The Making Of

Here it is, just like I said it would be.


So that was just a really quick overview of the way the majority of the shots went. Most everything was shot on green screen. Only small pieces of sets were ever used. Some shots were entirely computer: such as the opening shot with the car (though, the car was a model, so, it wasn't entirely CG).
The shot with the hanging cats was assembled out of still shots and animated inside After Effects. The idea behind the shot was inspired from an old watercolor I did.

The shot with the skull door knocker was made using hi-res stills of various wood and plant images that were put together in 3D space with After Effects. The resulting comp contained over 145 separate layers and took approximately three hours to render. The door knocker itself was a wax sculpt which was painted and melted with a lighter between frames. It was then tracked in After Effects and attached to the house in 3D space.

For all outdoor shots, the puppets were filmed on green screen and composited into digital matt paintings. Things like moving skies and blowing leaves were all either live action plates or hi-res stills of clouds.

When Skimpy falls in the mud, I just made a real mud pit on the old Autumn Leaves set. The mud was pottery clay. 

 When shooting was over, the clay dried up and I had to wash Skimpy thoroughly with soap and water.

The indoor shot with Chimpy and Shtubby was done on a small two wall set with peeling wallpaper and a faux wood floor. To get the proper "light rays" I filled my room with fog (from a fog machine, of course) and had to carefully monitor the evaporation so that the fog levels wouldn't change visibly during shooting. Though, with all my diligence, some fog flickering can still be seen. 

The overall "Grindhouse" look was achieved through multiple color, exposure, and saturation passes, just to get the color of 'yellowed film' right. After the tone, came the film grain itself. This was very difficult, as I had to search out all the best quality, FREE, downloadable videos of film scratches against a black or white background. Those kinds of videos are VERY hard to find. I ended up using just five clips and messing with them to get a greater variety of looks.

NOW ON TO THE PUPPETS!

The Chainsaw Pig Guy (I never really gave him a name). He was made from an old Chimpy puppet. 

When turned to the side you can really see his former Chimpy-ness. I sewed the clothes directly on him, so, they're on there forever. They were made from random material that was lying around the house.

I made the mask out of plasticine, painted it with acrylics and sewed it on with black thread.

The gloves were made using the existing hands painted yellow. The glove ends were made with thread and electrical tape covered in liquid latex.

The boots were solid epoxy putty painted brown with pieces of rubber band glued around the edge.

The chainsaw was made from cardboard and epoxy putty.

The handle was wrapped in electrical tape and the body was decorated with salvaged toy motorcycle parts to make it look cool.

 A lost detail.

Mr. Shtubby was a last minute addition. He is based on a year old sketch I did of, well... Mr. Shtubby. He was never really meant to be anything or anyone else. He's just a weird little hot dog shaped guy with stubby arms and legs. 

He has two heads to allow the "squash and stretch" effect when he screams. The scream itself is a goat, just a regular old goat that happens to make that noise, no manipulation whatsoever! His hair is made of steel wool.

The heads are held on by magnets.

 He's rigged from the butt with some brass tubing and wire. The rigs would later be removed in post.

And finally, the fridge. It is made of an empty sanitary wipe container. It was painted and spattered with red paint.

Other small details were made of clay and cardboard. The magnets were white cardboard on which various names were written that would hint at the influences of the film, such as "Rob Zombie" and "Wes" (as in "Craven.") and "John Carpenter."

Well, that's it for now. Hope you all enjoyed it.