Anima-what?

Animatronics is high-tech puppetry, performed for movie or TV cameras, often using radio-controlled mechanisms and live video monitors.

It is still used for movies and TV, but CGI (computer Generated Images) are replacing it for many realistic uses.

Animatronics began in London, with the creatures built by Jim Henson's Creature Shop for THE DARK CRYSTAL.

Many American feature films, especially fantasy epics, are shot in London's studios because of the wealth of technical experts and facilities available there.

Animatronics

I chose this type of puppetry as a career after I left film school, and it wasn't easy to get into.

When I first decided that animatronics was what I wanted to do, I had to teach myself. I lived in Newcastle upon Tyne, hundreds of miles from the heart of the film industry. In those days there were no courses and no books on how to do it, just occasional tantalising photos in film magazines.

Ultimately, I managed to make and operate a foam rubber animatronic talking storage heater in a series of TV adverts, all before I ever even met anyone else who worked in animatronics.

I sent photographs of my early creations to Stuart Freeborn, the great makeup artist who created the man-apes in 2001: A Space Odyssey. He recommended me to Jim Henson's Creature Shop, who hired me for their fantasy film LABYRINTH.

I worked at the Creature Shop on a number of productions, and also did a wide range of freelance animatronics design work through the 1980s.

Once I became a cartoonist, I stopped using animatronics tools and materials, so I no longer keep them.

NOTE: I no longer do animatronics work now!

I do still make (non-moving) creature models occasionally, if a job interests me.