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. 

Frogs House

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

        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

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

       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.