One of the teams’ favorite things to do is helping with prototyping – either for a one-off design or for a design to be taken to a larger scale – either in size or quantity.
A few of our favorite projects are here:
Turbidite Manor
Turbidite Manor, a 10000 square foot haunted house attraction, is another example of the diverse projects that Todd has been involved with. Todd designed, built, and programmed custom electronics controllers; installed lighting and environmental effects, and implemented numerous physical effects.
Laser Cue
Based on an exhaustive list of specifications from special effects legend John Dykstra, Todd built a device that projected a motion controlled laser dot that showed the actors where the location and movement of CGI creatures would be composited in post providing them with an invaluable eyeline. The laser was synchronized to the camera shutter so that when the shutter was open the laser was off thus the laser dot would not appear in the recorded image. The device could also be triggered by time code so that pre-recorded audio could be played back in sync with the move. The whole thing could be controlled from a VCR-style remote. It was insanely accurate, visible even on a bright set, and could play back the move repeatedly.
Also, they used it to direct the cats on Stuart Little… because a cat will follow a laser dot anywhere.
Pi VCR
A raspberry pi microcontroller, a tiny camera chip, an SD card for storage, an ir sensor, and a 3d printed case. The result: a motion triggered digital camcorder no bigger than your hand.
All so he could see what the cats were up to while he was away from home.
Bubo – Animatronics Project in Progress
Clash Of The Titans was one of the many special effects movies that inspired Todd when he was young. The movie featured a mechanical owl named Bubo. As an adult Todd received a full sized vinyl and foam reproduction of Bubo one Christmas.
He is currently retrofitting animatronics that will allow Bubo to turn his head, blink his eyes, and ‘talk’ using recorded samples of Bubo’s speech from the movie – all while perched on Todd’s shoulder.
Just a comical side note – you should make sure no children are around when you decapitate a toy to stuff its head with electronics.