UNLEASH YOUR IMAGINATION: BUILD YOUR OWN SCI-FI SET ON A BUDGET! 

I absolutely love the improvisational nature of your builds. i know you plan, but those happy accidents don't happen by 'accident', they're built into your process. You give the objects the ability to come to life in their world. Always a pleasure to watch. look forward to your next creation.

dont bash yourself this hard, it is what it is and it looks cool!

Actually Anthony the rough finish on the display unit absolutely says '70s scifi' to me! For context the Acorn BBC Micro from the 80s had a rough finish to its plastic case. Really cool build!

I want to say something but I don't want it to be taken in a negative sense. It always amazes me how sloppy and seemingly poorly done movie props look up close and in person but they look so amazing and well put together on the silver screen. I remember a prop designer from the 60's saying that you don't need to go into extreme detail when building a prop. When you do too much it begins to look like a model and not a real thing. When you look at some of the space ships up close and in person you can inspect it and find all kinds of flaws. But the Enterprise looks amazing on screen. Space 1999's Eagle 1 looks hastily put together and looks like the real deal on screen. Thank you for sharing your skills and giving us a great video to watch.

I am making a tiny space ship set in the garage, and your channel is gold! Thank you! :D

Oh, and I LOVE that you build practical props. Too much of the film industry is all CGI and no practical. Or very little. Your videos bring us back to the days when Sci-fi could still be achieved using toilet pipes, detergent containers and little blinking lights. Or, as said in Galaxyquest, "Our sets were made of cardboard and Christmas lights." and an alien race thought they were real! That is the *Magic* of practical effects. So, yes, please continue sharing with us. You are an amazing artist, who totally deserves the award you just won. 💜 Congratulations, again! 🏆 🤘🎸😎🌈😊

I used to do things like this when I was a kid, in exactly the same spirit, just looking at random junk and trying to imagine how it would all go together. I built a lightsaber, an R2-D2, and a Star Trek console, among other things.

This channel is a hidden gem

I love how you walk through the process. I’m not creating movies but it’s really cool to see behind the scenes.

You make filmmaking fun and for everyone. Something I been longing for. I am glad I found your channel. I appreciate you.

Loved how you used those extra mold pieces for a forehead accessory on the actors. Nothing goes to waste, hunh? Great job as always. 😁

It looks great on film! That's all that matters in a set piece. Good job buddy!

Your commentary's down-to-earthness is so inspiring. Such casually excellent production design. Thank you!

Amazing design work, the lighting sets everything off. That you did this in just a couple of days floors me.

Every time I see another build from your movie, I want to see it even more! You'll have to let us know when it's somewhere we can watch it =)

I love this

It came out looking like classic 70's BBC Dr. Who/Blake's 7 or 80's Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I really love the aesthetic.

That was pretty interesting and goes a long way to explaining my Dad's reaction to movies. Back in the late 30s, he spent a lot of time on Hollywood movie lots doing sketches and a newspaper column about movies. He couldn't just fall into a movie and watch it because in his mind he was seeing all of the stuff you just did.

These videos have me looking at the world in a different way. I like to turn things upside down and sideways, to experience everything from different angles. I've discovered much beauty that way. I marvel at how really wonderful the jars and containers we throw away can be. As you've shown, one whole piece of junk, or pieces, can be part of an interstellar spacecraft or a computer station. I'm afraid I'm becoming a pack rat for used containers and packing materials. I want to save them just in case I have a need to make something. The laundry detergent jugs turned over seem to be oxygen tanks awaiting some paint and "greeblies."

Excellent work as ever sir!

Having seen Wakener, this video is all the more amazing! Fantastic film and fantastic set!

Thank you. I am starting to become my theaters prop guy and you going through your process and showing a little of the technique has really started to get me going. Thank you

Excellent as usual! Looking forward to seeing the film.

I really envy your creativity. I wish I could create stuff that cool.

Started watching this and within two minutes thought " So this is how every Sci-Fi show in the 60's made their sets." Then you say that 70's sets were the inspiration. Either way I feel that it was three years of this with Star Trek TOS.

Man! I would love to work with you one day. Really make art with passion.

I would say that it wouldnt look out of place on things like 'Red Dwarf' 'Blakes 7' 'Space 1999' thats what they did to create the illusion of 'futurist' environments, I cant wait to see the finished film, keep it up :)

It works perfectly for the room aesthetics in the scene. I've always had fun trying to guess the parts used to create movie props, and smile at how simple some of the solutions used to sell them to the audience. Case in point, I'm an electrician in Chicago, and had worked a renovation gig at the old post office that was a major set piece for The Dark Night. There was some leftover set dressing from filming. The property hadn't been used for at least a decade, so the set dressers painted fake doors and windows, some with false backgrounds and flower boxes full of blooms. It wasn't very detailed, just enough to look good in the background of a shot. Nothing elaborate, just paint. Really enjoyed this video, always fun to watch.

You are the literal reason I am able to design the Sci Fi stuff I make. I'm working on a Sci Fi comedy movie and your videos help so much with making it so I can come up with ideas for stuff to make.

I'm so glad I've found this channel! I'm looking at getting back into filmmaking after many years dormant, and I want to incorporate more sci-fi stuff on a low budget. This video was very informative and the end result looks fantastic - and the related videos for blasters, reactors etc look awesome too, I think I'm going to find your videos very helpful. Thank you for sharing your experience and creativity.

Another great video. As you were sanding that piece of PVC to defuse it I said to myself "he should using baking paper for that" and then lo and behold you get it out! The two layers of LEDs also worked brilliantly. Seeing it in the scene was really great to show how more believable a piece is in situ instead of in you workshop - not that it looks bad in your workshop. I'd love to see more set building videos. I've made a handful of blasters and spaceships but, outside of doing a green-screen, sets are quite daunting to me. I think your tips and tricks on that subject would be really insightful.

Your videos are so helpful for us newbies who are looking for inspiration and where to start!! I’ve started scouting my recycling bin for my build!!

Really cool, I always enjoy seeing what you come up with and they always look so great!

Came here from BoingBoing to say that I'm thoroughly amused and impressed. 👍

Excellent work God bless you and yours!

Love the set. I recognize where some of the parts came from. So simple when you break it down. I would like an episode on how the screen graphics are made and what software is used

That set has a Alien Nostromo interior vibe.

Love your videos! As it’s all about the process for me! You show the real world behind the curtain view! Which is soooooooo important as this is how great things happen… and it’s all part of the fun! Your never going to get a step by step guide of what you do! As it’s all a process! And you use what you find…. It’s really exciting! Also the graphite powder is a true game changer !

I have only discovered your channel I love the inexpensive builds and moding and painting. I do some painting for friends 3d prints and cosplay pieces when needed so I love to see others approach

GREAT builds! Love the simplicity and the no-shit approach! Really love it!

24:39 Such great, inspiring videos on your channel, createscifi, and even that laundry detergent bottle in your hand could be modified to look like an alien laser gun or rifle or the bottoms or other parts could be removed from many bottles to be used as wall paneling on sets, etc. There are endless possibilities. :)

Thanks for sharing this. I like the design. Hopefully I will remember to come back to this video when I start updating my garage.

Great creativity! Looks great!

Awesome work. I need to make a sci-fi console cheap but I have no idea how. Excellent

Great video Anthony, we’ll done!

Nice to see something white and clean as a prop, on this one, and very Kubrick with a lil inspo from Muther In Alien, Great job bro, been in the biz a long time, really dig your channel and the work. So much fun here. Congrats.

Airbrush stencils available from auto detailer sites are great for adding wood or leather bits for a retrofuture effect

So... what did you do with all that laundry detergent? Looks super awesome, and I am totally looking forward to seeing the finished film as your work is always inspiring to me. Good luck with the festivals!!

That is a really nice piece!

Anthony, I really needed to see this episode. Thank you so much. I'm going through a bit of ennui (that's a fun word isn't it? "On-Wee". "Help me On-Wee Kenobi.")....Anyway, I'm feeling depressed. I have builds that I would like to do. But I feel they have to be perfect. Better-than-museum pieces perfect. But you explaining that things just need to look good for a while. That they don't need to be perfect. That they can look good even if you don't know precisely how it will turn out. You have ideas, but then other things happen that changes the plan, and, often, makes them better. I do a lot of kitbash model builds, and I have a duct tape lightsaber I've had in my mind (and in pieces) waiting to be built. Watching this video today gave me the bit of boost to finally work on that lightsaber. I built one a decade ago as a joke. Paper towel tube, some crinkled mylar, a ring of wood matches at the "blade", and the "igniter switch" being the match striker and a match duct taped next to it. Purely silly. Then a year + ago I thought about making another one, but do it right. A "serious" one. Something that would look nice, not a joke or junky. But I felt overwhelmed trying to make it "perfect". It won't be, it is my second ever lightsaber build. And my first serious try. Lotsa mistakes will happen. I need to lighten up about that. Seeing how you go about these builds, *without* instructions on how you make it is great. Most channels, if they show us prop making, they are very specific. Things need to be done "This way or else (it'll fail)". But your videos are more...human. Real. Almost like a stream of consciousness style (granted a lot of that is editing), and that is wonderful. You, your personality, and your videos come across as 'Anyone can do this. You don't need to be perfect, or have precise...well...anything. Just an idea, and some parts to start with, and you can create any Sci-fi stuff.' And I like that. You make scratchbuilding seem doable. Attainable. You have errors and mistakes, and you share those with us. But then you show that those same flaws either don't really show up in the end, or make it better. I know this is long. I just want to reiterate, Thank you for making these videos the way that you do. Without instructions, without rules. It's very human and real. To me anyway. My brain is weird. 😏 Be Excellent to each other and to yourself. Party on, and Keep making Sci-fi. 🤘🎸😎🌈😊

So creative! Thank you for sharing 😃

So one of the colors available for acrylic model paints is peril, it's a sort of a rainbow/metallic white paint and dry brushing it can do some amazing things to highlight light colors.

great video

It looks damn good! And I can't wait to see the film!

This looks very good, the screen as a practical effect gives it another level of realism (from the preview image I thought it was a real display:-)

Check out early Dr. Who series' and set design, this is exactly how it was all done and look how successful that whole thing was. Great to hear and watch the whole thought and manufacturing process. Thanks for sharing. Excellent!

🤔 now that's cool

For that set, and what you had to work with, I have to say that it looked like something out of SPACE 1999 or the equivalent. After all, the round glowing buttons on Uhura's comm station in the original Trek were underlit marbles bought at a kid's toy store. You work with what you got.

I am SO seeing some dudes in glass bubble helmets on that set!!!!

If it falls to pieces as soon as you're done filming, ya know you've done your job right.

Use peanut butter overnight to remove labels and stickers. Uses a heat gun or torch to fix plastic that has been sanded.

*for additional greeblies the caps that can be found on beverage syrup bag-in-a-box (or bib) used at restaurants might prove to be very useful...and the best part of this they are just thrown away (usually...unless there's a prop builder/maker working there) if you contact the local establishments and tell them what you do there's a chance they would save them for you if you picked them up on a regular basis...i have at least 90 of them and will increase that number even more by the end of the week...they're your's for the asking*

Love your videos, thanks again. Do you know what program(s) your effects people use to make the animated interfaces and displays, please?

Kool

Damn man you're amazing. What cameras do you use?

THe other thing that makes the set work is the use of repetition of panels. The panel with the 6 on it showing up twice and the units being repeated at a macro level.

😃

I would have gone with some foam strips around the bottle just to distract from the detergent contours in the bottle. Maybe "chrome chevron" type dealies over the indents. But can understand the time crunch. Be nice if we could edit out time like adhesive curing and paint drying IRL instead of just in editing ;) That's just me though... I'm the type of moron that will grab screen shots in an editor just to get better pictures of props from a movie or show :).

Whenever I come across annoying stickers, I usually cut out shapes from chipboard, cereal boxes or even sheet foam and glue them right over the top.

Only you could look at a giant laundry soap bottle and think Computer Screen.😜

Not tryna abrasive shame 😁 but it's my experience that diablo sandpaper is much better quality and works out less expensive in the long run. I was buying that warrior coz I thought it was cheaper, I paid 4$ for 4 sheets and I could rub the sand off with my thumb. So I started buying diablo, 50 disks for less than 20$, and I'm happy with it. Y'all have a badass day 🤘🍻🤘

Just keep reminding yourself:" no prop or set piece is actor proof". If it can be broken, they will find a way to break it!

:)

Kool