The transfer of the team from Colorado to Washington started out on a small military plane. Everyone used the six-hour flight to do research. Dan worked exclusively on the design for the Mola mola, or ocean sunfish. Moto connected him to Thingamajigs, a special effects studio in Seattle. They would outfit a small surveillance submarine with a fabricated "Mola suit," turning it into the large ocean sunfish.
The two-man submarine measured out at just over eleven feet in length. For this decoy to pass as a credible ocean sunfish, the "Mola suit" could only add three feet to the silhouette of the sub – a tight fit, but the costume crew assured Dan they could do it. Dan and the mechanical art crew at Thingamagigs decided on fleshy pink with silver polka dots for the skin and scale color. The dots were designed shiner than traditional Mola mola dots to match the reflective tinting used to cover the portholes. This would camouflage any ultrasound equipment that peeked out through some of the dots. They equipped the tail end, or clavus, with mucus ejectors. Mola mola's were famous for expelling slimy mucus from the base of their dorsal and anal fins when threatened. Moto concocted a thick secretion with dual purpose: to distort the mechanical noise produced by the sub and, as an exit strategy, to distract Titan.
Melinda and James tracked down the ultrasound machines in Seattle on the internet. The project needed machines that function at a frequency far different from those used by cetacean in echolocation. Data gathered by Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) indicated that sperm whales operated at a mid to high frequency – thirty-five to fifty-five kilohertz. Medical ultrasounds used at least ten megahertz Melinda researched ultrasound equipment appropriate for the task, and James converted the kilohertz into megahertz. They found five machines right for the assignment. Finished with their task, they turned their attention to Dan's project.
"How's that Mola sub coming along?" James asked. Pictures of the disguised craft looked like the head half of a fish crimped off just behind the dorsal and anal fins.
Dan welcomed the break from watching the design team and answered. "We've decided on a waterproof, poly-foam fabric design because it can be textured and colored to mirror a Mola mola. Also, it won't add much weight to the sub – it's the same fabric used in some sport mascot outfits," he explained. "Anyway, I weigh about 240 pounds – and you James, you're all skin and bones, Moto figured you at about 185 pounds, right?" James nodded. "Our additional weight needs to cap out at 700 pounds; we figure with the mucus, equipment and us, it will be close." He turned his laptop toward them. "Thinamajigs arranged a live-feed video so I can monitor their progress – no audio though – they don't want a 'backseat designer.' Come over and take a look."
The two-man sub was a streamlined design rather than a diving bell. A creature designer attached fleshy pink side panels with cutouts around the mucus ejector and ultrasound sites. The scalloped rear-end was a flawless copy of images of a Mola mola clavus. A wiry guy perched atop the costumed sub attached the five-foot dorsal fin, and a young woman sewed silvery polka dots onto the side panels. Interior creature designers measured portholes for tinted glass.
"Wow! These guys are great, that is really looking like a Mola mola! I thought special effects were all green screen and CGI nowadays," Melinda said.
Her genuine reaction pleased Dan. He'd been looking at it so carefully it had begun to look cartoonish. "Don't even mention CGI to this art crew. They consider computer generated images just smoke and mirrors. We are using mechanical artists. They produce actual objects." Dan had received a curt tutorial on the difference between Computer Generated Images and character or monster building. He turned to James to get his reaction, but had a reaction of his own.
"You don't look so good," he commented.
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