Matt Denton

Let’s ride!! 😁 Lego Inspired 3D Printed XXL Monkey Bike #lego #inspired #3dprinted #monkeybike #motorbike #adamsavage

Great show and excellent synchronisation by @bostondynamicsofficial 😃 MARS2026

Comment DENTON for the full episode 🎧 In this clip, @mantisrobot explains how they made BB-8 work in real life… Because on a red carpet, you can’t exactly have someone pushing it around. So they had to figure out how to make it look completely real…

Comment DENTON for the full episode 🎧 This week’s guest is @mantisrobot He’s built robots for Star Wars, worked on Harry Potter, and somehow ended up witnessing TV history on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. We talk about how his career actually unfolded, what it’s like working under ridiculous pressure on set, and the weird little tricks that make something feel alive on screen. Also… turns out a lot of what you think is CGI… isn’t.

That was Epic! Hats off to all the CFX team! Amazing work and a great film! #projecthailmary thanks to Oscar for the plus one. You can tell I wasn’t prepared by dress code 😂😂

We’re thrilled to welcome Matt Denton of @mantisrobot to SMRRF 2026! 🤖 With 30 years in the UK film & TV industry specialising in animatronic control systems, Matt was one of the creators and operators of the iconic Star Wars droid BB-8, and the mastermind behind the two-tonne walking hexapod Mantis Robot. Expect robotics, electronics, engineering brilliance and seriously impressive 3D printed builds. You do not want to miss this. 🎟️ SMRRF Tickets: link in bio 📍 7–8 March 2026 🏛️ The Dalton Building, @manmetuni #SMRRF2026 #3DPrinting #Robotics #MantisRobot #MakerCommunity #STEM #Animatronics #ManchesterEvents #SMF

The near disaster of this music video shoot! 👉 Back in the 90’s I programmed the lip sync for the animatronic baby in Massive Attack Teardrop video. These were the DAT tapes given to me by the production company so I could sync the lip movement to the audio. We shot everything at high speed to make the end result appear softer and dreamy. Hence the strange 37.5 fps on one of the DAT’s. I had a bit of a nightmare on the day of filming, when I played back my recorded animation on the baby and the sound man played the track by the end of the song 3 mins or so the lips were out of sync! We couldn’t figure out what was happening but had to assume his audio playback was correct and my computer lip sync was out. We worked out roughly how far out my track was compared to the original and I wrote some code to go through all my recorded data and remove frames to get the two back in sync. This was all while the camera was getting setup and I had about 15 mins to write the code and process the files. Fortunately it all worked and no one on set other then myself and the sound man knew it even happened 😅 After the shoot I subsequently figured out what happens and it was all to do with sample rates on my low end 8bit sound blaster card.. I quickly upgraded to a 16bit card 😬 #massiveattack #teardrop #animatronic #musicvideo

Using modern 3D printing to replace hard to find parts on a vintage car. Bertie gets a new interior light. #3dprinting #car #design #engineering #form4

Spooly McSpoolBot. Thanks to #Prusa for this fun challenge! full video link in bio 👆 #3dprinting #cad #electronics #robot @josefprusa

Matt Denton (@mantisrobot ) talks us through the concept behind his six-legged robotic creation,✨i.C. Hexapod✨which is exhibiting in KINETIC. Matt will be in the gallery tomorrow, Saturday 31st January, from 11am-1pm to answer any questions you might have about i.C., as well as his giant 3D printed lego-style kart. Matt became interested in electronics and robotics while at school, but didn’t really get to grips with anything until he left and started a four year certified apprenticeship with Marconi Defense Systems. During this time, he studied Electronics and Computer Engineering and obtained an ONC (Ordinary National Certificate, a UK further education qualification similar to A-Levels) and HNC (Higher National Certificate) in these subjects. He was very interested in special effects and animatronics, having been inspired at a young age by films such as Star Wars and Labyrinth, and decided towards the end of his apprenticeship that he would like to work in the film and TV industry. Having no knowledge of the industry, Matt decided to write to TV companies whose names he found in industry magazines. Needless to say, all he received were rejections, informing him that TV companies were not the place to find this kind of work, and he almost gave up. After about the 10th rejection letter, he decided to pursue a BEng (Bachelor of Engineering) course in electronics and computers at Portsmouth University. Matt founded Micromagic Systems in 1999 to supply animatronic, robotic, and puppet control systems and services to the film and television industry. He has a 2016 Visual Effects Society Award for his work on the Star Wars droid BB-8, and has a Guinness World Record for the “Largest rideable Hexapod Robot” called Mantis. KINETIC continues until 18 April. Open Tues-Sat, 10am-5pm. Free entry. 📍MAKE Southwest, Bovey Tracey, Devon, UK #MSWKinetic #KineticArt #RoboticArt

Star Wars props. LEGO-inspired machines. Massive builds. That’s Matt Denton. We put him on the spot with rapid-fire 3D printing questions: FDM or resin? PLA or PETG? Quick answers, no hedging. Would you make the same picks?