… all the tentacles complete — but no, the front one is not right! Some surgery required. Out comes the hacksaw, but only to the wire armature so the arm can be shaped into the correct curves. Then like Dr. Frankenstein I fasten it back together with staples and recover with more resin putty.
And now is time to sand …
and sand and sand and sand until it is time for the little sucker cups … M2, M2.5, M3, M4, M5, M6, M8, M10, M12 white nylon washers
I pulled out my collection of plastic seals and off we went for days of cupping —15 days spent modeling the contours of each of the 663 suction cups
The Blessed Virgin had to be sanded very delicately to give it back some of its immaculateness.
The happiness of some is the dust of others.
Take advantage of this white octopus, it seems that it is very rare to come across one. Shortly after I did my little experiments with paintings —
A few days to finish the color, but because it will have to go through a few coats of a special glossy glossy varnish, which makes the viscosity so good… mmm yum. Given the size of the room I could not apply it in one go. The drying takes between 24 and 48 hours, so it will probably take me a week to complete the application of this varnish-resin.
If your head is spinning too much, don’t look at this indecent image.
Soasig Chamaillard (French, b.1977)
Notre dame du poulpe(Our Lady of the Octopus) - recovery statue with illegible signature, aluminum wire frame, plaster strip, polystyrene, resin
(epoxy putty), plumbing seals (plastic washers), acrylic paint, resin varnish
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47 cm high x 70 cm wide - 12 kg - work-in-progress March 20 to May 31, 2015
“I grew up in a Christian Western society. My perspective on life has been a result of my environment and background. The playful interaction of society’s many icons, physical transformations, and the resulting improbable combinations, have culminated in my vision of a woman’s role and place in our society. This inner questioning of a woman’s role, has led me to use one of the most sacred icons in my work, namely, the Virgin Mary. Initially, I begin with damaged statues, either donated or discovered in garage sales, which I then restore and transform. I surely do not mean to shock those who believe but rather to move those who see.” —
Soasig Chamaillard
It’s a simplification, but I think fundamentally true, to say that the U.S. right has won many elections, despite an inherently unpopular economic agenda, by appealing to intolerance — racism, homophobia and these days anti-“wokeness.” Yet there’s a risk in that strategy: Plutocrats who imagine that the forces of intolerance are working for them can wake up and discover that it’s the other way around.
Hey fam! The Mouse is refusing to recognize the unionization efforts of its production workers. If you’re not familiar with what PAs or PMs do, I’ll outline it briefly. The tl;dr is that NO ANIMATION WOULD GET DONE WITHOUT PRODUCTION WORKERS. They are the glue holding together every single production of your very favorite cartoons!
They take notes in all the meetings with the artists.
They make sure the artists are meeting their deadlines (and showing up to the meetings in the first place).
They help us navigate studio servers to find the files we’re looking for.
They send us our time cards, and make sure we get paid!
Production workers do all this and more, often for minimum wage. The hardships that they suffer as a result–the long hours, the unpaid overtime, the abuses of power–are horrific.
You’d really think that they’d be compensated fairly for these jobs! Can you imagine trying to live in Los Angeles or New York on minimum wage with a job that definitely won’t allow you time to pick up a second or third one??
This isn’t some Change.org petition. It’s not going to sell your email to spam companies. This is through IATSE (our union)’s website.
TELL DISNEY YOU STAND WITH PRODUCTION WORKERS!!!
if you’re not in this job, you would never know how intense, involved, and straight up complex animation production is, but because it’s mainly administrative, behind the scenes, and most skills are taught, production staff are often viewed as highly replaceable and unimportant. not everyone is nice to us, and more and more studios are stripping production personnel of our “corporate” status, meaning if the show ends or gets cancelled, studios aren’t required to relocate us to another one. when this happens to artists, the guild protects them, but production will lose all benefits and will need to file for unemployment until they can find a new job (which isn’t easy in the animation industry these days!). remember, a season of a show takes only about a year and a half to make. losing all benefits and having to file for unemployment every year and a half is NOT a way to build a career nor is it a stable and sustainable way to live!
to follow up on OP’s points, here’s some more stuff production staff does:
STORYBOARD AND ANIMATIC
managing the master project file, which sometimes means scanning, cropping, camera adjusting, and typing hundreds or even thousands of panels, dialogue, and action notes by hand into storyboard pro if the artist drew them in photoshop or traditionally
pinning up and taking down boards for pitches and reviews (yes, manually, with push pins on walls). every note drawn on those pieces of paper needs to be scanned and sent to the artists.
inputting new and revised panels into the board project file and then exporting them to the animatic editor, which necessitates memorizing the board front to back because artists don’t always track their panels or tell you which ones have been updated and you have to know instinctively.
conforming, which means going panel by panel and comparing it to every frame of the animatic to make sure they’re a complete match, which happens multiple times and usually requires quick turnarounds.
RECORD
reaching out to recording studios, voice directors, and talent agencies to coordinate record times and availabilities.
creating the schedules, typing up scripts, adding line numbers, updating line counts, exporting boards, collecting audition tapes, arranging catering, watermarking literally everything, and making sure everyone involved gets the right stuff and the most updated versions of that stuff ahead of time.
circle takes.
sending the raw selects to the dialogue editor, arranging radio plays, and sending the clean selects to the animatic or post editors.
DESIGN AND SHIPPING
creating all the templates artists need to design a show’s assets (hundreds of them!), which includes pulling board references so they know exactly what to draw, compiling brush libraries, mood boards, and vis dev pieces.
tracking the progress of hundreds of designs across multiple episodes in every stage they’re in (and as OP said, making sure the artists turn them in on time).
creating a reference list (a GIANT spreadsheet breaking down every single use of every single design in every single scene of the episode–takes DAYS to create for just one episode!)
preparing shipments of everything the animation production facility (usually international) needs to make the cartoon, which involves a lot of exporting, layer adjustments, cropping, re-exporting, and cataloguing.
POST
acting as the main point of contact for those overseas animation facilities, which often means trying to field questions from a non-native english speaker every day.
making sure the showrunner and exec producer review weeklies/dailies quickly and thoroughly and the notes get to the overseas studio on time.
configuring the retake list so the production can stay under budget (determining retake categories and footage count, which are connected to prices–involves a surprising amount of math!)
assembling retake materials, including creating lists of tasks for artists to do, getting them the shots or designs they need to fix, and making sure all fixes are completed in time.
CONTRACTS
negotiating rates with every non-corporate player involved in the making of a cartoon and making sure all NDAs and legal contracts are signed and correct.
sending boards, designs, animatics, (and as OP said, time cards) to dozens of people with highly specified jobs who require very specific items to do those jobs, making sure they get them at the right times, and making sure whatever they send back (be it notes, sheets, or lists) makes it to the appropriate party so the right action is taken.
and this is all in addition to very stereotypical secretarial work like taking notes at meetings like OP said, managing the showrunner and producer’s calendars, and maintaining a pleasant atmosphere for the crew (coordinating game nights, decorating the office, organizing parties or lunches, etc.). production is expected to know everything, what’s going on at all times, and how to fix it, which is a lot of work and often, a lot of pressure!
This blog is mostly so I can vent my feelings and share my interests. Other than that, I am nothing special.
If you don't like Left Wing political thought and philosophy, all things related to horror, the supernatural, the grotesque, guns or the strange, then get the fuck out. I just warned you.
