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February 6, 2011
lipton brisk eminem superbowl commercial
by sven at 10:30 pm
I helped out on a SuperBowl commercial: an ad for Lipton Brisk Tea, featuring Eminem. Big time!
I built the 8" tall armature for one of two Eminem puppets.
This ad was produced by the San Francisco-based company, Mekanism. Misha Klein directed animation, and Tirsh Hunter was in charge of puppet fab. One puppet was already in progress; my job was to duplicate the original armature, designed by Merrick Cheney.
Understand, Merrick is the living GOD of armature makers. Films like The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline... If you need impossibly small, strong, and precise armatures, he's the gold standard. I was thrilled and terrified to try working in his footsteps.
Merrick was able to supply the hinges, which was an enormous help. Due to time constraints, Lionel Ivan Orozco made hands (lots of hands). I understand that Ron Cole did the inner workings of the head. Stepblock joints, swivels, body blocks, assembly... That's all me.
The project took me 16 very sleepless days/nights. My speed, accuracy, and design work all just took enormous strides forward.
But during that time, everything else ceased to exist. I got the armature sent off on December 24... Huge thanks to Gretchin, without whom Christmas would hardly have happened at all!
posted by sven | February 6, 2011 10:30 PM | comments (9) | categories: exhibits & events, stopmo
Comments
Hey, Sven, did you know Tirsh is a friend of Cecilia's from CCA? Small world.
Posted by: Carl Caputo at February 8, 2011 8:47 AM
congratulations, sven! it's so good to finally see it after all that work in december!
carl: oo, i wish we had known that earlier! it would have been fun to say something. :)
Posted by: gl. at February 8, 2011 9:06 AM
What a POWERFULL step toward being a FORCE in armature creation in the world or PRO stopmotion filmaking.
jriggityPosted by: justin rasch at February 8, 2011 12:50 PM
Great job Sven! I follow you blog from the begining and I remember your first armature...and comparing this with the last one wow!!! the improvements are terrible. Congratulations! I dont know if you can answer my questions but: What size the stepblock joints is? what about swivels sizes? In the picture I saw that the stepblock has, where the ball is, another "step" why? Finally many thanks for sharing your knowledge this is very important for me because I can improve my armatures. Regards Javier (from Argentina)
Posted by: Javier at February 9, 2011 8:29 AM
Carl: Weird! I'll have to mention this the next time I email with Tirsh!
Gretchin: Thank you! I'm so glad, too, that it can finally be shared!
Justin: Thanks man! I keep thinking about your feature film, hoping that I can be a part of it a year or two down the line. ;-)
Javier: Thank you... The stepblock balls are 1/4" diameter. The stepblocks themselves are 5/8" wide. That's so they can accommodate the swivel rods, which are 1/4" diameter.
That extra step you see makes the top plate thicker... Which means that the screw can be recessed, giving the joint a narrower profile. It also makes the top plate stronger.
However, the trade-off is that the joint doesn't have as wide a range of motion. If you don't trim these joints, they can only swing 180 degrees. A more typical stepblock joint can swing maybe 315 degrees.
Posted by: sven at February 9, 2011 1:18 PM
Thanks so much Sven, and congratulation for the prize!!! Thanks for the information. Sorry but I have a concern: the stepblocks are 5/8" or 3/8"?
Posted by: Javier at February 9, 2011 5:46 PM
Woot! I was bragging to a friend that you had an armature in the Superbowl (well, a Superbowl commercial) but I didn't know which one - how'd the party go?
Posted by: Bridget B. at February 9, 2011 8:03 PM
@Javier: Sorry, that was a mistake. I meant 5/16".
@Bridget: It was my first time watching a football game ever. Good party -- very odd game. So many injuries! What is this, "last man standing?" I wanted the cultural experience at least once... Fortunately, most everyone else in the room could explain to me what was going on. :D
Posted by: sven at February 16, 2011 8:12 PM
Hey, I finally caught up. That was great, congratulations for a great and successful gig!
Posted by: shuju at April 2, 2011 8:36 PM