"Marco Pollo and the Synchronic Articulator"
March 22, 2014
This is a lip-synch exercise for the March 2014 monthly challenge at AnimateClay.com. I wanted to try out something that could do a better job of shaping particular vowels than my usual puppets - they are pretty much limited to muppet style gum flapping. Sound clips are from the movies Wizard of Oz (1939), Robocop (1987), and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), plus one song which doesn't fit the giant head/robot theme, but was too perfect for testing the Ahh and Ooh shapes to pass up. (Plus the chicken enjoyed it.) Title music is from Kevin MacLeod's Incompetech.com site.
The chicken was made some years ago for an exercise at Stopmoshorts.com, and was dragged out of retirement for this one last gig. He's built up from armature wire, epoxy putty, upholstery foam, and liquid latex. Most of the machinery is part of a set I am making for a future project, but I put the head and the control panel with the switches together just for this. The head is made of plywoood, mdf, armature wire, and ping pong balls.