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SPECIAL EFFECTS

Here are costumes and special effects I've done over the years.

(Below) The three costumes are Godzilla, Alien, and the Thing from the Fantastic Four.

Godzilla was made out of foam rubber.
The Alien head was made from strips of posterboard glued over a cardboard frame. It had a working tongue that popped in and out. The costume was made by gluing shaped pieces of foam rubber over a pair of overalls. 		The Thing was made by gluing cut out foam rubber pieces to a shirt and pair of pants that were sewn together. The head and hands were foam rubber.
(Right) For the play "The Hobbit", I built a large scale head and neck of the dragon Smaug. The frame was made out of wood and covered in cloth. The head had working eyes, eyebrows, lips and ears.
The neck could be raised up, rearing the head up into the air. A CO2 fire extinguisher was placed in the neck and served as Smaugs "fiery" breath.
(Right) This is the monster my nephew Junior and I built for the low-budget horror movie "Marleys' Revenge". The frame for the body was made with 2x4s mounted on a base with wheels. The body, arms, legs and head were carved pieces of styrofoam and foam rubber. It was cable controlled.
    Here are digital effects I did for Juniors' series, The Mysterious Warrior, which was aired on the Public Access station here in Charlotte. As Junior was wrapping up filming on the Warrior, I began to take certain scenes and put them into my computer. There I added effects such as lazers, energy bolts, explosions, and in three episodes, I added 3D effects. The 3D effects were a giant crab in Episode 1, a 3D Red Galaxy 2000 for Episode 4, and a meteorite streaking through space for Episode 7.
    The seven pictures to Below are from different episodes that show effects that were painted, animated, and composited onto the video that Junior shot.
  • 1 A lazer beam that the Red Galaxy 2000 fires.
  • 2 The Magic Master appears out of a green ball of light.
  • 3 The magic Master zaps the Warrior, knocking him down.
  • 4 Energy comes out of a meteorite that the Incredible Man picks up.
  • 5 The Red Galaxy 2000 blows up a plane.
  • 6 The Warrior fires a bolt of electricity.
  • 7 The Warrior fires an energy beam at the Giant Crab Monster.

    		•
        The Giant Crab Monster appears briefly at the beginning of Episode 1. It knocks the Warrior around and grabs him in one of its' claws. The Warrior escapes by firing a bolt of electricity at the crabs' eyes.
        Just as the crab tries to attack again, the Warrior hits the crab and sends it flying through the air. When the crab gets up, the Warrior fires a bolt of energy at the crab and fries it.
        (Right) are several pictures showing how one of the scenes with the crab was done.
  • 1 Junior was videoed in front of a solid color background.
  • 2 The crab was sculpted by me in a 3D program and animated.
  • 3 This was the background I used for the scene.
  • 4 This is the final scene after it was composited in a video editing program. I used a Macintosh G3 computer with the editing program Final Cut Pro to composite scenes like this for the Mysterious Warrior.
    		•


    Another composited scene of Junior as the Warrior with the Giant Crab Monster.

    For one scene, Junior catches a car that's thrown at him by the Scavenger Beast. For this scene, a miniature car was held in front of the camera. Simple, but it worked.


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