, the set still needs dirtying up and adding graffiti etc. But it's getting there

The contrast between Dan and the Zombie I feel works really well, the comedy of the living with the scowling gruesome look of the undead

Let me know what you think, have any questions to ask Daz, let me know

Ok, take a breather. Time to talk about the amazing Emotimo, I mentioned it briefly in the last blog post, but this kit is seriously impressive, at a very reasonable price, animators can produce pan, tilt and slide moves for there films using the dragon frame arc motion software, it works an absolute treat. Here is a quick set up I did

You can see the emotimo attached to the kovona slider unit. At the moment the slider is hand cranked, but I can add a stepper motor to it which links straight to the emotimo.

Here is a quick test of the kinda shots I will be able to produce using the Emotimo

Check out the emotimo website here - www.emotimo.com Any questions, give Brian an email, he's more than happy to answer them.

So, whats next?

I think I need to do a vlog update! seems to be the new "in thing" but I suppose it makes it easier for you guys to see whats going on, possible talk you all through the emotimo and see Dan of the Dead set up close

But for now... Please keep spreading the word. Let's get Dan of the Dead viral #hashtag danofthedead on your tweets, like the Facebook fan page http://www.facebook.com/danofthedeadseries and become a member on the official website www.danofthedead.co.uk

Thanks for your continued support

Pete & Darren

Set construction and Emotimo TB3

Hi all

Hope you're all well? I have been busy the past week getting the set built. I am hoping in my next blog to have a completed set ready for Dan to explore!!!

Early last week I started to make some smaller props to dress the public toilet set. Can you guess what they all are?

Don't you just hate not when you go to the toilet and there's no toilet paper!? Dan has this very dihlema in the pilot episode.

I used a small tub of black gloss to make the toilet seat look reflective

The hand dryer was made from fimo, as most of my props are made. This has a varnish finish to make it shine.

Some piping being painted up

Testing the main shot for the ident coming soon where Dan is looking in the mirror

A rusty old tap

I found a great spray can paint at B&Q the other day, it gives the effect of mottled stone, I thought it would be perfect for the toilet floor. Later you'll see how it looks

I started work on the urinals and piping, i'm redoing them in fimo as the clay cracked :-(

An almost finished toilet cubicle!!! just needs graffiti dotting around. Any funny ideas... drop me a line

The set showing you how the floor looks, i'm really happy with how it's all looking!

On an animation note I have come across something excellent which I will be investing in. It's called emotimo TB3. Here is the website address http://www.emotimo.com

This bad boy plugs straight into Dragonframe stop motion. Using the Arc motion via the program you can use pan and tilt just like a professional stop motion company. It has a spare motor socket so you can add a motorised dolly to the fun. Dragonframe Arc Motion speaks straight to the box and tells it to pan, tilt or track. Cool ha? here's a video of it in action

So next blog i'll hopefully have a finished set with a couple of test shots with Dan. Very quickly, Daz has been working hard on the Zombie for the pilot/ident. 

This is nothing guys... just wait until he's painted him up. Can't wait!!! Goodbye for now, keep checking my blog, visit the website too and become a member http://www.danofthedead.co.uk

Become a fan at http://www.facebook.com/danofthedeadseries

Cheers for now 

Pete