Ever wonder how you train a walrus? Check out this commercial on YouTube that we shot in the Chilean Andes during 2008: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyWoQo0ggkY It was performed with two different rigs. The first is a walrus suit and the second is an animatronic walrus. The first was for the wide shots in the snow, and the second is for the close up shots of the face animating. Both of these rigs are 100% of normal walrus scale size.

Mechanical Eyeballs

Mechanical Eyeballs, originally uploaded by GatorMoto.

EVer wonder what's under all that skin and shell? Here's an up close image of the animatronic design and construction of a talking character. In this case, it's a talking shark character. Originally built for Kelloggs for ad agency,Leo Burnett (Chicago). The final commercial can be seen at: http://www.animalmakers.com/videogallery/Kelloggs_sharks.php

Roland Emmerich books Animal Makers onto "2012". Click here to see the hippo, rhino, or bear suit that traveled up to Vancouver, BC. Three Animal Makers crew attended the rigs and suit. There were four stages operating for the disaster film, plus a giant water tank.

CSI (Crime Scene Investigations) was back in the Animal Makers' studios during February 2009. This time it was for a eagle attack rig. This bird attacks something, and they needed to make that happen on camera. One of our best television clients! Thanks CSI!

"The Office" returns to Animal Makers once again for an artificial trout. At last minute, the propmaster for the series (Phil Shea) had to instruct that the insides needed to be just like they would be in a seafood window. No problem! Check out the before and after shots! Great to see Phil and his production crew back in the studio!

Fiat dealers from all over South America came together near Recife, Brazil for three days. Fiat corporate booked the animatronic animals of Animal Makers to shoot a commercial for their Palio Adventure model, as well as entertain the dealers. Here's a video of those dealers' families posing with an animatronic lion and bear.

Thanks go out to the production team over at HBO's "True Blood". Nice folks, and a great propmaster, Steven Levine. Steven has been in the film biz since he was a kid. His father, Al, is well known to the Hollywood film-making community. Animal Makers built a bunny rabbit out of artificial materials. The bunny prop also has a hidden rig (click to see image). See the episode and let us know what you think. The scene will knock your slippers off!

jim@animalmakers.com

Fake Animal Mummies:  Can you believe that realistic fake animals have been around for thousands of years?  In ancient Egypt, there were fake animal mummies created that were stored in the tombs.  Some of the Cat Mummies  that were made and presented to Bastet (a popular Goddess of the time) contained simple rags or possibly a bone.  Check out this site for more info on these ancient fakes!