The Astronuts studio, Greg Tyler's living room. The blue fabric was gabardine, purchased at a fabric store. The backdrop fabric was three wide, vertical strips of gabardine stapled to a frame made of 1"x4" wood boards. Of course the easiest way to make a bluescreen would be to paint a wall. Greg lived in an apartment, though, and he didn't want to have to paint over the blue when he decided to move out!

The light stands to either side of the bluescreen were homemade. The materials included 1"x4" wood boards, 100-watt light bulbs, light bulb sockets, and aluminum roaster pans. The roaster pans served two purposes: they reflected more light from the bulbs onto the bluescreen, and they blocked the bulbs from the direct view of the camera. Additional lighting was provided by two off-camera living room lamps.

---

On November 7, 2000, Greg Tyler did a "proof-of-concept" rotoscoping test featuring actors and a virtual set. Here are the results:

Here's a frame featuring Peg Feldhaus in a green wig, and Greg Tyler in his "Flak T. Flotsam" costume. Peg and Greg were shot in front of a bluescreen. The bridge background and foreground consoles were created using 3D software.

Another frame, minus the "virtual" elements.

The "real" bridge of the Millisecond Canary. Note the space-age life-support equipment in the top right corner.

---

On January 14, 2001, Greg Tyler experimented with an effect that will appear in the first episode. Click here to see the first attempt... but don't let it get to your head! (Note: the file is an .avi file, which might only play on Windows machines.)

---

On April 6, 2001, Greg Tyler conducted another rotoscoping test featuring actors and a virtual set. Here are the results!

Here's Greg standing in front of the bluescreen. This was the first rotoscoping test to use blue fabric on the floor, so that actors' feet can be shown.

This frame has had the background replaced by 3D footage of the Beta Carotene planet surface virtual set. In this shot, a six-foot-tall 3D mesh of a male human was used to align the camera in the virtual set so that Greg's perspective would fit exactly when his footage was superimposed over the planet set background. (The 3D mesh was hidden in the final rendering.)

This frame has had the background replaced by 3D footage of the teleport room of the Millisecond Canary. In this shot, Greg's bluescreen footage was scaled and repositioned in the frame to align with a six-foot-tall 3D mesh of a male human standing in the teleport room chamber. (The 3D mesh was hidden in the final rendering.)

---

On July 18, 2001, Greg Tyler finished modeling the exterior of the Beta Carotene planet "globe" that will appear in episode #1. The surface map was a map of the surface of Mars, downloaded from Jet Propulsion Laboratories.

---

On July 19, 2001, Greg Tyler finished modeling the giant blue hand that will appear in episode #1.

---

In July 2004, Greg Tyler began brainstorming how to stage an action sequence in Act Two of "Short End of the Stick." In the sequence, the starship Millisecond Canary's cargo-bay doors open. An arm is then deployed from the bay. The arm is holding a giant ruler. After the arm has fully deployed, the arm swings back and then hits the back of the giant blue hand that's gripping the bow of the spacecraft.

Greg storyboarded the sequence in March 2001. Here are the storyboards.

Eventually Greg decided to base the design of the arm on the arm of the real-world space shuttle orbiter. A major difference between the oribiter arm and the arm of the Millisecond Canary would be that the Millisecond Canary's upper-arm and lower-arm segments would need to expand telescope-style in length and to cartoonish extents in order to manipulate the giant ruler as indicated in the script. As an aside, the ruler would be far too large to actually fit inside the ship. Sine the sequence was designed to be comedic, comedic license was applied to the design of the arm and size of the ruler.