Microraptor
The first puppet/animatronic I ever created. This took me a month to do, and it was the main source of the knowledge that I have now. I knew I wanted to tackle larger projects, so I began working on this one to give myself experience. This posable puppet is 3 feet long with glass eyes, polymer teeth and claws, and latex skin.
I did research on microraptor fossils before sketching out the dinosaur concepts. I wanted a more interpreted look to the design, so I added my own spin to it, such as teeth poking out above the lower jaw and a slimmer look to the overall body shape.
I sculpted everything out of WED clay and later molded it using hydrocal plaster. The mold is used to cast a skin, which I used latex for.
The body, arms, legs, and feet were all separate molds. I went through a lot of trial and error to complete the final puppet, as the first sculpture I had done was destroyed by a failed attempt at molding. I ended up doing a second sculpt and had a much better experience.
The eyes were glass painted with acrylics and later sealed with a gloss nail polish. The feet were casted in silicone which is pictured below.
I used rubber cement paint over the latex so it would flex and not crack. I later went over the base coat with acrylics for more detail. After the paint job was done, I did the featherwork which consisted of 600 feathers. The puppet has posable wings, legs, tail, jaw, neck, and feet. It's very light which makes carrying it around pretty easy. I ended up making two other microraptors using the same molds as the first one. I created an albino one and another black one. Each one takes a week to finish.
