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Visions of Fantasy /Horror /Characters and Monstrous Creations
FANTOM EYE GALLERY
The following are various examples of monster & fantasy characters of the type I like to indulge and populate my many story concepts with, this is only a small sample of the work I've done over the years but to be honest I have misplaced a lot of what I have done and these were the quickest & easiest to display... hope you like em!
Horror and Fantasy Visions in Comix & Animation
Well at least there might be... or something close if I have anything to say about it!
Looking to include some moving images when I can afford to up-grade this site and include multimedia files etc... also need to up-date/re-acquire some vital pieces of equipment like a decent camera, software and a few other items...
Here is a CD cover for some old buddies of mine, extreme metal artists Ebonmortis , the disk is Reconstruction by Force. Perhaps not the best image possible (came out a little too dark for one thing!) but at least the music is awesome!
Look this up if your a metal music lover... you won't be sorry!
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And now for something a little different... |
"LITTLE DOLLS"
STOP-MOTION PUPPETS
And here are a few examples of my stop-motion puppet efforts, I hope to post some of my experiments in making them move soon... I have plenty of concepts and ideas for bizarre little films for my "little dolls" to be featured in. Here is the Wolf, at least my first attempt at him... I have a better version in the works!
And here is Vlad, my own version of a certain Romanian count I'm sure we all know,...
I'm afraid he was trying to be a bit too sexy here and a hat's off to Max Shrek if you know what I mean... also a special thanx to my old pal Bob Standlee in helping me create this silicone puppet, hope to see and work with him again some day!
Vlad Drakul likes lurking around his castle with no shirt on, he's really not as formal as he let's on...
Speaking of his castle... here is a look at it from the outside, day & night... and here is the door...
There is, was...might be a lot more to do with vampiric Vlad Drakul and his castle someday, I hope, but for now it all remains only in the realm of possibilities...
I have many other model/puppets but I will save them til I can get a better camera and better images and hopefully post them at a later date.
The following are static non-movable sculpts that I also like to create, here is an Alien Soldier from a million years ago... followed by a cyclops and a lizard beast that was to be the basis for a stop-motion model (hence the spread out pose) though unfortunately it didn't make it to fruition.
This was produced as a special in house only collector's item for the creative development team members working on the X-Box game Halo back in my concept/production artist days at Bungie/Microsoft. Special thanks to Bob Standlee and Larry Hunt for helping me produce about thirty of these suckers turning my garage into a mini production house for a few days way back then... I would be curious to know if any of these still exist since I forgot to make one for myself!
It was meant as a sort of alternate version of the "Covenent Elite" soldier from Halo hence the deviation from the actual "official" look and design as it appears in the game. It was a cool little side project and an example of the kind of neat surprise/ perk that made working at Bungie fun.
The following cyclops was done as a tribute to the late great master artiste filmmaker Ray Harryhausen on the day I heard of his passing... Rest in Peace Sir. I am not worthy!
The following cyclops was done as a tribute to the late great master artiste filmmaker Ray Harryhausen on the day I heard of his passing... Rest in Peace Sir. I am not worthy!
This "cute" guy never made it but like all things he served his purpose as a chance to practice honing the skills and sculpting chops, maybe he'll get his chance again someday?
The lizard beastie was pretty typical of the kind of design I tend towards so a new better version will probably emerge eventually and maybe I'll even get him moving around doing something on screen next time... well speaking of monstros...
here I am adding a few touches to a mask sculpt by my old pal Doug Goins of Hoosier FX Lab. Check him out and his awesome work at... http://hoosiereffectslabltd.com/
P.S. I may be offering one of a kind small scale pose-able figures, hand made sculpted in foam and coated in flexible latex rubber for sale in my on-line store sometime soon. These will each be original design unique one of a kind collector's items suitable as display pieces or ready to go before your stop-mo camera... but they will be very fragile and definitely not to be confused with "action figures" or toys of any sort...not for children! I am currently looking into methods of producing such items on an economically viable level so please let me know if there is any kind of initial interest for such a thing or at least keep your eye out for further details as they develop... THANKS!
ONE... LAST... DANCE... ?
So as it turns out I did make another "lizard/ape-like" beast already though this one was not sculpted in clay first or cast using molds of any kind but was instead "fabricated" in foam directly over a ball and socket armature using the exact "build-up" (old school Marcel Delgado style!) process I intend to use for the limited series figures I may be offering for sale although the type of underlying "skeleton" or armature will most likely not be of the same professional quality ball and socket variety used here but rather a durable flexing wire set up that I am experimenting with.
I have gotten very good quality results thus far with this wire based material so it may prove worthwhile and affordable.
In any case I posted this quick-ee slide show demonstration of 24 poses that approximate one second of film simply to illustrate the basic principle of dimensional old school model animation as practiced by the old masters Willis O'Brien, Ray Harryhausen , Jim Danforth and many others too numerous to mention here though I'm sure most of you already know all this, and if you don't do yerself a favor and look them up and learn about how all the coolest creatures and monsters were brought to life on screen in the good old days before the advent of C.G.I.!
And I don't want to hear any of that whiney (but it looks sooo "fake" stuff... So what if it doesn't look totally "real" it looks totally COOL, and that makes all the difference!
I'm afraid the actual "animation" here is pure nonsense,off the cuff improv movement and the lighting etc... is very poor indeed, but I guess it will serve the purpose of demonstrating the principle and until I can upgrade this site and post actual media clips... this kind of "work with what ya got" approach will have to do!
Have fun flipping through the slides quickly and make this little (or is he supposed to be BIG?!) guy do a little dance or what ever , he's at your bidding!
Hope you all get a kick out of it!
Til next time...
-J.B. Ramirez
I have gotten very good quality results thus far with this wire based material so it may prove worthwhile and affordable.
In any case I posted this quick-ee slide show demonstration of 24 poses that approximate one second of film simply to illustrate the basic principle of dimensional old school model animation as practiced by the old masters Willis O'Brien, Ray Harryhausen , Jim Danforth and many others too numerous to mention here though I'm sure most of you already know all this, and if you don't do yerself a favor and look them up and learn about how all the coolest creatures and monsters were brought to life on screen in the good old days before the advent of C.G.I.!
And I don't want to hear any of that whiney (but it looks sooo "fake" stuff... So what if it doesn't look totally "real" it looks totally COOL, and that makes all the difference!
I'm afraid the actual "animation" here is pure nonsense,off the cuff improv movement and the lighting etc... is very poor indeed, but I guess it will serve the purpose of demonstrating the principle and until I can upgrade this site and post actual media clips... this kind of "work with what ya got" approach will have to do!
Have fun flipping through the slides quickly and make this little (or is he supposed to be BIG?!) guy do a little dance or what ever , he's at your bidding!
Hope you all get a kick out of it!
Til next time...
-J.B. Ramirez