Exterior Merrimack. Dual funnel detail.
Exterior Merrimack. Rudder and propeller detail. Of course, the propeller works, and yes someone gets thrown into it! It's a Moooooooovieeeeee!
Exterior Merrimack. Finished set. The hull was foam installed around industrial scaffolding. The deck sat on the scaffolds and the casemate was made from regular flats. The funnels were made of Sono Tubes and fixed to the scaffolding inside the casemate.
Exterior Monitor. Pilothouse detail. Modeled in SketchUp, drawn in Layout.
Exterior Monitor. Pilothouse Detail. Modeled in SketchUp, drawn in Layout. The unit had to cover the actual barge operator. the straight part of the hull was the barge and the bow and stern were dummy units that flipped up for transport.
Exterior Monitor. Turret detail. Modeled in SketchUp, drawn in Layout. This was prefabricated and attached to the barge on-site using a crane. Dummy FX cannon were added by the FX pyro guys.
Exterior Monitor, Working Set.
Flamethrower Concept (Unused) 3D Previs. Modeled in SketchUp, drawn in Layout.
Flamethrower Concept. Modeled in SketchUp, rendered in View, and post-processed in Photoshop. This was replaced by a simple unit that cost less to make and looked like a butter churn. Not that I'm bitter or anything.
Jonah Hex was a DC comic franchise film, made in and around New Orleans. I was called in as a pinch hitter by a friend. The show’s climax was a battle between two ironclads, one in drydock on a bayou (called the Merrimack by the art department) and the other in the water. I helped on the drydocked ship and handled the floating one totally. The floating ironclad was a pint-sized version of the U.S.S. Monitor and was built on an oil company barge by a nautical construction firm. The whole thing had to fold for transport and the turret was added on location. I was still transitioning to digital design and I drew both vessels in part in pencil and in part digitally. Beyond that, I remember getting off the plane and my friends taking me to this bar on Bourbon Street. The next thing I remember was getting off the plane in L.A., two months later, with the worst hangover of my life. The rest is a blur.
