Frankie

My friend Mike Pappa made a short film.....  Frankie.

I helped him make some mechanical props, and also did some compositing and animation in the film.  Here are some photos of the mechanisms he designed for Frankie as well as some stills from the finished film. Visit http://www.frankiemovie.com/ for more info on this short.

orrery with dome

inside orrery

Frankie with mechanical prop

Animating the planets on set

mechanism added to allow key to change states of watch

CAST
 

FRANKIE: Ean Sheehy


SMOKER: Elias
     

OLD MAN: Paul Johnson


NEIGHBOR: Brian Ronaghan
     

AWARD PRESENTER: Nick Basile


FATHER: Dave Giegerich
     

CREW
      

Writer/ Director/ Production Designer: Mike Pappa
      

Producers: Elias & Nick Basile
      

Executive Producer/ 1st Assistant Director: Kate Pappa
      

Director of Photography: Anthony DeRose
      

Editor: Steve Flack
      

Art Director: Catherine Taft
     

 Costume Designer: Jennifer Greene
      

Costumer/ Hair & Special Makeup FX: Donna DeLia
     

2nd Assistant Director/ Script Supervisor: Brian Ronaghan
      

Assistant Camera: Neil Biagio & Christopher Cafaro
      

Original Music: Christian Almiron
      

Sound Editor/Foley Artist/Re-recording Mixer: Mike Kurihara
      

Still Photographer: Stanislava Georgieva
      

Stop Motion & Mechanical Props: Brian Haimes
      

Visual Effects Artist: Brian Haimes & Mike Pappa

     

SPECIAL THANKS
      

Sound One
     

 Scott Brown
     

 Matt Gaydos
      

Noah Miller
     

 Sam Strachman


Lunchables Sweepstakes - Allosaurus Build

Ian Pilger and I were assigned the Allosaurous for the Lunchables Sweepstakes to win a trip to The Smithsonian. We worked in tandom at Curious Pictures.

I was great to collaborate with such a talented sculptor.

Ian sculpted The skull and Legs and I made the rest. I first made the armature modular so we could work separately and then assemble for the final animation Puppet. The hips had keyed registrations for the tail the spine and the legs. The spine had a flexible rib cage with registration for the arms and head.

Unpainted Animation Model

modular Armature

We also needed a retro flashlight so I used a control knob from a vintage stereo and a piece of plastic from an old toy to make the flashlight. It had a 6volt bulb that could be controlled from an external power source.

actual size

Weis Holiday Spots

This was a rare case were I was hired to build, animate (stop motion), and composite for Weis Holiday Commercials. Usually its one of the three but usually not all. I was even able to have my dog Lucy in both spots :) She was paid with tons of dog treats and food from the shoot.

I made all of the gingerbread men seen in the christmas spot. All of the food products were actual size and then composited into the miniature set we built. I really enjoyed rigging the lights for these sets. Most of it was purchased doll house scale with customized features. I updated the fridge to be stainless steel and made the island counter top into a butcher block.

Recessed Lighting in Kitchen

We animated the turkey in stopmotion. Instead of rigging the turkey with an armature I decided it would be best to rod it and then puppeteer it into poses and remove the rods in post. 

I posed the legs and Martin worked the wings

We were able to achieve our poses through the use of  a monitor. 

When we were happy with the pose we were able to grab a frame in Dragon. Dragon is a frame capture and playback program for stopmotion.

you can see both spots for Weis here.

Obsession of a Strigiphile

 Anyone who knows me is aware of an obsession that i have had for years. Owls...

I can't really explain why.I used to see a different owl every day, always depicted through design, not photographs or actual owls. This lasted for over five years. I never went out of my way to see them but like clockwork ever day, I saw at least one new owl depiction. I would point out these owls to people who knew about this phenomenom. I don't really know why this was happening but i enjoyed seeing all of the variations on what always seemed to be the great horned owl. 

This is an owl puppet I've been working on. It has a blinking eye mechanism, wing flap mechanism, plumicorn fore and aft mech and articulated mouth and feet. The legs are also jointed. A well rounded hand puppet

Here is a pair of actual Great Horned Owls I photographed through a telescope in NYC.

Animatronic Fish

cored fish and foam latex setup

Sal  making the molds

foam casts

my desk

test fitting 1

final mechanism

finish

These are two Animatronic Rainbow Trout made for a Feature Film. I worked with Sal Denaro on these. He was in charge of the molding and casting in foam latex. I worked out the mechanisms which are radio controlled. Then we brought it all together for the finished trout. Check out this video to see them in motion.

Counting Underwater

Watch : Counting Underwater

This was a pitch that I created for Sesame Street. It is currently viewable online in a contest on Aniboom. Vinny McAuliffe is the talented musician behind the song and the voice of the clam. 

These are motion paths from a recent project i finished on how to Count To Ten. I thought these would be fun to share because I felt they were interesting to look at when viewed all together.  There are hundreds of drawings at work here, all drawn on paper and colored in Photoshop.

These were potential designs for the numbers.

This is an example of thumbnail sketch when I worked out the action of each number/character.

The clam was first sculpted in clay. I made a mold of the top and bottom seperatly. Each half was cast in plastic with pearlescent powder. The tongue was sculpted and then cast in silicone. 

(Here, the clam is pictured on top of all the animation drawings)