www.brianhaimes.com

Frankie

2011-11-10T23:31:00.008-05:00

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

2011-05-10T08:51:00.009-04:00

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

2011-05-04T13:38:00.004-04:00

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

2010-12-07T00:03:00.004-05:00

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

2010-11-04T17:04:00.002-04:00

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

2010-05-07T02:01:00.007-04:00

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

2010-05-07T01:51:00.001-04:00

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

2010-05-07T01:48:00.002-04:00

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

2010-05-07T01:44:00.009-04:00

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.

Frogs House

2009-10-04T21:34:00.001-04:00

This interior scene is from the same project as the swamp. In Fact this set overlooks the swamp. We are planning the scene for daytime but figured it would be fun to see how it looked at night as well.

Swamp Set

2009-09-24T23:44:00.004-04:00

I just finished this swamp set with my friend Mike Pappa . We are collaborating on a stop motion project. I am really happy with the way these are looking and wanted to share them.

Robot Monkey

2009-09-17T13:26:00.003-04:00

My dog lucy is so easy to train tricks. she is able to do all of the basics and some other ones we came up with. She is however not a good listener when she is out side at a dog run or in any enviorment where she is "off the leash". She seems to be so overwhelmed with stimulus that she can't even hear me.

So this led me to thinking on how to maintain control over her when she can't hear me. This theory works well when she is teathered to me by her leash. If i pull left she walks left if i pull back she stops and sits. So this made me wonder if touch is what was missing and if i could simulate that from a distance.

In this experiment i made a remote controlled robot that sits on her back and simulates the leash controls she is used too. The design was inspired by whiplash the cowboy monkey. He is a real life monkey that sits on a dogs back. he is just along for the ride in his role. I am hoping to be able to influence what direction Lucy runs while galloping at the dog run.

In the photos you will see Lucy with a hat, The animatronic mechanism, leather Dog saddle, and the molds prepped for silicone. I should be covering the mechanism soon and will keep everyone posted.

Inspired by a Lovebird

2009-09-10T14:20:00.004-04:00

Willy was an obnoxious little bird, he bonded with me alone and would bite everyone else he got near. Including my cat and Girlfriend. We used to joke about how he would fly over and land on you, Bite You and say "Puncture" as he flew away. Actually he could't talk and he turned out to be a girl after all. We gave him away before finding that out. Although willy was attached to me and no one else i still enjoyed his big personality, and how we used to joke about his "voice"....

This mechanical puppet was designed to capture his Head movents, Bite and personality. The mechanisms were inspired directly by those used on some of the muppets. Here is a work in progress showing of what makes him tick.