Minions #293 - Disincentive

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Greetings, Human Targets!


Well, even though this cartoon is based on a library shot, it's at least totally new today and up on time.  This week has still been a drag.  I keep waiting for "normal" to kick in, but I've kind of forgotten what normal is!  I did get some cool new set pieces this week (which required some work to make useful for shooting) so you will be seeing some new "looks" in future lair sets that will break things up some.


Maybe some of you don't know it, but except for a few outdoor shots, pretty much all of our Minions at Work cartoons are shot on a 2 x 4 foot workbench, with a plastic-pipe "lighting grid" over it used to hang lights, backdrops, and overhead props and set pieces.  That means I have no room to leave sets assembled for any period of time.  Each new photo session requires me to tear down the set and start over (or at least modify what's already sitting there).  I've got hundreds of large set pieces (wall flats, columns, cardboard "blocks" that are used to make walls, corridors, doors or platforms, etc.), hundreds of pieces of furnishings and furniture, and literally thousands of small props, not to mention the dozens of action figures that make up my regular "cast," and the hundreds from my larger 1/6th collection that I draw upon for special our one-shot characters.


Set pieces tend to fall into "families," though there's some overlap.  My first, and maybe biggest, family is the "retro-futuristic" family.  Silver, black, and chrome are the dominant colors, and you'll see elements of "Googie" diner architecture from time to time.  It's modeled on the lairs from early James Bond films.  I've got lots of consoles, view-screens, laboratory benches, and "large, glowing devices of uncertain purpose" to dress up these sets.


Then there's the "nature" family.  I use granite, marble and wood-grain contact paper for much of this, covering boxes (or set pieces custom made from cardboard), large cardboard tubes, etc, to create a set of giant building blocks that I can make most any kind of dungeon, palace, or tomb, or industrial building.


There's the "warehouse" family, consisting of crates (I must have thirty or so miniature wooden crates alone), boxes,  and barrels used to create warehouse and storage room settings.


There's the "exotics" family, which has lots of brass, gold, wood, bamboo and silk.  I can use it to create throne rooms, tiki bars, Asian restaurants, and ornate Overlord living quarters.

There's actually an entire "food service" family used to make the infamous Minions bar, restaurants, lunch rooms, fast-food joints, parties, etc.  Not to mention just keeping the Minions set for random snacks, drinks, and lunch breaks.

I've also got a small but-growing "steampunk" family, mostly used for scenes on Cap'n Rehab's submarine, the Naughtyless.

Newest of all is the "Gothic" family, a lot of which has been assembled from various modified Halloween decorations (and so this is obviously the time of year for upgrades).  A key acquisition I made a few weeks ago was a set of HUGE plastic columns intended to support wedding cakes.  I quickly repainted them in a dark, faux-stone finish (I think they look pretty awesome), and you've seen them a couple of times already in my "throne room" sets.  With this family, I'll be able to do more "old-school" castles than I could with just my "nature" family, as well as mad-scientist labs, evil temples, and take things in a darker and more (funny) horrific direction that I've been able to do so far.

That's probably more than you ever cared to know about the behind-the-scenes here at Minions at Work, but I just thought that, although it probably often looks like I just threw a given cartoon together, a lot of work, though, and resources goes into every one of these silly things.

Anyway, see you guys here next week!

        - Minion Master Steve

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A look at the new Minions at Work "Soundstage"

For quite some time, I've been frustrated with the limitations of my original Minions at Work "stage," where most of our photo-cartoons are shot.


If I've been doing my job right, the world of the Minions seems pretty big, but in fact, almost everything takes place on an area of bench-top only a little more than two feet square.

Not only was it small, but it was inflexible because of that red locker on the left side. It was handy to lean second wall against, but it limited my lighting and setup options considerably.

As I'm doing some major moving around in my office anyway, I decided it was time to fix things. First, the locker had to go. That gave me the entire bench-top, maybe half-again as much room as I'd had before.



But that didn't seem like enough. After some deliberation, I decided to cut up some strand-board I had on-hand and create a new, larger, top for the bench. Here's my first experimental shots on the new "stage."

It's four feet wide and 32" inches deep. That doesn't sound very big, but it's well over twice as big as I had before, and given that there's "run off" on both sides, it's a lot more flexible.

As you can see from the shot, it even let me bring in full-sized vehicles (besides the relatively tiny Minionmobile!) and still have room for set and figures around it.



Along with some new light fixtures I've added lately, I'll have a lot more flexibility with the lighting too, which is good, since the bigger stage will also need a lot more light to make use of it all.

I'm also building a new overhead "grid" system that will give me more places to mount lights and to hang props and backdrops. You can see it roughed in here, though the dimensions are subject to change. (I may also just leave it modular, so I can adjust the size for different sets.) I'm also going to need new provisions to hang cloth backdrops on the wall behind, as many of my sets are going to end up being taller as well as wider.



One other issue is that many of my backdrops are single-panels like the silver one you see here. It isn't wide enough to cover the the background. So I'll have to make new panels to match my old ones.

Work, work, work. A Minion Master's day is never done. But it's worth it, if it allows me do to more complex and varied set-ups in months to come. I hope you enjoy the results.