UKNOWN SPECIES: BURRUNJORS AND LIVING DINOSAURS

Hello, once again!

Forgive me if my posts are far and few between, I don't often get chances to blog. Anyway, I have some updates on Kyoryu, as well as a new project, Unknown species.

Needless to say, casting was revolutionary for my work. It gave much more detail to my monsters and effects. However, my plaster was soon used up, so I took fellow animator Richard Svensson's advice and buy a more effective plaster: a dental plaster called cast&paint perfect. After several misshaps, a truly horrifying plaster spill (what is it with the Duah and plaster spills, anyway?), and using up almost all my plaster, I built my first two plaster molds, which were extreme successes.

I sculpted the chest piece for the Duah, which casted beautifully, and wrapped it across his chest. With a proper paint-job, it should look truly frightening.

However, Kyoryu is in development hell, considering it's lagging production and problematic work, and on hold for another project on my plate: UNKNOWN SPECIES.

I love cryptids. The idea of mysterious animals which may or may not exist hiding in secluded areas across the planet has always intrigued me, ever since I first read about them in Roland Smith's awesome Cryptid Hunters series, a big inspiration for UNKNOWN SPECIES. I also love technothrillers, with plowing through JURASSIC PARK and FRAGMENT to see the hard biology used to create some really scary monsters. So why not combine the two?

The series focuses on adventurer Julie Challenger's experiences in UNKNOWN, a sprawling, bizarre corporation devoted to the capture of cryptids, capturing their numbers in secret to allow them to live on long after they fade out in the wild. However, Cryptids are a varied bunch, and not all of them are safe to study. I've already got the script for the pilot written down, which got great applause to those who read it. A si-fi technothriller/horror comedy, the show is heavy on hard biology, and I studied tons of theories on proposed identities to Cryptids to give biologically plausible identities to the show's creatures. For the pilot, since I love dinosaurs, I decided my first cryptid should be the Burrunjor, a predatory mystery reptile from Australia said to be a living dinosaur. Based off a scary short story I did years ago, the Burrunjors are truly menacing predator, and I wanted to reflect that in the design.

Being biologically plausible, I wanted it to seem like the Burrunjors evolved from a smaller, opportunistic predator that survived the meteorite crash and the rise of mammals. So, he has a craning neck, large arms with claws, and a primitive jaw, similar to the allosaurs and other early giant theropods. The armature was fairly simple, but my Burrunjor, Oatmeal, is the most complex puppet I have ever worked on.

My first cast of the Burrunjor was tattered and torn, due to improper plaster mixing and not enough latex. So, finally taking a moment to plan, I sculpted and casted a new head, to great success. He even has NOSTRILS!!!

To build a lip, I wrapped the excess latex around a wire, stuffed it with foam, then wrapped it around the head.

I wasn't happy with the crocodilian look, though, so I added some skin from the previous cast and gave him a nose job. I also added avian eyes, giving him a piercing stare.

It took me quite some time to get the head right. I wanted it to be a unique dinosaur species, but still be recognizable as a dinosaur.

At last, I made the skin. Using bumpy, scaly matts, I rubbed the tinfoil sheet over it to cast the skin texture. It didn't work as well as I hoped, but he still looks good.

I also added the feathers and teeth, art supplies I gained last Christmas. The teeth were a pain, considering positioning them right so the jaw could properly close. I then cut off the ends of toothpicks, and glued them to his back to create a spine. Adds a whole level of realism.

Finally, after much pain, I got to the paint job. Again, the project should be as realistic as possible, so I took pictures of monitor lizards off the internet and used them for his paint job. Finally, I cannibalised an old puppet's bolt holes to use on Oatmeal.

Oatmeal is my most realistic puppet to date, and only one of the cryptids I plan to show in unknown species.

Some Cryptid face sculpts.

Considering how hard long it takes to work on these projects, I'm sure I'll post some test animation for when animation starts.

Speaking of that, clips of Antediluvian will be shown on the blog soon, if I can work around the glitches. The film is finished, and it has some cool, B-movie style monster scenes I want to show.

Thanks for reading, please comment.

Kelston Hubler

THE DUAH: ON CRYPTIDS AND KAIJU

Boy, have I been busy!

Not only is Antediluvian finished (in rough draft form), but many new projects can now take the spot light! However, before I elaborate, I must discuss my most recent puppet for my kaiju flick, Kyoryu: the Duah.

In Kyoryu's world, the kaiju (known collectively as "Serpents"), are complete mysteries. Nobody knows why they exist or even how they could support their weight. However, almost all of them resemble mythical monsters from across the globe, making many believe they are the first sign of the apocalypse. Though this isn't exactly the main plot of Kyoryu, it's still heavily relevant. The Duah, or Ropen, is based off a flying demon reported by the native tribes of Papua, New Guinea. Described like a lizard with bat wings, a long beak full of teeth, and a long tail, as well as bioluminescence. A living pterosaur that evolved over the milenia? An unknown species of bat? A hoax? Anyway, it's a cool legend, and it would make a cool kaiju. When sculpting Kyoyu, I used a sketch of a flying beast for the basis of the sculpt and made the head.

Like all reports of living Pterosaurs, a very common theory is that it's an unidentified species of giant bat, a theory endorsed by famous cryptozoologist Ivan T. Sanderson. I decided not to remove the bat nose from the sculpt to indicate the Duah could be both Bat and Pterodactyl. It's not a natural creature anyway, and it looked strange.

however, disaster struck. The plaster was incredibly poor and I could only save half the sculpt, losing the crest and using the latex cast off it to build his neck. Even worse, his eyes aren't straight!

My mistake was sticking the armature inside the latex cast and filling it up with hot glue. Not only did one eye sort of sink into the skull, but I couldn't fix it! Despite this, it at least looked okay when I added teeth.

In fact, it was easier to add teeth than it ever was before. The roof of the mouth was hot glue, so I melted it and stuck the teeth in the holes! I also like the two teeth at the very tip of the lower jaw. It gives purpose to the distended lower jaw and looks more bat-like.

I then used black sculpey to sculpt obsidian plated growing off his back, which I glued to the spine. So far, the Duah looks truly amazing.

The third creature in the film is the parasite, hanging off Kyoryu's stomach. He is not stop motion, but the first of many parasites that will be in a truly disturbing scene. While I'm working on how to build the other parasites, this one is built to be hand held, and if successful, will make a truly memorable scene. I cut the teeth off the original sculpt for the head, and casted it. It came out perfectly. Then, I simply poked holes through the top where teeth should be, shoved toothpicks up them, and glued them in place.

I have to say, this is a truly awesome head. It looks wonderfully creepy and will only look creepier with a paint job!

However, Kyoryu is not the only project on my plate. I have scripts for a cartoon, an idea for a future film, and a fantasy world I will write some short stories on. However, that is for another time.

Thank you for reading. Please comment.

Kelston Hubler

... AND WHERE IM GOING. ON KYORYU THE KAIJU

Most giant monster fans often talk of three great movie teams who made the genre what it is today. The first is Ray Harryhausen, the stop motion animator who made Clash of the Titans, Jason and the Argonauts, and the Beast from 20,000 fathoms. The second is Willis O'brien and Marcel Delgado, who made The Lost World 1925, King Kong, and Mighty Joe Young. The third is Ishiro Honda and Eiji Tsubaraya, who made Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra. Some of the most famous Kaiju flicks.

Kaiju cinema is quite fascinating. Kaiju cinema are movies about, well Kaiju, giant monsters who trash cities. The most famous of them are Godzilla and Gamera, who, with no one knowing stop motion in Japan, used Tokatsu (men in suits) stomping miniatures to create their monsters. Despite the genres reputation of camp, many Godzilla films are extremely good, Godzilla 1945, Ghidorah, the Three headed monster, and Destroy all monsters my personal favorites. Now fans of genre are more excited than ever, with Pacific Rim and Godzilla 2014 showing some truly amazing CGI kaiju trampling cities and, once again, exciting pretty much everyone. In fact, when Godzilla came out, I was so excited when the director stated he wanted a Destroy all Monsters type sequel, I created all these character redesigns! (characters owned by Toho, obviously)

Ghidorah

Ghidorah's heads

Mothra

Mothra up close

Rodan and Megaguirus

Rodan

Kiryu

Varan

Baragon

Anguirus

Anguirus head

Hedorah

Titanosaurus and Manda

So, with all this hype on kaiju, I thought it best my next film be about kaiju. And so, Kyoryu was born. The project began as sort of an experiment in January. I watched Pacific Rim, and seeing all the amazing creative monsters sparked my ideas. The project has changed in themes many times, with bits of test scripts and sculpts of Kaiju heads in monster clay, but Kyoryu has always remained pretty much the same: a gigantic, dinosaur-like creature with four arms that is slowly pushed into moral dilemma as his homeland is attacked by invading kaiju. Im not sure if this exact theme will be the base of the short film, but if the project is a success, it may lead into more films that deal with Kyoryus perspective and worlds mythology Ive been developing. More on that later, first, lets get to my in-development Kyoryu puppet.

Kyoryu is Japanese for dinosaur, and is a kaiju of my own design. Kyoryu is the first puppet to use new techniques and ways of building monsters, and so far, he's going quite well. Originally, he was a puppet for my unused idea for a technothriller, PHOBOS RISING, about tardigrades who evolve into a new ecosystem after being left in an abandoned earth colony with some really resourceful martian algae. Kyoryu was going to be the super predator of the ecosystem, but as ideas changed, so did he.

Its sad when a project dies off. You want it to grow, but for whatever reason, be it lack of resources, unwilling actors, or even sheer boredom, sometimes a project gets scrapped. Fortunately, you can always go back to your unfinished scripts and puppets, search for ideas, and reuse them for current projects.

One day, I read from the DAIKAIJU GIANT MONSTER TALES book, an anthology on kaiju which never stops in creativity. I wondered if I could create an original kaiju of my own design. So I designed Kyoryu on my iPad. realizing the potential, I took my old phobos rising monster, and added eyes, claws, and distended legs, like clover field. His eyes were simply a sculpey clay ball cut in half, the cornea added, and a bead of hot glue attached for reflection. His hands were aluminum wire dipped in hot glue, and wrapped in string. However, I wasn't happy with the design.

Kyroyu had his hind legs lengthened, his arm shortened, and his body more upright. Finally, I attached the face.

I have been experimenting with Kyoryu characters in monster clay for a while. So, I used Kyroyu's head sculpt, based off a komodo dragon.

For my first ever character to use casting, I have to say, Kyoryu looks awesome. His skin was too tight on the upper jaw, so I had to cut it, but I can paint over it to look like a scar he got fighting another kaiju. Aside from Ray, he's the only creature with teeth that can completely conceal them, which will only make him look more realistic.

This film will possibly be submitted for the local silent film festival, which I have went to for the past few years.  As for the current plot, it needs working, but here it is:

In a world where kaiju, mysterious beasts based off creatures from myth, return to defend the country they come from. When a kaiju attacks the US, a reporter goes into the city to take photos of the mighty beasts.

Of course, its not the most original plot, but I'd love for anyone to give ideas. The world is well developed in my mind, but the story hasn't really been fleshed out yet, but aside from Kyoryu, there are two other creatures: the mighty pterosaur kaiju Duah:

....and the leech parasites that hang off Kyroyus back, their eyes and teeth currently rendered in sculpt.

Yes, its creepy, but the scene I have planned for it is awesome.

Kyoryu is still in script development, so if you have any ideas for the story or sequels, please comment. As Antediluvian is wrapping up, I want to try something more ambitious.

Thank you for reading.

Kelston Hubler