At the start of this production, I was put in charge of testing various methods to create the natural terrains of the entire show. This was a fun time of experimentation. There are a lot of tried and true ways that we use in stop motion to achieve certain looks, but they can sometimes start to look rote. We wanted to challenge ourselves to try something new, and make the “normal” things to be made in a totally new way.

At the start of this production, I was put in charge of testing various methods to create the natural terrains of the entire show. This was a fun time of experimentation. There are a lot of tried and true ways that we use in stop motion to achieve certain looks, but they can sometimes start to look rote. We wanted to challenge ourselves to try something new, and make the “normal” things to be made in a totally new way.

At the start of this production, I was put in charge of testing various methods to create the natural terrains of the entire show. This was a fun time of experimentation. There are a lot of tried and true ways that we use in stop motion to achieve certain looks, but they can sometimes start to look rote. We wanted to challenge ourselves to try something new, and make the “normal” things to be made in a totally new way.

We had a lot of sets that required integrating dirt & grass onto the side of a mountain. The foam-carved set would get coated and painted with a rock texture, and then come to me for the terrain treatment. The process was fun because it had to be done in stages: applying the dirt, aging the dirt, adding and feathering out the grass, and finally adding any wood chips to fill in the corners of the set, imitating overgrowth in the forgotten corners of this nature path. The set dressing team did an incredible job adding the paper-cut carstock grass and fern elements. All of these pieces brought the environment of Shape Island to life.

On top of the incredible builders we had in the set shop, our on the floor we had the incredibly talented dynamic duo of Alexandra Steele and Bismak Fernandes putting the final, incredibly important details onto the set. The set dressing team is responsible for adding the finishing touches, and making sure everything looks super good in camera. These two worked tirelesly and with great dedication to install foliage, vegetation, tree, blocks, and everything else to breath life into this make-believe island.

Circle gets lost in the Winding Woods trying to chase down a rogue gopher. We had to come up with an ingenious solution for a set that would sell the idea of a densely-packed forest where you could feasibly lose your way, while also keeping the build parameters to a minimum. Our Art Director Jeff White’s solution was to create a kind of “Infinity Path” – a large elliptical path that wound back on itself. A berm on the inner part of the set made it so you’d never be able to see the other side of the path. This made it so we could film from a lot of different angles, and no part of the path would ever look exactly the same as another.

Square’s part of the island was one of my favorites. It was a unique challenge to make a bunch of cubes look unique and interesting, but Production Designer Paul Harrod found the way to do it. I was lucky enough to help dress the set a number of times for Squareland, which involved a lot of intricate planning. We worked hard to make sure everything looked like it was embedded in the sand, like every cube had been on the beach for a long time, like ancient ruins.

The garden outside Circle’s cave was one of the most beautifull we got to create. By the time it was first seen on camera, so many of our artists had contributed to it. It was a truly collaborative project, requiring everyone’s skills to bring to life. Carpenters, sculptors, mold-makers, prop-fabricators, painters, and set-dressers all had something important to bring to this unique set.

I contributed to the garden’s grass and dirt mounds, working diligently and with a steady hand to create the well-manicured oasis.

This introduction to the episode “Triangle Day” was a cute little prop-fabrication assignment for me. Even small scenes like this one have lots of planning put into them! I was in charge of dressing the table, creating the flag banner above the table, and creating the transition from beach sand to grass. Yet another example of the care and attention we put into every single set.

Note the tiny puck of beach sand in the corner