7/20/09 Update -- "Sculpting Edition"

Even though last week I said I'd finish the scene up, I didn't. But that doesn't mean that nothing was done. I made a break through this last week and got the most daunting and difficult task of the entire project completed--the character sculpts.

When I took on this 20,000 Leagues project, I knew I'd have to step up my game. Knowing that more is expected of me since I'm older and I've been doing what I've been doing for a while, I think that my work needs to reflect that. Human figures are certainly something that I don't enjoy making. They really aren't my thing, since I'm more mechanically and geometrically minded when it comes to making things that have sharp edges, corners and flat surfaces. When the idea of telling the story of 20,000 Leagues under the sea came up, I knew a scenes with characters were required, and there was no way I could avoid them; they're part of the story as much as the Nautilus and the scenery. I tried to go the route of using action figures like the burial scene, but nothing even close could be find for any of the characters. I knew that I had to suck it up and actually make the figures myself, from scratch.

Making human figures aren't something new to me. I've done very crude figures for versions of Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion. I would have a very difficult time just trying to make the figures look natural and real, let alone make them match a certain animatronic in the real ride. It was my skill level at the time and the fact that I didn't want to sit and work on a figure for hours at a time when I just wanted to get them done quick.

Before I started sculpting, I had to determine a scale for the figures, since they were in a forced perspective scene. I decided the push the table that they were sitting at towards the viewer, unlike in the movie, for a larger scale. (Refer to an earlier post with the press shot in it) Technically, even though Ned Land and Conseil are suppose to be slightly smaller in scale when compared to Nemo and Aronnax because of the forced perspective, I decided to make them the same scale because having different scaled people at the same table would look kinda weird.

When I started the first figure, I had to accept the fact that these figures weren't going to get knocked out easily and they could only be done if I had the patience and took the time to get them right. Figures with a likeness to a real person is not an easy thing to do at all, and that takes some serious time and effort to create. Not to mention the small scale is incredible tough to sculpt in. The goal was to get a likeness in the characters to the real actors as close as possible. And the patience paid off; I created the most correct anatomically and human proportioned I've ever done!

Professor Aronnax was the first figure to be made, and I must say, he came out the best despite him being the first to be made! Nemo on the other hand was a challenge since his features on his face are very subtle and any little difference can affect a lot. Not to mention his beard had a whole set of problems in the sculpting process. Unfortunately, I made his head way too big, almost twice the size (I'm sculpting the heads separately from the bodies) and I ended up having to redo it. Ned and Conseil were a little easier, since they have more distinct features like Ned's big dimpled chin and Peter Lorre's bulgy eyes and cheeks. All and all, it took roughly 7-9 hours a figure, with 3-5 hours for just a head. So I clocked in a hefty amount of hours this week.

Here are the characters sitting at the table, as of a few days ago. The head on Nemo is the "bad head"; the one that was too big and would later be redone. The armature for Conseil is made, awaiting clay. His pose will be when he's holding his napkin when he realizes that his "lamb" is actually a "brisket of blowfish with sea squid dressing basted in barnacles" while Ned's is more of "what the heck is this" when he holds up a spoonful of pudding of "saute of unborn octopus".




To give you an idea of what it's like to make these heads, here a POV shot of the new Nemo sculpt in production which really gives you a sense of scale:



Here are the figures, ready for paint and hands (the hands are going to be molded off action figure hands, since I really don't feel like making 4 sets of hands). I've sharpie-d in Nemo's beard and hair, to kind of give myself an idea of what he'll look like when he's finally painted.



And to show how far I've come when it comes to sculpting, here's my first human figure ever made, done for Pirates of the Caribbean, standing next to one of my latest creations.



This week WILL be the week were I finish the scene. If I don't, too bad, I'm moving on (I'm not going to dwell on little details, I'll save those for later). Next week I'm kicking into high gear since I need to get two more scenes done before the month is out. I'll get into those next posting.

7/13/09 Update

More of the finer details of the Salon scene are going in, such as cords, dinnerware, books, and instruments. I've also installed the lighting for the scene, which consists of five 12 volt lighting hidden behind the piping in the ceiling. So all the shots in today's update will be under show lighting.

I created the instrument that hangs above the specimen table. Since it was so intricate and small, I did a computer print out of a colorized drawing, since it would be really hard to make cleanly without a lasercut machine.



As noted in my last post, I replaced my organ, this time with a photo print, which looks really good in the back. And since it is in the back, it won't really matter if it's 3-D or not. The fact that the lighting in the photo and the lighting in the physical scene match is really good.



One of the details that I worked on this last week were all the books on the shelves on both sides of the scene. Getting a feel of the size of the books and the quantity from photos, I created each book by hand out of foam:



I could have took a block and scribed some lines in it for books, but it didn't really have the right feel to it.

Once I made about 90 books for both sides, they were all painted and glued together, and then glued to the shelves.



The Dinner table got it's cloth, made from a section of Kleenex soaked with a 50:50 ratio mixture of glue and water so that it'll remain stiff. I made the chairs from scratch, awaiting the future characters. I didn't bother making chairs for Ned Land and Conseil since you won't see those at all.



Then the table started to get loaded with details, such as dinnerware made from Plexiglas and sculpey. The seating areas are getting more details like pillows too.





The "railings" on the book shelves were a challenge to make because of their complexity and the lack of having a lasercut machine. So what I did was colorize a blueprint drawing of them and printed them out with a black background. They look pretty good despite not being able to see through them! Also some dinnerware details going in on the side table are visible.



I was hoping to get around to doing the characters last week, but I didn't. However, this week will be the week where this scene finally gets finished up, and that means all the characters will be done by the end of the week for this scene. Some of the details like jars and utensils will have to wait since I don't want to dwell on those and delay construction of the next scene(s). This is a busy month; I'm suppose to have this scene done (which was suppose to be done last month) as well as the next 2 scenes (I split one space into two scenes) done by the end of July.

To finish up this post, here's what the scene looks like right now as of this writing (it's a super-size image, by the way)

7/6/09 Update

Slowing down a bit this week, so this will be a shorter update than most (mainly because I don't feel like doing a long update today!). I also jumped around this week, looking at other areas and reworking some effects.

The water effect I created for the Burial scene was a solution that worked pretty well from the time that I did it. I knew it could be better and simpler, but I couldn't figure out how--until I found the solution by accident. While inspecting the mechanism in the dark with a flash light, the reflective tape that I have on my flash light caught some of the light from the light box above and shot a flutter of light on the ceiling. I noticed it and I began play around with it. I realized that the reflected light could work well as a water effect by having a bunch of these reflectors on strings moved by fans scattering reflected light in a random fashion. I had a "duh moment" when I realized how the effect could be made simpler! The Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Disneyland uses this technique for making the "gold" in the Treasure scene "sparkle" and "shine". I built a quick prototype and spent 2 days fussing around with different angles of the reflectors, fans, lights, and different string lengths to obtain the optimum effect. Eventually I got the right positions of everything and the results were amazing.



There's the new effect, a lot simpler and more effective than the last one, which is a big improvement. Parts of the old mechanism that I had installed are still there, awaiting dismantling. Here's a video demonstrating the new effect:



Back to the Salon scene; I'm starting to get tired and burned out on it, I can't wait to do something different!

More parts are going in, this week it was curtains and more furniture. I made a quick organ that I'm not really happy with; I kind of rushed it because I didn't feel like doing it the day that I did it. That's something that'll be redone before it's finally installed. The pipes for sure will be redone; I might even do a computer printout, considering making those pipes in such a small scale is not an easy thing to do. I'm not even going to make the seat for the organ, since you won't even see it if you weren't looking for it. Despite the lack of detail of this organ, I'll make up for it when I do the scene where Nemo plays the organ next month. The organ in that scene is a lot larger and it'll be as accurate and clean as I can do it. (I'm thinking of even gold-leafing the pipes!).

I made some curtain out of paint soaked Kleenex folded in an accordion pattern. Once I put these in, the scene really started to come together! They still need to be glued in and have cords attached so they can be pulled back a little more.



I built the dinner table itself, and like the side table in the last post, I had to make up the legs of the table since they can't be seen at all. The table tips back and is keystoned, keeping in mind the forced perspective illusion going on. I should be onto making the chairs next and then I'll start the daunting task of making the figures themselves, probably starting with Aronnax first. At this point, this is what the scene looks like as of the time of this writing.



Although not shown, I started experimenting with lighting on this scene with 12V lights. It'll be tricky since the lighting conditions are really particular and replicating the effect in a smaller scale will be tricky.

6/29/09 Update

The Salon/Dinner scene has been coming along smoothly. Thank goodness for good drawings or this scene would have taken a lot longer to do and it wouldn't be as accurate. Plus, you throw forced perspective into the equation and this scene becomes one heck of a hurdle to overcome. But at this point, I'm nearing the end of Phase two of this set and I should start the character figures and add more layers of detail.

Continuing with the last post, I created the ceiling for the set, something that I usually don't do for my sets (just about all the sets that I do, or will do, will have open tops for lighting and mechanisms and to be lazy and not make ceilings). At this point, reality is sealed out and the forced perspective beings to look more convincing.



Everything was painted sort of a dark grey. This shot below shows the set all painted with the ceiling off, to help make the process easier.



Once the paint dried, I weathered the pipes and stuff with matte medium and black paint. Then I painted the floor with a dark brown. In the movie, you can't really tell what the color the floor is because of the number of carpets laid out on the set, so I just went with a dark brown.



Speaking of carpets, I went through Google and grabbed some hi-res shots of some victorian-esque carpets that I will use for my set. Using the floor-plan drawings that I distorted and used to initially build the scene, I key-stoned the photos so that they were parallel to the edges of the set, keeping with the forced perspective illusion. In the photo below, you can see the test prints that I did, in black and white, to make sure they looked right in the scene before I printed the good color versions of the carpets that I'll use. I installed the bookshelves, all which taper to a smaller width at the farther end. They all angle too, towards the vanishing point, depending on their position vertically. I only made brackets on the side of the shelves that face the viewers, since the brackets on the opposite side of the shelves will be hidden by books.



The books on the shelf are standard dollhouse books, just trying out for scale and such.



Seating made out of foam are placed roughly where they'll go. The red paint is mainly just to seal the foam, another coat will be added as well as a few more washes will make them look more realistic. One thing that I didn't consider doing when I was cutting masonite for the floor was creating the two recessed areas for the seating on both sides of the set where the iris windows are. I didn't think you'd be able to see the non-recessed floor because of the seating and curtains. Well, it turns out that you CAN see the non-recessed floors even with the seating and curtains. At this point, I can't cut out those sections because I can't get the jig-saw in there because I've build so much and the dremel won't cut through two layers of masonite. So at this point I just have to accept that I goofed on those two little areas and I'll have to get creative with paint to make the floors appear recessed in those areas. At least they're areas that most people won't really notice, being that the characters up front are the focal point.

Here are two piece of furniture that I built for the scene, the specimen table and the side table. These were built according to the distorted floorplan drawing so that they add to the force perspective illusion. The Specimen table was very straight forward to make, I adjusted all the blueprints for that in the computer and built it out of styrene. The side table I just kind of made up since it's only featured in one scene in the movie and there aren't really any good pictures of it at all.



The two items look totally weird and their proportions and angles look not right at all. But when placed in the set itself, they look just right!



Although there are no pictures of it now, currently in production is the pipe organ, which is a bit of pain to make because of the forced perspective, resulting in it being only 1/2" deep. That'll be were I'll start off next week's post.

6/22/09 Update

Construction has been going ahead on the Salon scene, one of the most detailed scenes (probably the most) that I will be created. Because of the complexity of the scene, I've divided construction into phases, mainly so I can get my head straight why working on it

• Phase 1 -- Basic structure of the scene; pipes, walls and ceiling
• Phase 2 -- Large pieces of furniture; couches, tables, shelves
• Phase 3 -- Fine details and figures; bottles, books, utensils, and the sculpted character figures

Phase 1 is pretty much complete and I should be starting on Phase 2 pretty soon. I want to get the scene done by mid-July, and for the rest of that month will be work on more underwater scenes which should be easy to do considering I've done the burial scene where a lot of ideas and problems were worked out.

As shown in my last post, I figured out a plan view of the scene, which would include forced perspective. Using a better drawing, I corrected the proportions of the distortion that I would do to the drawing according to some measurements that I took. I printed the drawing out in sections full-size for the scene construction.



Once I figured out the floorplan, I was able to scale the elevation drawings for the tubes and pipes which are also the supports for the scene.

As you can see, each "layer" gets smaller and smaller due to forced perspective.



And to make sure I did my math correctly, I cut out the centers of the elevation drawins so I can preview the desired effect,



Using these drawings of the "arches", I started to create the actual pipes that would be used for the scene. There are a number of ways to create the arches in the scene, some techniques are hard and time consuming, others are expensive and unnecessary. Not to mention having curved smooth pipe with a diameter 1 1/4 is not easy to do with out the proper equipment. I chose to use PVC pipe because of it's very low price and it's easy to work with. (I got about 25 feet of pipe for $7; pretty good price if you ask me!)

The pipes I'm using range from 1 1/4" to 1/2" diameter because of the forced perspective involved. To curve the pipe, I cut the pipe up into sections at specific angles on the chop saw and glued them together to achieve the right curve. For smaller pipes, like the one in the very back, I heated and bent the pipe to achieve the curve. Here are the sections all glued together and ready for more tubing.



The Austin Powers figure is there for scale purposes (it looks like he's digging the scene so far!) Figuring out the scale for the figures was a challenge because of the forced perspective involved, since as you move towards the back, the scale in constantly changing. I'll get into more on my scale issues when I sculpt my figures later on.

More piping was added to the "ceiling". Pipe junctions of the style and size and angle were not easy to come by, so I had to make them myself. Once the piping was added, I filled in the joints with self hardening clay.



The seams and joins may look sloppy from above, but they create the right look when viewed from the right angle.



Then came the very tedious task of installing the hundreds of rivets needed for the scene. Although they'll be hard to notice, the rivets add so much to the scene. To create them, I made every one of them from a ball of clay and I glued them to strip of paper in single and double rows. All I have to do to install them is glue the back of the strip to the pipe. Even though this technique creates sort of a "riveted band" that isn't something the real set had, it actually works in this motif.



One of the sections with a coat of primer:



Even though the rivets are a little big, they were exaggerated so they can still be seen when they are painted dark gray and the scene is lit dimly.

Here is the entire scene at this point all primered and ready for paint. As I move towards the back, I start to phase out the rivets. The rivets in the back portion will just be done with dots of silver Sharpie. The next step will be to put the removable walls and ceiling, and then phase two will start with some paint, furniture, carpeting, tables, shelves and much more.

6/15/09 Update

In a contrast to last week's update, this post will be a super-size one. So much happened this week that I've broken the post down day-by-day.

Last Tuesday I decided that the Burial scene was taking way too long and was soaking up the time slot that I allotted for the Dinner scene (which will take a really long time to do since I've made some changes!). So last week I decided to kick into high gear and just get the scene done. Tuesday, the mold pictured in the last post was poured and by Wednesday, I was ready to cast up divers.

Here is the mold with resin poured in for one of the divers:



And the parts fresh out of the mold:



The parts came out surprisingly easy, despite the amount of detail and undercuts. At this point I decided to go for the max and do a complete set of 7 divers rather than the planned 5.

As the parts were coming in, I started blocking out the scene using the helmets that were cast, to figure out where the figures would go. Realizing that the scene would not be viewed in Cinemascope unlike the movie, I was worried that you wouldn't be able to see all the divers in the scene (I didn't want any finished divers to go to waste!). I was able to overcome that problem by arranging them in such a way. This shot shows the divers helmets being used to block out the scene as well as more aluminum coral forms being figured out before they are covered in Celluclay. This photo is actually shot under show lighting and through the 'bubble box' which explains the look of it.



Once 63 resin parts were made, they were all grinded down and sanded and sorted into plastic bags for organization. Each bag contains parts for one diver.



Thursday was basically assembly day, gluing all the parts together and adding a few wire details here and there for hoses. I changed the positions of the ligaments for variation by cutting the parts and gluing them into the new position and then filling in the joint with self-hardening clay. I also modified two helmets to create Nemo's helmet and the "baldy" one.



I temporarily glued all the figures to a strip of wood to make painting easier.



Once they were given a coat of primer, they were all painted on Friday:



After the acrylic paint dried, the divers were all given a wash of clear matte medium mixed with black paint.

I was very pleased with how the divers came out. One of the scenes I'm planning on doing is the part where Conseil and Ned stray off from the underwater expedition and get attacked by shark (only to have Nemo come the rescue). This scene was originally going to be a larger scale, with larger divers, but since I don't want to do more retooling and more molding that I'm thinking I could knock down the scale of the scene to the scale of the Burial scene so I could use the same divers from the same mold as the Burial. It would be a lot easier to do. And since the scale is smaller, I could split the space into two scenes, getting a two for one deal with the same quality scenes. I've definitely got some stuff to think about, though that's for after I do the Dinner scene.

Before the divers could be installed in the scene, I had to create the stretcher with the body first. I created a sculpey body and placed a glue and water soaked tissue for the blanket. This took all day to dry so installation couldn't be done. Same with the extra coral pieces. With nothing to work on the Burial scene on Saturday, I decided to focus my attention onto the next scene--Dinner with Nemo
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The dinner scene is a scene that I'm not really looking forward to. The amount of detail required for this scene is insane, considering it takes place in the beautifully designed Salon room of the Nautilus. And since I'm not a sculptor of human faces, getting a likeness of the characters will be a challenge. I couldn't avoid the scene because it's kind of an important scene; it introduces Captain Nemo (he says "You can call me Captain Nemo"), it sets up the whole "jail-break" aspect of the story (warns them that they are on the strictest probation and advises them to not attempt to escape), it feature the four main characters at once, it provides a perfect transition into the expedition scene(s) and it's a memorable moment in the movie. The view of the scene will be very similar to this shot from LIFE:



The only things that will be different from the photo above is that the viewer will pretty much be where the fountain is (it's going to be a straight on shot) and the expressions of Ned and Conseil will be a little more disgusted because of Nemo's food.

When I was planning this scene, I was mainly focusing the scene on the characters. In other words, I wasn't going to build the whole scene; at some point a backdrop would come in to continue the Salon at the end. I wanted a good size scale for the figures, considering I'd have to sculpt them. I didn't have room for an entire Salon scene at the same scale of the figures. I was hoping I'd be able to fit the the whole Salon scene but I couldn't--until I put forced perspective into the equation. Using a floor-plan drawing of the salon, I mapped out how I could fit the entire Salon on the plot that I had for it. By pinching and squeezing the drawing I was able to fit the entire room on the piece of cardboard. Success! Despite the construction challenges of building this complex scene in forced perspective, this scene is gonna look really cool!

Here's the drawing I was messing around with:




Also, Because of the size and shape of the Salon, I ended up creating room for another scene (where the question mark is) that I wasn't planning on doing anyways--Whale of a Tale. But since I didn't want to tack on another scene to my schedule and I don't know how character sculpting will go on the Dinner scene (plus I really don't want to make all of those sailors!) I have no plans to do the scene, though I will always leave the option there if I want to do it in the future.

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Back to the burial scene on Sunday, the divers carrying the body where ready to be installed:



I haven't glued down all the divers yet, so I can position them whenever I want (Nemo, however, is glued down) The extra coral I created helps give the scene a little more depth and looks "fuller". I added some "foreground" coral that goes right in front of the window, like the shot in the movie. It's mounted on a piece of armature wire so I can adjust and fuss around with it if I feel that too much of it is in the shot or too little of it is in the shot. Here's what the finished scene looks like, sans Nemo's coral cross and another bulb in the light box to brighten the scene a little more.



And here's another shot without the bubble effects running and with a longer exposure (which looks kind of neat--looks very aquarium-y!)



Be sure to ignore the 'Marblex' clay box that is reflecting in the plexiglas--I was using it as a tripod at the moment!

6/8/09 Update

Progress slowed a bit this week, other projects and stuff were in the way, so this update may be a little shorter than previous ones (there will be many more of these kind of posts!)

Still working on the Burial scene, slowly, but progress is progess. I'm starting to install the scenes themselves, so lighting situations and height angles can be locked in and finalized. Most particularly, the Burial scene, which requires delicate lighting conditions because of the water effect, was the first to start installation. I've  already installed the two first scenes that I did, the Monster attacks and the Discovery. Since these scenes were very lightweight despite how big they are, I mounted them to the walls with L brackets and 2 X 4's.  What's nice about having them so high up (they require a low viewing angle) and the absence of supports, is that they create a very nice storage place which will be useful when more scenes are created and installed; my supplies will need a place to go. Here's what the work area looks like now:

(A big project makes a big mess!)

Even though the the Burial scene is not finished,  at this point it can be worked on while installed. I installed the water effect, which includes the lighting mechanism to be hung from the ceiling. The light source for the effect was also put in, a quickly built "light box" of aluminum lined foam core box with a 4W CFL bulb (Eco-friendly so far! This bulb is great, even though it's only 4 watts, it's pretty bright. This bulb actually has quite a history in my attractions, it served as the green floodlight for the caverns in my Pirates of the Caribbean, the red floodlight for the tottering columns of my Submarine Voyage,  the outside moonlight for the Conservatory scene for my Haunted Mansion, and now it's being used on this project--still going strong!) I still will probably add more CFL bulbs to brighten up the scene a little more, it's a bit dim at this point. The box just looks bright because of the long exposure.

I also modified the water effect mechanism a bit. As shown in the previous post, the cams that move the plastic sheets back and forth are mounted a half turn from each other, or on opposite sides of the drive shaft. I changed one cam so that it is only a quarter turn ahead of the other cam. This way, one sheet "follows" the other in movement, and the results are much better and more realistic. 

I haven't finalized the height of that scene yet, so it's just sitting on a stool and will probably be quite a bit higher when it's installed. Raising it up higher towards the light source might also help brighten up the scene a little bit too. Also shown in the photo above is the new backdrop that was painted again for the scene; the old one was too short in height and length and the seam was in the middle. 

The divers are coming along, or should say diver. The master copy should be molded pretty soon. Once I make a bunch of castings, I'll have an assembly line of parts to make the five divers. The only thing I'll have to do is make a new helmet for Nemo, but other than that, all the divers use all the same parts. Although on one of the divers, the "baldy" one, I'll have to grind off the "crown" on top of a casting to create that helmet. Here's a the diver  ready to be molded:

6/1/09 Update--"Burial" Scene construction cont.

Still continuing on working on the burial scene. As of today, the first day of June, I'm officially behind schedule. My goal is to do a scene a month and the burial scene was suppose to be done last month. So this month I have to finish the scene and then get started on the one scene I'm not looking forward to at all--the Dinner with Nemo. But that's far ahead at this point, for now, I'm focusing on getting the burial scene done.

As described in my last posting, the coral forms of Celluclay and aluminum foil were created and when they dried rock hard, I painted them in shades of dark greens and browns. I employed an old toothbrush for spattering some paint on them for variations in colors.



Once the paint dried, I added some more details like ground foam, foam foliage, and miniature wire tree branches with the foliage striped off. The sand I applied is genuine ocean sand, collected from Huntington Beach. I spread the sand out and sealed and secured it with 50:50 ratio of water and glue solution. I painted a backdrop for the scene, though after some calculations I discovered that I need the backdrop to be taller, so a new one will need to be made (this time, one without a seam in the middle!).



One of the effects for this scene that will really sell it as an underwater scene will be one of my trusty "bubble box" windows that I used on my Submarine Voyage attraction. These are thin plexiglas boxes filled with water that give the illusion of being underwater. Fish tank air stones at the bottom of the box creates bubbles which in turn makes the illusion a little more convincing. I was considering building a new bubble box from scratch for this project that would be larger, but I decided to stick with the original box size. This way, I can tighten the viewing limits and I won't have to make too much of the scene because of certain areas not in view. Here is one of original "bubble boxes" that I will be using for this project (it's a good thing I saved these!)

The masking tape signifies areas that will be covered with a window frame, etc. so you won't see the edges or sides of the box.

I also discovered an easy way to give the whole scene a monochromatic look like the scene in the movie. I was considering blue light gels and eventually a gel over the window itself, but there was an easier and more effective way--food coloring! I did a few tests with my bubble box and a couple drops of blue food coloring in the water, and instantly the scene looked like a blue-hued-monochromatic ocean; exactly what I want!

In addition to the "bubble box' the illusion of an underwater scene will be helped my a lighting effect to simulate the sun coming through the ocean surface. This was quite a problem, mainly in trying to figure out how to do it. My very first idea on how to create the effect was to have a clear tray of water with a light shining through it. A fan or an air line from one my air pumps would create turbulence in the water, creating the illusion. Even though that seemed like the natural way to do it, there would be problems if I did it that way. For one, having a 120 volt lighting hang above a tray of water is not a good idea, not to mention moisture and jumping beads of water coming from the air line towards the light doesn't help either.

My second plan was to do it with synchronated christmas lights that would flash in sequence. This seemed like a good idea, no water and you just plug it in. Of course when I tried it out it didn't work the way I wanted it; the lighting would flash in a too unified order (I need it to be a little random), they would change directions rapidly, they weren't bright enough, and they had a yellow hue to them (not desirable). Plan aborted

At this point, I was seriously considering getting one of those lighting effect projectors that are used for dances and clubs. It creates a very convincing water ripple effect projection. My only concerns were the price, how close can it focus, and it's size. So that idea was scrapped. I needed a smaller (and cheaper!) solution.

My solution came when I discovered a patent for such a simple device that creates a water effect through a simple mechanism that consists of two rotating drums and a patterned film that turns. The light would shine through the two layers of film moving in opposite direction, creating the effect. Genius! This was of doing the effect was simple enough that I could build it at no cost and it wouldn't use real water! After working on a prototype and a few tests, I simplified the effect by  just having two sheets of clear plastic move back and forth rapidly with a "scissor" movement to save space and the material itself (I imagine a film bending and rotating every few seconds would wear out rather quickly).  I built my lighting mechanism out of K'nex parts and a lego motor, which are a whole lot cheaper than a projector!



Here is the lighting mechanism in action in few test shots in this video:



After figuring out the trickiest part of the scene, I started work on the divers. I my last post, I mentioned I would be using G.I. Joe Diver keychain figures for my divers. The first one came in the mail a few days ago:



A penny is shone for scale. My original plan was to get a hold of five of them and convert each one as I aquire them. Well, I changed my mind and I only need one; I'm going to take the one I have and trick it all out with details and accessories. Then I'm going to pull all of it arms, legs, and torso apart (gruesome, I know!) and get each part molded. Then I can cast as many identical divers as I want without having to make a bunch of difficult parts, like the helmet, and without paying premium for eBay prices and shipping. I'll have to change a few thing like the helmet and poses and such, but this seems like the way to to go. Depending on how easy the casting process is, I might make a few more to sell--but that's for a time when I'm not behind schedule!

Here is my current diver all pulled apart, his joints filled in with self-hardening clay and with a helmet in the works:



Lastly, a pano shot of inside the "show building", revealing the cardboard supply in the back, light/sound instruments stacked against the wall on the right, the current scene in progress in the middle, and the two finished scenes covered from dust on the left: