Pink Palace Blueprints Take 2

Ok, as promised I made another ruff draft blueprints for the 1st floor of the Pink Palace. Since watching the special features on the Blu-Ray of Coraline, it seems that the design of each room was intended to feel off kilter, so I am not crazy. The model of the Pink Palace does not match the scale nor the window layout of each room. But that's OK. Now my drawing isn't to scale, but it is a close representation of where each room is and how the house is laid out. It is more closely based on the the Other Pink Palace as it was intended to be straighter and larger then the real world Pink Palace.

Coraline Storyboard Replicas

I just couldn't help myself. It's the weird things that I like. Well, this is no exception. I used two separate borders for the storyboards used by Laika for the film Coraline, traced them in MicroStation, printed them out on some card stock, and finally cut them to size. I have no idea what the actual size of the original storyboards are, so I based their size/scale on The Nightmare Before Christmas Original storyboard that I do have. The art of the one that I made for myself was drawn by Graham Annable.

Wybie Welder's Mask Step 1

Step 1 to making Wybie's Welders mask, is... Buy a Welder's Mask. Did some quick eBay searching and found an inexpensive mask that had ruffly the same look that I needed. It will undergo some modifications in shape. I think the tricky part is really getting the 90 teeth sprocket and the lenses. Oh not to mention the crank on the side to rotate the lenses. I traced the skull detail in AutoCAD so I can print it full scale and use it as a template for painting the mask. Updates as I go.

Henry Selicks, Moongirl

I did a search at the IMDB for Henry Selick to become more familiar with his work. I new that he had done The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, and Monkey Bone, but I was not too familiar with his other works. That's when I learned about one of his short films, Moongirl. Seeing that it was another Laika film, I instantly picked up a copy of the book with the DVD off Amazon. It was cute. It had a nice story, kinda simple, neat visuals and over all enjoyable. The art in the book itself it really nicely done.

Other Mother Chicken Pot Holder

I thought that these where so neat. I have owned chickens since I was a wee little boy and think they are beautiful birds. I love chickens. In fact, my kitchen has a chicken/rooster theme to it. They give a nice country feel to your home. Anyways, when I saw that the Other Mother had chicken pot holders, I just had to have pair. I did notice that the pot holder the Other Mother Slides on in the film, isn't exactly the same as the one the 'puppet' is wearing being displayed for people to see. So, I will make both. This is my first attempt to get the pattern right and see how it all comes together. So this is my ruff draft. Already there are some things I am going to do a little differently for the next two holders. Otherwise, I am pretty happy how it came out.

Coraline Nike Dunks Contest

After the credits of Coraline there was a note to the audience that said "For those in the Know: Jerkwad". My wife and I both looked at each other with a curious question on our minds. What was that? We weren't in the 'know', but I wasn't going to stay that way. It actually happened by chance that I found out what it was for. I was searching eBay for Coraline stuff and I kept seeing these shoes. Finally, my curiosity got the better of me and I checked them out. That's when I found that they were a pair of shoes that were available through the Coraline Website. Like the fan that I am, I quickly went to the site, found the Contest and signed up. My wife did too. I love these kinds of contests and I was really hoping that either one of us would have won a pair.
I think that Laika did a great job with promoting this film. The dunks giveaway was one of those great ideas. There were only 2000 shoes made (not sure why everyone keeps saying 1000), the cast/crew got their own special pair, there were 50 that contained props from the film, 15 that where in wooden boxes, Some contained cotton candy, in circus shoe boxes, some came with reproductions of the button box, while others were just the shoes in a normal shoe box. Wow, what a variety.
It was interesting to see the demand on eBay for the shoes. Then I came across a couple of auctions of people trying to 'sell' the password: 'Jerkwad'. I couldn't believe that. With a quick search, the password was available online already, FREE. How could people be so greedy to try to cash in on the password? A password that didn't guarantee the buyer that they would win a pair of dunks?

Then it got me thinking about the shoes listed on eBay. The implication (in my opinion) is that the majority of those who won the shoes and are selling them were people who didn't want them, yet they signed up for them anyways. All those who are buying the shoes are the ones who really wish they could have won. The quote that comes to my mind is a line addressed to all the Mysterbox 'winners' that says "WE HOPE SOMEONE LIKE YOU WILL APPRECIATE THIS" - The Coraline Team. It's unfortunate that so many who signed up and won didn't appreciate them.

The Pink Palace Floor plan Ruff Draft

Did I mention that I was a drafter? Oh, well I am. I decided to draw up blueprints based on the Pink Palace in Coraline. I found as many reference photos of the Old Victorian home that I could. I then imported the files into Microstation and scaled the photos to 'scale'. Here is a ruff draft of the first floor layout plan. Here's my problem. I cannot get the ext. shots of the house to match up with the inside shots. The house just doesn't seem to match. I labeled where each room is as far as I can tell. The kitchen is seen with two extra windows from the outside, that are not seen on the interior shots. The scene near the beginning of the film, where Coraline comes in seemingly from the back door, and drops her raincoat on the hall floor, is also inconsistent to the layout, as that hallway does not exit to the outside of the house. Not to mention that the main room with the 'boring blue boy' and little door also doesn't match in overall shape and window layout. So, as far as I can tell, either the Pink Palace was redesigned since the reference photos where taken, or the intr. shots never where meant to match exactly with the ext. of the house. Or I am way off and totally misinterpreting what I am seeing. I think I am going to have to redraw the layout based on the interior shots later and post that so you can see the difference of that I am seeing.