Consuming time.

For me, building sets is the most challenging aspect of stop-motion animation. There are so many little tricks of the trade that only experienced set builders and prop masters know about. It takes me forever to build one set. At my day job on Robot Chicken, I am constantly amazed by the detailed works of miniaturization the set crew pumps out in a week or less. I was fortunate to get some help on my current set from veteran set builder Ross Shuman. I had a nice little cardboard mockup that he looked at and helped me find ways to make more exciting. You can see the progress in the pictures below. This is a 1/2 scale set for a sequence that involves a lot of close-ups on electronic readouts and controls being operated. This larger scale holds up better in close-up, and will allow me to do some more detailed animation with a 1/2 scale hand. There is still a lot to do- I'll post a picture when it is done and lit.