At @creatureeffects I was tasked with salvaging several mechanical horse heads.
They had been sitting as leftovers and had been scrapped for parts, years before this. I disassembled them, cleaned and resurfaced the carbon fiber plates, replaced all missing or damaged screws, and replaced burnt and loud servos with newer servos on some.
These carbon fiber rigs will fit into the fiberglass horse heads that are used to hold the foam latex skins.
It takes a lot of moving parts to build puppets of any size. Even small puppets can have many complex moving parts. These horses have been in use for nearly 20 years. It was an honor to be a brief part of their legacy.
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#mechanicalpuppet #moviefan #specialfx
The Man of Steel costumes, for the 2013 Superman franchise.
The muscle suit was sculpted on a Lifecast of Henry Cavill and is made of foam latex which is then treated to accept a chrome paint job. We would mask the black areas and the whole form was painted with flexible chrome paint.
After searching all over the world for fabrics, (yes) if memory serves the skin suit specialized spandex was found in Italy. The material was used because of the amount of chrome that would show thru, thus creating the illusion that he was in fact the man of steel.
In all, he’s wearing several layers of costume to complete the look. I was fortunate enough to have my hands in many aspects of this build. Including coming up with a methodology for casting poly foam without bubbles so it has the properties of urethane but can be painted like poly foam. The process involved chilling the foam chemicals and casting the parts under extreme pressure disallowing the foam to rise.
The collar edge around the suit is 6lb polyfoam. All other details were foam latex. These suits took an army of incredibly talented people to create.
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#manofsteel #moviecostumes #supermanfan
Vic Armstrong is an incredible stuntman. He’s doubled for Superman, and Harrison ford in Star Wars and Indiana Jones. He even worked on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang from 1968. Gangs of New York, Starship Troopers, Rambo, Total Recall, the man is a legend. He directed A Sunday Horse. The flipping rig was all setup and we had tossed a few horses for practice. Then on the shooting day, Vic came in and walked the location and started pointing to spots on the set, “I want a 28mm @ 24 frames there, I want a 60mm @ 120 frames there, I want…” and he did that 6 times. He called out for 6 cameras, knew where he wanted them, the lens size he wanted and the frame rate for all the cameras. It was the most impressive display I’ve ever seen out of a director. That afternoon we loaded the horse and rider. Shot her down track, watched her flip and Vic said “Great! Moving on!” And that was it. We flew all the way to Atlanta, flipped it, and split. It was one of the easiest flipping setups we had ever done. And the 2nd hottest state 🥵 … damn it was hot that day. #behindthescene #stuntriding #stuntlife #onset🎥🎬 #moviemagic
Among the first movie jobs I got was helping to create this mermaid tail for “Lily” in ‘Magic Island’ (1995). My contributions were to help create the Lifecast, and block out the bulk of this sculpture for the artist to detail, and to help make the mold and casting. Lily Was played by actress Jessie-Ann Friend. At the time Full Moon Studios was 3 separate production companies all run by the same crew. “Full Moon” was the horror/sci-fi arm. “Moonbeam” was the children’s film division and “Torchlight” was for distributing soft-core adult films (😂 PG-13/R ratings by today’s standards). Full moon was the only full studio system ever. They could go from pre-production all the way thru distribution from the same facility. The big 5 studios in LA have never been that proficient. #fullmoonentertainment #magicisland #mermaids
@sweettoothnetflix the Bobby puppet walking into set. @lewispuppetz@kevinkirkpatrickart and myself (I’m the one putting the mask on) dressed all in grey. Although I’m credited as the lead puppeteer my main task was keeping Bobby alive and running. Bobby may represent one of the last traditionally built animatronic puppets for film, as most puppets are 3D printed now. Because of this, and my old school knowledge I was sent as the mechanic and puppeteer. As the mechanic I needed quick access and couldn’t be rigged to the puppet in case he needed an emergency repair. So I mainly did the RC facial movements. Paul did most of the body and head movements. While several of us rotated in and out for arms and such. Anything Paul touches comes to life, so much that he could probably animate a corpse and you’d believe it was alive. @lehmann.grant was also with us but he mainly puppeteered Gus’ ears. He is without a doubt the smartest human being I’ve ever encountered. And was a man that opened my eyes to a future not so dim. I think about him all the time. (please don’t tell him I said that, it will absolutely go to his head) #sweettoothbobby #sweettoothnetflix #puppeteer #behindthescenes
This was only ever a proof of concept to trigger the flipping horse rig remotely. (We sometimes experiment in between shows) Here, one switch arms the system, the other switch fires the rig. The rig itself only requires 12v at 240mA to upscale power into throwing a 500lb payload. Two 9v batteries in series is overkill so it’s regulated down to 12v.
This is set piece from “SweetTooth” season 1 on Netflix. I was sent to New Zealand to maintain the Bobby puppet. I don’t think I’m allowed to show my BTS photos/videos 🤷 😂 so instead, here’s a storm drain. I absolutely fell in love with and became a huge fan of the @allblacks if you haven’t given it a chance I highly recommend it. It’s way more intense than 🏈 and much faster paced. @brodie_retallick is a beast but was retired last year. The AllBlacks also have 3 Barrett brothers. It’s fun action. Watch it if you can and also SweetTooth is a good show. Watch that as well. Ok. Go. @sweettoothnetflix
“I can raise and lower my cholesterol at will.” “Why would you want to raise your cholesterol?” “So that I can lower it.” #dwight #theoffice #theofficememes #dwightschrute #rainnwilson
The Dwight. Fabric on fabric. The story: we’re all fans of the office since the UK version. My daughter especially. This was a🎄holiday gift I made for her. I wanted something with lots of color and this fauvist design of Dwight found in a random abstract search caught my eye and I had to try it. Dm for info. #theoffice #dwightschrute #RainnWilson #Dwight #theofficememes #office #mosaicart #fauvism #fabricpainting #fabricdesign
I’m available for movie work: special effects / specialty costumes / specialty props
“Lebowski: Are you employed sir?
Dude: Employed?
Lebowski: You don’t go out looking for a job dressed like that do you? On a weekday!
Dude: Is this a… what day is this?
-scene
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15 years ago, I came on here and mentioned I was looking for work. That very evening, by chance, I ran into Dorothy (@syzygy_designs ) whom I hadn’t work with for 10 years. She mentions a mutual friend was working on Tron Legacy and I should call them. That same evening I went to their shop and was hired immediately on the spot and did 19 hours straight. They were working 2 crews around the clock. After a few weeks I was tasked with supervising the manufacturing of the lights on the Tron costumes.
Fingers crossed that it pays off again. I am available for special effects and specialty costume work. Thank you for watching. Dorothy, if you’re watching. Thanks. 😊
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#specialeffects #specialtycostumes #cosplay #makeupfx #propmaker #moviecostumes #spfx
Splatter effects used mainly for horror films. The typical setup is you film a character about to be victimized by their own doing or by a secondary character or creature. You then cut to observers, and they get splattered with 🩸 their reactions sell the effect. It’s the most cost effective way to film if the budget doesn’t allow for bigger effects.
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Here’s an example: you have two characters and one is in peril. The victim is tied to a slow feeding table saw while our protagonist is desperately trying to free them. Despite all the efforts of our hero, the victim is caught in the saw. So to film this we’d see an establishing shot showing the whole setting. Then we cut to closeups of our hero desperately clawing at the binds. We see our victim scream in horror and we cut to our hero being splatterd with 🩸 as they react in shock. 😮 We know what happened. The audience knows.
Never underestimate the power of the audiences imagination. In “Reservoir dogs” Quentin Tarantino doesn’t show us the cop having his ear removed, in fact the camera pans away because it’s more impactful in our minds than anything we could have seen on the screen. It’s very effective.
Another example of this effect is in “Full Metal Jacket” when director Stanley Kubrick does the exact opposite with actor Vincent D’Onofrio. He doesn’t pull any punches and shows us everything.
Both effects are very powerful to experience in their respective stories.
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#splatterart #splatter #horrormovies #horrorfx #moviefx #moviemagic #horrorart #horrorart #spfx
