ArtonomyArtonomy Contact Details

Toyota Chicken “Stop-Motion” Puppet

chicken with bat 

The Toyota Chicken was a fairly large scale ‘stop motion’ puppet (approximately 500mm, or 50 cm, high). It had to be durable enough to be animated working on real cars and in other environments.

The character itself was designed by Rhys Norton and sculpted in clay, after which molds were made.

The puppet required a mechanical skeleton (armature) which would support the model and allow it to be moved in tiny increments for the animation process. This was created to fit within the void of the mold and be fully encased in a silicone skin.

With the head, hands and feet cast onto the armature, the rest of the body mass was fabricated by laminating sections and layers of foam rubber to achieve varying degrees of flex. The character was then painted, detailed and given a coat of ‘feathers’.

The television commercials were a huge success and extremely popular.

rhys with chicken

Here’s Rhys performing spinal surgery.

 

chicken 2

Surgeon’s view of the operation. He was fully adjustable so that he could be made to stand in any pose.

 

chicken 1

We won’t forget you, crazy Toyota chicken!

Artonomy specialize in these types of models for film or television commercials. If you need a stop-motion model or puppet like this, please give us a call. 

Comments are closed.

Contact Us

Your Name (required)

Your Email (required)

Subject

Your Message

captcha

Articles By Category