#spaceship project

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Spaceship Project Update Day 4: FINALLY SOME PROGRESS

Fishing line? Doesn't work all that well. Which means I'll need to find a stick to attach to the thing to control it more solidly from underneath.

However: I am super pleased with how the lighting looks. I think it needs juuuust a bit more brightness though, because we don't see any of the paint detailing on the ship.

This is the lighting setup I have now: some string lights for a soft blue-ish “galaxy glow” on one side, and on the other, a yellow light muffled (with a pillowcase) and pointed away from Space to bounce off the opposite wall.

And here’s the walking stick I wrapped in gaffer tape that I’m gonna try to use to control the ship’s movements from below since clearly the fishing line doesn’t give nearly as much control as I need.

However, I do have work today, so most likely the “actual filming” is gonna end up being done tomorrow morning or even into the weekend. Especially because I have a LOT of shots I want to get, just in case I ever get to use this in an actual short film. I want to have everything I could need for that. (Ship does a U-turn? Ship crashes into an “asteroid”? Ship swerves? What could I possibly need for a story that I’ll be sorry if I don’t get it while I have all this set up?)

Still: progress! This is the point I thought I’d be at like 3.5 days ago.

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Good morning, today we start covering her with tin foil and smoothing out those angular shapes to be more rounded. Also running out of tacky glue, which is troubling.

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(Dunno why some of the pictures are sideways, Tumblr has been glitching and I can’t fix it)

So I did some last-minute painting last night and it’s been drying overnight. Now, except for rigging it to “fly” (plus trying to put a candle in each engine so there’s flame coming out, we’ll see if that happens), she’s complete!

To me she looks like an old, repurposed military vehicle, but like, one that travels through space. Like a space tank or a space truck that’s fallen into disrepair or disuse, and now she’s all grimy and rusty. I also put green and brown “swamp mud” on the bottom, and splashed up on the underside of the various fixtures, as if she landed on a swampy planet and got all kinds of crud on her.

It’s not photo-realistic in the slightest and I could have gotten a 300% more real-looking result by just using a spaceship toy, but where’s the fun in that? I’m pleased with how she turned out.

Now comes the difficult part: trying to set up the “set” with that star-field backdrop in a way that looks even halfway believable. Today is filming day! I am excite.

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Spaceship Update

I have more planets now. Last thing I’ll do tonight, probably, is test a sun, and then I’ll have my whole solar system. Lit.

Oh and let’s not forget asteroids. We got those too. Why are they shiny? Eh, everything is shiny in this solar system. Lots of tin foil and metallic paint, I mean, lots of metal ore. It’s probably a mining center. Whatever. Metal asteroids, moving on.

The very last thing I needed was a few enemy spaceships. I had an idea for a “battle” (of sorts - at least, the best that I can produce with my limited resources), and for a battle you need enemies. Cue repurposed coke cans.

My thinking is, our Beautiful Ugly Ship is all rusty and covered in moss and mud and clearly patched up multiple times, right? She’s the underdog. She’s old, she’s unwieldy, one of her engines is askew, she’s seen better days. But these things, whatever they are - they’re shiny. They’re new. They’re smaller so they’re probably faster and can move more nimbly. That makes our ship more sympathetic and the enemy ships more intimidating. (As intimidating as coke cans with La Croix cardboard hats can be.)

So I gave them some wire wraps for character and some paint, and now they’re drying. Those painted thimbles over there are gonna be canons. Why only two? Because I only had two. Which means one of these guys is just Ricky Redshirt, there to provide moral support. He can’t even shoot. RIP, Ricky, you never stood a chance.

I think I’ll have to add some windows to these, too, but that’s a later problem.

And with that, we should have everything we need for the vague plot I have planned. At least, for the space side of things. Figuring out inside-the-ship stuff is a whole ‘nother can o’ worms.

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Space Update

So I was like. IDK if a flashlight behind the star field is gonna work. It’s a very small, concentrated beam. And if I dilute it, I don’t know if it’s gonna be bright enough.

I was simultaneiously like, I just killed three (3) spiders down here in the basement in the span of 2 minutes, I don’t wanna be working down here all day. Nope.

So I brought Space upstairs, but then I was like “crap, there’s way too much light up here, I’m gonna have to block the window with someth-”

.........

So.

Gotta fill in those cracks with gaffer tape.

(manacle laughter)

The only problem: the “star field” isn’t nearly as wide as I’d like. I’m using like half my board because of the window size.

Solution: put a flashlight behind a “wing” to light up that side. It won’t do as good a job as the window, but it’s something.

Problem that comes with that solution: I now have to un-tape literally everything I just did and move the board over so that about 65% of it is over the window and the rest is all on one side, where I can put the flashlight.

Sigh.

After that, I need to block out the light that’s coming through the cracks on either side.

Then it’s spaceship time again, to figure out how to secure the candles in the engines.

If I’m not able to film before we lose daylight today, I guess it becomes a tomorrow morning thing.

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So today I’m mostly doing some testing, while the ship is healing in the repair shop.

For instance, I made this thing.

What the hell is it? It’s a flashlight with a tissue paper dampener all topped with a tupperware thing. (Because the tissue paper wasn’t quite diffusing the light correctly.) It’s to light up objects near to the camera without shedding too much extra light on the backboard and making the cardboard and tape visible.

So it turns this...

Into this. (Lamp is stand-in for spaceship.)

I also made some planets and moons.

Next up: I have to make some asteroids, and also two or three more quick little shitty ships as “enemies.” (I decided there’s gonna be a space battle. Because of course there is.)

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Spaceship project update: planet process

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After beginning to build an alien trade language from the alphabet up (based on what sounds would be easiest/simplest for species of different vocal capabilities to create), and then deciding on a basic structure for how words and sentences would be constructed (many very simple, one syllable words, which are then stuck together into compound words to make the language simpler and easier to learn - for example, instead of having to memorize a word for “white,” a word for “black,” and a word for “gray,” you’d just learn “white” and “black” and then say “white-black” for “gray.”)...

... I have finally named my planets for that one science fiction short. (Yanno, the spaceship project one.

Earth-like planet: Meparip

Earth-like planet’s moons: Ajteetoj ee Meparip and Jateetoj ee Meparip

Desert planet: Iszero

Moon of desert planet: Ot-Totoj ee Iszero

Fjord planet: Temseppar

....

Worldbuilding!