"CONNOR" - HAUNTED HOUSE ANIMATRONIC
Our shop was requested to build a disemboweled, rocking animatronic for the haunted house attraction "Hilloween" in Buladean, NC. I worked as the Head Designer of the project along with Cat Alvord as Project Manager/Lead Mechanics, and Olivia Keserich as Lead Finisher. With only five weeks to design, test, fabricate, and install before the attraction went live, Connor (as we named our figure) was born through a team effort. Specifically, I sculpted Connors face, sewed his clothing to fit his new animatronic frame and prevent the mechanisms from catching, weathered his clothing and created faux guts/gore, helped Cat iterate with mechanism design, as well as create paint elevations for the team.
Connor at the haunted house.
Build Process
Connor's original face was a dummy head we purchased to use as a base for sculpting. Since we had a quick turn around from design to install, we chose to start on a base, rather than build a new head from scratch. He certainly did not look the same as when he started once I was through with him.
Since we knew we were creating an animatronic that would be rocking in pain, often with his head down in the dark, we wanted a big, dramatic expression. I drew this simple sketch of someone screaming out in pain and found photo references (and took a few of myself too) to use while sculpting.
I used Apoxie Sculpt for his face modifications, which also served as a built-in weight that helped to reset the head raise mechanism by lowering the head back to his chest whenever the movement cycle was complete.
After sculpting was complete, I created this painting elevation for Olivia to paint from, complete with a lot of fake blood and bruises.
Finished paint job...in all its (quite literally) bloody glory.
After Connor's head was complete, I moved on to weathering his clothing.
Because he was missing his left arm, I cut off and then shredded his left flannel sleeve with a surform and files and added copious amounts of blood for a fake artery that won't stop bleeding.