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)

Monkey Update

I've been super busy with other projects. People keep asking about the monkey. I have put this together to keep everyone happy.

stay tuned

Lucy Looks Thrilled

Telegram Visuel

In keeping with Isabella Rossellini's Green Porno style, I was hired to work on her short film, "telegram visuel ". I made various puppets out of paper and helped puppeteer them.

This particular short was about Salmon farming and its devistating effects. In the film, she uses tabletop puppetry and hand-rod puppets made from paper to tell her story. 

Ice Cream and Cake

These are some puppets I worked on for a series of Baskin Robbins holiday comercials. I  cant look at these photos without having that song play in my head. These were done at Curious Pictures and directed by Abe Spear. After the sculpts were approved, the bodies were cast in foam latex, and other parts were cast in plastic. There were a few puppet makers involved with this job. 

Shown, are the indian, skeleton, frankenstein, and reindeer that I made.