Amanda skates through a layer of water outside the Louvre, around a revolving Waterford crystal pineapple that I bought in the Dublin airport’s duty free shop years ago.

Why? We don’t care because it’s so pretty.

Amanda is carrying a silver briefcase and dressed like Nier Automata. Who’s that, you ask? I have no idea. But her costume is wicked sexy, complete with a mysterious eye patch.

I put her on roller skates to make her easier to balance and animate, plus it’s retro-cool. And yes, those skates have real shoelaces and the wheels roll independently.

I shot this on my MOCO cyclorama, turning at a fixed rate: One degree per frame. The stage is a 24” round mirror, which is not only smooth but it reflects light from the 24” round LED fixture directly above it. That light illuminates the stage’s half cylinder of rigid green board, which gets chroma-keyed out in post.

I did the cool water wake/splash effects with a special liquid resin used to simulate water in model train dioramas. Basically I poured seven elliptical “splashes” on the mirror, let them set overnight and then peeled them up with a razor blade. Then I simply animated them into place by rotating them under Amanda’s skates, storing the other splashes on waxed paper. And boy did that work nicely. The edges of the transparent resin actually reflect a bit of white light to nail the effect.

Amanda skates one orbit around the pineapple while talking to Kim Jong-un in her headset, then she pirouettes around and drops into the Louvre via a totally unexpected double wipe.