Dragon Age: Redemption Episode 6

So this is it, the final episode, the exciting conclusion of Dragon Age:Redemption! It's been a long time coming. We started this over a year ago, but at the same time, I can't believe it's over already. I'm very proud to share this behind the scenes look at last chapter of the saga, yet it's a bitter sweet moment. I've enjoyed reliving the process by blogging with each new episode, and I'm sad that we've reached the end so quickly. I hope you enjoyed my posts, as well as the realization of Felicia's amazing vision.

Photo 1: One of the biggest challenges of the final episode, and actually, of the entire series, was bringing Sundermount to life. Sundermount is known in Dragon Age II as a sacred place to the Dalish elves. A place of magic and power, essentially the Stonehenge of Bioware's virtual world.

One thing that I have learned about Felicia Day is that we share a very similar approach to writing. Before a story is completely fleshed out there will be certain visual elements that she will lock onto and the script will grow from there. It can be anything really, a character, an action, a prop, in the case of DA:R, a place. From our earliest conversations, before there was even a solid plot, Felicia knew that she wanted the characters to eventually visit Sundermount.

Photo 2: What made this set so challenging is that it was the one environment we were pulling directly out of the game. Much like all of the weapons and props that I had blogged about from previous episodes, I wanted this set to be as accurate to the game as possible. We literally constructed the set stone by stone to construct the graphics.

Photo 3: Despite out best efforts, we did have to take some liberties. We searched the entire radius of Los Angeles for rolling European hills, but couldn't quite find anything accessible to match the grounds in the game. It was ultimately decided to shoot in the alien landscape of the Topanga hills. The setting was very cool, but it forced us to change our color scheme from European gray field stone to California desert sandstone.

Photo 4: Another challenge was trying to make the small shootable area that we found look like the vast landscapes that Bioware provided us. Several of the views revealed houses and freeways in the distance, and the Sundermount walls wouldn't block them all.
Photo 5: My solution was to move the in game gates and crumbled walls closer to the sacred ruins
Photo 6: Due to time budget and space constraints, I had to pick and choose which game assets we brought to reality. In some cases, such as this gateway, I chose what I felt were the coolest elements, out of a larger structure, pairing it down to a more achievable set piece.

Photo 7: All of the Sundermount elements were made of polystyrene sheet foam, the kind used to insulate houses, mounted onto wooden frames. The foam was carved, coated in joint compound, and painted.

Photo 8: Several days before shooting the set pieces as far up the mountain as possible, then carried by hand the rest of the way. There were over 20 pieces total, some being more than 12 feet in length and several hundred pounds. Lets just say, it was not easy to get up that mountain.

Photo 9: It took my crew two days to erect Sundermount. Once all of the places were staked in place and connected, all of the seams needed to be puttied and painted. The really tall structures needed to be roped off against the elements.

Photo 10: Several rock samples were taken to the shop to help guide the painting of the sets, but once it actually stood at the location, it was obvious that we needed to do some more painting to blend it into the landscape.

Photo 11: It is funny that I would blog about this alter in one of the finals DA.R posts, being that it was actually the first set piece to be constructed for the entire series. It consists of a 2x4 and plywood frame layered with the styrofoam which was then carved to look like individual stone blocks.

Photo 12: We knew that the alter was going to be involved in the fight scene and possibly end up needing to hold a lot of weight. The wooden structure was completely up to the task, but the foam stone skin would not be able to take any weight or impact. I decided to put several layers of fiber glass on the altar's surface to protect it.

The polyester resin we use for fiber glassing actually eats the styrofoam, so a trick I use is to spray mount a protective layer of aluminum foil onto the sculpted foam. This allows all of the detail to remain and keeps the resin away from the foam. Here, Josie Kavadoy and Jason Swearingen apply the final layer of fiberglass mat.

Photo 13: The final alter as it appeared on set awaiting it's sacrifice.

Photo 14: Of course, that sacrifice happens to be my dearest friend Marissa Cuevas. I knew all along that this prop played a big part in Marissa's climactic scene, so it was kind of special to be able to build it for her.

She was very excited about the role that Felicia wrote for her. And who wouldn't be? After all, its not everyday you get to dress like a princess. Especially one who gets to wear a dress designed by Shawna Trpcic, who also designed many of Marissa's favorite shows, including Firefly! Here she is during the final fitting for her ceremonial dress. I couldn't wait to see her in action.

Photo 15: Of course, actually seeing it was horrifying. That is one of the cruel twists of Hollywood, working with friends and loved one on movie sets, despite the fact that none of this is real, there are certain images you never really want to see.

It's okay though, Marissa was unharmed in the filming of this scene. The dress, however, did not survive.

Photo 16: Marissa was not the only things pretending to be dead at Sundermount. The evil mage Saarebas attempts to hold his ground by raising an army of the dead to battle our heroes. Luckily for him the Dalish elves buried their fallen comrades in a cemetery not far from the Sundermount ruins. We made a wide variety of tombstones based on Bioware game assets from foam and wood.
Photo 17: Tombstones being set in place in the Topanga hills, creepy but peaceful. For the moment...
Photo 18: This next series of photos are truly a behind the scenes exclusive. Due to circumstances beyond our control, production had delays during the Sundermount shooting schedule, and almost all of the zombies, which I am about to show you, did not make it on the film. We created a variety of foam latex appliances, such as this one piece pull-over zombie. All of the appliances were sculpted by Digger Mesh and myself.

Photo 19: One of the first pitfalls was that the stuntman hired to play the large zombie was allergic to latex, so I couldn't apply his make up. We considered switching actors but there was no one available to fit the mask. In an experiment to see what the latex would look like on a smaller person, I donned the dead elf head. You can tell its me because of the hat.

Photo 20: Here we have a female zombie elf warrior. This was a full head single piece appliance.

Photo 21: The best part of the zombies was that it gave members of my art department an opportunity to do some make up effects. Here Rikki Techner applies the zombie girl. Rikki's true passion is make up, so she really enjoyed being able to create a character that would be filmed on a set that she had helped to build.

Photo 22:This pruney zombie was sculpted on a life cast of Ben Afflek's face.

Photo 23: Art Department Coordinator Pooja Sharma tries her hand at applying zombie make up for the first time.

Photo 24: This elf obviously died from severe wounds to the face. It was done as a one piece face appliance.

Photo 25: Yeah, yeah, yeah... you get it.

Photo 26: About at this point we were informed that the zombies would not be filmed. As you can see, they were not happy about it.

Photo 27: No really, they were not happy! They kind of haunted us for the rest of the night.

Photo 28: The ghastly ghouls had their revenge though, summoning the dark forces of nature to reek even more havoc on poor Sundermount. When we returned in the morning, we discovered that the winds that blew through the mountains in the late hours of the night took down our set, despite out best efforts to secure it. Needless to say, I had a situation on my hands...

Photo 29: It was a mad scramble to get everything back online, but I will save that story for the final post of my DA:R blog.

I am excited to hear all of your reactions to the epic finale of our series. Please leave comments below and feel free to ask me about anything I might have left out within these blogs. Don't forget to like and share this page below!

Dragon Age: Redemption Episode 5

It's been crazier than usual around here the past few weeks! Lots going on, both on and off site: I dropped by BlizzCon and Long Beach Comic Con. I'm starting a full size Jurassic Park dinosaur sculpture to go on display in Hawaii. I'm in the middle of painting a few DVD covers, designing a feature film, two television pilots, building a couple specialty costumes for a network funded web series, filming some more episodes of Brent Spiner's FRESH HELL series at the BarnYard, prepping new episodes of The Tommy Wi-Show, building stuff for MineCon in Vegas, the .tv booth for BlogWorld Expo, trying to sneak away to roam the floor of Comickaze, starting up a new collectible toy company, and doing some concept art for friends at a major ad agency. There just aren't enough hours in the day.

I will be telling you about all of that stuff very soon. But I promised I would write a behind the scenes art department blog for every episode of Dragon Age: Redemption, and I do not like to break my word. Forgive the run on sentences and any misspelled words you may encounter, as I am typing in the deepest hours of night to make sure this posts on time for the release of Episode 5!

When we last left our heroes, they were attempting to enjoy a moment or peace over some hot stew in the comfort of a rural inn. But Tallis notices the glint of a bladed weapon, and the ambush is upon them!

Photo 1: Welcome back to the Inn! My favorite set from the DA:R series. This 30'x40', two story set looks so cozy and calm at first glance.

Photo 2: but once inside, you will find Felicia Day causing a ruckus!

Photo 3: Much to the dismay of the townsfolk who patron the place. We needed lots of extras for the Inn scene, so a call was made to friends and fans. Here, my buddy Grant Kimura tries to impress the ladies with his tales of the time of dragons. Grant has come in to help The Knights of Good with the planning of several social events. He usually dresses better.

Photo 4: Guild social media marketing guru Brian Kameoka double his work load as second 2nd Assistant Director by making a cameo appearance in the Inn. It was his wearing this costume that lead to the jokes about his resemblance to Return of the Jedi 's Nien Numb, which ultimately resulted in me created a Star Wars cosplay costume for him.

Photo 5: Brian, or should I say Nien, cruised conventions across the country all summer in this awesome costume. You may be asking yourself why I am standing next to a Star Wars character and yet making the Vulcan salute. This is a little know fact, but Nien Numb is actually half Klingon!

Photo 6: Here he is enjoying San Diego Comicon with the rest of the family!

Photo 7: I was trying to make everything in the Inn big and bulky, to capture a sense of medieval grandeur. But I guess I chose to make the tables too big at first! When Felicia came in to rehearse on the nearly completed set, she looked like a Hobbit sitting at the table! We ultimately cut the legs down six inches, and raised the chairs up a few inches more, so our heroes stayed larger than life.

Photo 8: Of course, my initial instinct was to make the tables to accommodate all walks of life from Dragon Age II. You never know when a massive Qunari is going to need a hot meal!

Photo 9: We chose to serve real food, so the cast and extras could have the option of actually eating in the scene. Bread, chicken, potatoes, and asparagus where on the menu. I chose these items because they looked the part, and most of it stayed edible for long periods of time. Every few shots, the art team would swap out the chicken for fresh pieces to keep the customers happy. And you need to in a place like this...

Photo 10: ...Otherwise people start smashing tables!

Photo 11: Actually, that was Art Director Bryan Fulk and Leadman John Bell who dropped the chandelier onto the table! The original plan was to have a stuntman fall off the loft and crush the table, but things changed and that shot got cut. Felicia still wanted to smash the table since I had put a lot of time and money into carefully creating an exact replica out of balsa wood in order for it to break, so she decided to have Josmael use magic to bring down the chandelier. You may have noticed that the chandeliers are actually the wagon wheels off the Dalsih wagons! That's me using magic to stretch the budget!!!

Photo 12: The other tables, however, were not made of balsa. They were quite the opposite. Three tables in the room needed to be built sturdy enough to support actors jumping up on them during the fight scene. Here, Tallis prepares to do a back flip off the table. I say Tallis because I can't remember if this is Felicia or her stunt double, ! Can you tell? Hey, Felicia, leave a comment and let us know who's in the picture. If you can tell, that is!

Photo 13: This photo is DEFINITELY Felicia! Here, she grabs a throwing dart to use as an impromptu weapon. This is the thing with fantasy and sci-fi scripts: there are lots of every day objects mentioned, but its not as simple to find the props as going to Target or thrift stores! Something as ordinary as a dart board needs to be made from scratch so it looks like it belongs in a Medieval Inn and not a modern sports bar. Bryan Fulk made this one from bead foam and burlap, with staples sapling twigs for rings. The darts were cut from branches, with nails attached to the front and turkey feathers for fins. It had the crude look I wanted, but I tested it out as a joke, and actually got all 5 darts in the bulls eye from the center of the room! He must have balanced them perfectly, because I have never done that before in my life!

Photo 14: Tallis is pretty good with a dart, too, it would appear! One throw and she takes out this rogue's frontal lobe! A wise move, considering the fire power he was wielding.

Photo 15: I believe in the game it is called the Dark Spawn crossbow. Here is one of the images BioWare sent of the game asset.

Photo 16: Here is the final DA:R prop, as constructed by Amish Ivers. It has a pine body, aluminum bow and trigger mechanism, and sintra spikes back filled with 808 urethane for durability.

Photo 16: All 0f that stunt rehearsal in the set space as it was being built really paid off. It gave the performers and production a good sense of how to move within the space, and utilize every aspect of it. The art department was also able to inspire some ideas and make some changes to the set to heighten the action. The best example would be the loft. I originally intended it only to be a facade, only sturdy enough to handle some set dressing so it added some depth and shadow to the space. But when the team saw the design in reality, imaginations ran wild, and I rebuilt the loft to be weight baring so it could support a crew.

Photo 17: The Inn fight also offered the opportunity for the art department to create a few original weapon designs. Although we made sure to stay within the aesthetic created by the BioWare team, we broke away from the weapons chart and made a few unique pieces, such as this mercenary's sword-staff, designed and built by Armorer Mazin Dajani.

Photo 18: The only thing more dangerous than a mercenary brandishing a sword-staff is Mazin MAKING a sword-staff! The blade was cut from 1/4 inch aluminum plate, and ground down to a rounded edge. This was bolted onto a section of 1 1/2 inch aluminum pipe. The finished weapon was decorated with leather and feathers for fashionable slaying.

Photo 19: Some of the hired hunters preferred getting more close and personal to their prey. And you can't get closer than hand to hand combat.

Photo 20: Of course, it's cheating when your hands are shielded inside these spiked steel gauntlets!

Photo 21: Art Department Coordinator Pooja tested them out thoroughly! She was very effective in budget meetings!

Photo 22: Felicia implemented the same method on set to keep the crew motivated. Just kidding, of course! Everyone involved wanted to have their picture taken with Tallis, and Felicia was kind enough to take the time to assassinate each crew member with the weapon of their choice!

Photo 23: The war hammer is huge, but actually pretty light. It is a block of bead foam coated with a textured spread of Bondo.

Photo 24: We all know Nyree carries a much more lethal weapon, but she showed us that she can be spontaneous and resourceful when alternative killing devices are needed. Cornered by the fireplace, Nyree takes out a mercenary with a lethal blow from smoldering log.

Photo 25: Rob "The Kid" Lindores carved the logs from styrofoam, and assembled the ash end out of scraps left over from the casting of the chains in the Chantry cell. Each ember was connected with a small daub of hot glue so that it would easily break apart on impact without hurting Luci Romberg when she got hit. Luci is a friend for the Team Tempest Freerunning Academy!

Photo 26: Not everyone visiting the Inn is looking for a fight. Second Unit Director is just dropping by for a visit, shooting a little behind the scenes video, and maybe grabbing a refreshing Cold brand cola.

Photo 27: Elves just come to be social. The beautiful Marissa Cuevas hangs out for a moment between takes elsewhere on the stage. That face tells me I obviously caught her in the midst of some interesting gossip!

Photo 28: The Inn is a very popular place. There is always a line outside. Even bouncers. Alright, I'm delirious. That's actually production assistant Greg Checchi giving our heroes an off camera cue to enter the Inn. Notice the exterior walls are bare flats, completely different from the design latent interior.

Photo 29: The exterior you saw in the show was actually a digital effect done by the VFX team. A CG model of the Inn was placed into a plate we shot on location. We looked at potential sights all around LA, and finally found the right one in Malibu. Here, two of my favorite people ever, Kim Evey and Felicia Day, check out the final location during the scout.

Photo 30: Our journey is almost at it's end. Next week brings us the sixth and final episode of Dragon Age: Redemption. But there is so much more to talk about before we reach that final credit scroll, so don't lose hope. Honestly, the adventure is only beginning...