Future FPS Hill 88 Assault

I haven't been on this thing in awhile. I seriously felt like I was dying in 2011 so I started bloggin' to leave my trace in case I croaked. Anyway I'm still here for now and I made a new video over the weekend. I'm starting to show some of what I've been up to with F>P Design Fab. This is a 1st look at a 24 hour short film challenge. Check out the Youtube channel /FPDesignFab & video:

Hangtown Motocross National

Thad and I had a great time at Hangtown. Here's a link to some photos I shot:
http://chassell.smugmug.com/Flowculture/HangtownMX/23097917_vKMk32

Co-Optic Productions

I co-founded a production company with Otto Cate. Here are a few Images I created for one of our projects in development.  Checkout www.co-opticpro.com and facebook/CoOpticProductions for more info.

MORAV Missions Live Action Set Fabrication

Here's a shot from the set I helped fabricate for the MORAV Missions live action series.

You can check out more on the project here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/morav/morav-missions-live-action-series-pilot

Creative Assistant Needed:

I'm looking for an assistant in my Marin studio. Digital and practical art, design, photography, editing and some fabrication work. Great opportunity for student / Intern level person. Pros welcome also. Contact me at chassell421@gmail.com if you or anyone you know in the SF Bay area may be interested.

Design and Fabrication of an EMD

My best work days usually involve creating something from scratch. It's often about taking a conceptual idea from my head to a sketch, then into Maya or RhinoCAD and then fabricating it in the shop. I enjoy covering the full spectrum of conceptual, functional and aesthetic design to fabrication and realization. Some of my work only exists in the computer but on certain projects I get to see and hold actual items at the end of the day.

Last Friday Dec. 2nd was time to fabricate the EMD, a component part for a large prop I designed several months ago. I started the day over a morning cup of coffee while making a sketch to help visualize alignment of the internal parts and details for the sculpting I would do. Next I went into the shop and fabricated it. Lastly I took the formed part back to the computer and used CAD/CAM to design and laser cut ring and cover plates.

In the shop I sculpted what we call a "plug" which is used to create a shape to pull a vacuum form over. Here's the plug with a thin test pull.

Here's the first full pull using 0.90" thick Styrene. It looked good so I cut it out and called it done.

Here's the final plug and the vacuum form. You can see holes I added to the plug to ensure a tight pull.

I wired up LED's, cut a ring plate to mount them and trimmed out a radial fit in the top section of the part. Next I need to solder connections, cut LED holes, add a switch in the cover plate then assemble, mount and paint the component on the final prop.

My time at Lucasfilm Ltd.

In the beginning of January 2010 I started working at the Lucasfilm Letterman Digital Arts Center in the Presidio of San Francisco. I worked there as a lead artist on Star Wars projects until summer of 2011. *(The photos included here are only of common, open to the public areas of the campus).

Some days were good for a lunch break by the creek or a quick bike ride to the beach which overlooked the Golden Gate and Alcatraz.

I visited the Clone Wars studio at Big Rock and was fortunate enough to go to "The Ranch" four or five times. Including a fourth of July picnic and a special trip to hang out in the archives building which houses all the original Star Wars art and movie props. The archives visit was very rare, very impressive and quite epic. Here are a few images from The Ranch. I can't show any from inside the archives but the SW Blu-rays reveal enough for everyone to get an idea of how neat this place is.

 

It was fun being able to take my son on tours of ILM and The Ranch and have him meet the team making the Clone Wars at Big Rock. Being a young animator, film maker and SW/Clone Wars fan, I think the experiences left good impressions on him. 

Bobba Fett holding it down. 

 

Hanging out on Tatooine - the Anakin home set. (This photo was shot several years ago while I was touring N. Africa for Activision's Call of Duty games).