3 Days Building a Working Wooden Engine (Primitive Style)

Oh, that's how I got the motor to run. These

primitive

s are used to create a functional

primitive

engine

that allows me to power my zombie escape vehicle. This might be one of the most intimidating VFX shots I've ever worked on. It took me about 25 hours. To complete how we build a primitive combustion

engine

, we start with a log, cut both sides of the log, take four bamboo cylinders and stick them in the log like a V-twin engine, tap the crankshaft, basically which turns basically all the things that allow everything to pump properly, guys, I did it.

It took me 20 minutes of engine research to figure this out, bear with the terminology, so after you have the crankshaft, which is just a flattened piece of Bamboo that extends like this. I fix the exhaust pipe and then I start pouring black powder into each of the bamboo cylinders and then I throw these crystals and every time I throw a crystal into one of the bamboo cylinders a small explosion occurs. comes out, so once I throw the last explosive crystal, the engine starts, black smoke starts shooting out of the exhaust pipe and each step I just mentioned has its own VFX element and VFX challenge in one single take, just a lot of rotoscoping, it's a lot of work, it's a lot of tracking, it's a lot of everything, so, you know, the three, approximately, three

days

of work on this one shot, let's talk about how to go back step by step to the top.

I'm using a stone to break this piece of bamboo into a radial gear type crankshaft and that's just a jump cut on the cam so I need to smooth it out, I extended the heads back a little bit so it gave me like three extra frames to work and rode. my hand for that bit that just helps smooth out that jump cut and we're hammering bamboo cylinders into this log here the two holes in the top let's cover those bad boys that exhaust is covered with a clean plate from another log we film just sitting there there with the light and the leaves bouncing around the shadows going crazy and then I hit it with the hammer and it went right in and at this point so here's the thing this is what's hard is I have to get it out of this world of clean plate because if I don't I'm screwed so what I have to do is find a way to transition from the clean plate to the real footage and there's a big difference between the two.

This is my actual shadow on the actual log I'm interacting with how I'm going to blend that and Wren came up with a great idea so every time my shadow crosses the log it's painted on the actual footage if you look at the shadow here of which It is cropped. the clean plate to the original shadow that allows me to leave this clean plate. I try it and hit the crankshaft, it starts to rotate. I need these bamboo valves to move up and down when the crankshaft rotates. I copy the original bamboo, move it up. revealing a new bamboo that is not there, I have to create it, I go into Photoshop, use the content where I extend the existing bamboo to have more bamboo to play with and then I break a real trunk to place it right on top of it so it looks like they are coming in and coming out of the actual engine.

I have to do that with each of these pieces of bamboo individually. The clean plate has been completely cleaned. The upper part of the trunk is completely real. Those cylinders are completely real. The only. What's in effect right now is this clean plate that covers the hole where the exhaust pipe will go, which helps me minimize all the things I'm doing at the same time in the shot. I'm only concentrating on one thing right now and that is covering this exhaust pipe hole, basically what's going to happen now is I get to the other side of the engine and I magically place this exhaust pipe into the trunk, rotoscoping this exhaust pipe, revealing the original hole as I put it in what happens after that.

I have to mix this janky cut this janky cut here I have to fix what I do is I just isolate different parts of the image extend them and slowly fade them to point b cut b on the right there are several layers in this you only have duplicate versions of you take it seconds before it cuts over the top and you blend them slowly over time and then when it cuts it's already there it's already where I fade away yeah just to hide a cut guys we've done it. We're almost there, we're past the jump cut, that's the jump cut, we're past the jump cut, like we've got plates of firecrackers bursting into these little bamboo cylinders that make up those pretty easy things.

The physical appearance of the bamboo pipes has been changed by black dust or smoke I have to take out the top hole but it is doable oh but what is this here is Jake's hand you have to fade into that clean plate you know what I'm saying Jake is out I have to do it Get this thing started again so once Jake pulls the exhaust pipe into the tank that's basically the signal for the whole engine to be running now so I have to go back and once again cut each of these tubes, move them up and down to create a new tube.

I offset the motion so they all pump at different times and then I sit down and hit render for about an hour and a half and I still have little things I need to fix so I'm not going to get into those things but that's how I got the engine running bet you weren't expecting this shot bet you weren't expecting a sword fight welcome to a special tournament of champions here on digital runner where we fight for the wild card that's right, all the losers of In the previous three rounds, Christian and Ren we're going to fight in a three-man, free-for-all tournament to represent Lady Patreon in the final tournament of champions at the spring festival, if you are a patron or register because of this video leave a comment guys because one person from Patreon will get the top-level reward, which is one-on-one with anyone in the studio for a free hour.

Whoever wins this will be the representative of the people. The man with the crown, patreon is the best way to support what we do here at the runner, so if you're interested in showing some love, head over to patreon.com. Quarter digital, every dollar helps the boys, we can buy more swords, yes, dough. yeah, look, oh, the five bucks here because that gets you a live stream with us, we just hang out for a whole hour, this is a monthly group meetup where everyone crowds around a computer, we all read the comments and We answer your questions in real time. time because it's live, it's fun, I look forward to it every month.

Did you know that you can hear your name or even see it on the main or team channel if you subscribe to one of the levels where you receive a message, so go to the patreon page patreon.com digital runner okay guys everyone has a point, this is what it comes down to whoever gets this point, wins everything. Come on, wait, now I have the opportunity to not only represent Lady Patreon, but also to get my battle back. ax so there are some names of some sponsors that I'm going to say as a thank you for supporting us on this channel but first I can't say your name until I have a nut in my mouth master one ace one philip oxford seth the mad scientist astro gg raymond abbot caleb galante reneo warrior jr elon almanza hendrick lice eddie adolf ah will robertson gary dolph nicholas jumps not a canadian spy mitch plowinski andrew double d avancino glitch cube timothy thompson james bailey almendra altabie the idea is showing you actually poking around in something, yeah , like what could be anything, this was supposed to say that the fast zombies chasing you makes it hard to scavenge, but in the bars we don't have that element of scavenging in this shot, yeah, we discussed a new opening, yeah, yeah oh god that just seems like the best idea, it really helped clarify that you have to film that or just take a general overall picture, I think it's cool, I really enjoyed it, it still needs some kind of scene to end it, I don't believe it. we need to insert shots, I think we need to restructure it and I think it'll make sense for you to do this and then just cut to this, yeah, like he's getting back on the bike, oh my gosh, going back to get his gear, yeah. this is because now it's like whoa because now we're interested in what's going to happen next we're going to leave the camera cut like what's happening why are you driving around this is so much funnier it works it's funny oh of course which is where the crystals are hilarious okay yeah we're okay okay cool I'm okay guys yeah it's pretty sick okay yeah did you say you built this wall?

I did it. I remember that in 1981 I was on a very high ladder carrying the pieces. of plaster putting it there and holding it up on the studs and yeah, I built this whole wall, I built this wall, everything, I built all these walls, so when you got this whole

building

, was it just a china, a giant space, imagine a space at side? but connected to this and this was open this was amazing this below the mezzanine this is above the mezzanine where Nico's was that was all open you could walk from here to the end of that mezzanine to the end of Brandon's space and there were these giant machines of six feet in diameter and eight feet tall, about eight feet tall, giant rotating stainless steel drums with a walkway around each one and they were mixing, you know, what they were mixing, it was paint, pigment, no, no. , it is not known, yes. they were mixing pigment pigment pigment pigment powder powder powder paint right because people didn't used to buy gallons of paint premixed when you bought paint in the '20s, '30s, and '40s, you bought a box of pigment and a can of primer and you went to house and you mixed it yourself, yeah, I mean, it wasn't until the late '50s and early '60s that you could go into a hardware store and say, hey, give me a can of lime green paint and it would be already mixed or ready to go. , you bought one, you bought your own box of pigment, this was the company that made the powdered pigment and you opened it and put the pigment in your gallon of paint and then you mixed it with a stir stick, so when we bought this place when we came here to see and buy it.

There were 10 of these giant stainless steel machines spinning like a centrifuge and with a blade-like interior that looked like a waffle iron mixing the powder. When you ended up buying the place, did you inherit those drums too? They took them out and left it pretty much the way it was, so we just had to build all these walls and divide it up. Well, see you around, buddy, Steve always. I have the best stories I love when he rolls around spewing knowledge and experience and I'm fine this is the third time in a little over a day that my computer has been forced to reboot and refresh and it just sits here for like an hour .

I'm not even kidding trying to make a Star Wars video.