Star Wars Episode III Mon Calamari Senator. Animatronic Alien character (not Lego)

Mon Camamari senator character made in very short time for ep3 Revenge of the Sith.
This was sculpted by Richard Mueck, (brother of Ron Mueck) and mechanised by Greg in a few days.
Lovely paint job by Sophie Fleming.
Designed to be worn on an extra's head.
It is being held by Richard who has his hand in the internal skull-cap, but all motion is coming from servomotors.
I was ad-libbing a famous line of Admiral Ackbar and pupeteering him with a 6 channel radio set.
He would have looked great if we had set him up for pre-recorded dialogue and motion through a gilderfluke system but as a BG character he wasn't really required to speak specific lines. Regardless I made him so that he could convincingly look capable of chatting to another character.
We noticed during filming with the high definition cameras and large screen monitors that even distant background characters could be seen clearly so we decided against a basic cheap rubber mask and built something more elaborate. Creature Shop supervisor Dave Elsey

Category:

Science & Technology

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• Alien
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• Calamari
• Senator
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• character
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• scifi Dave
• Elsey
• Oscar

[coredor]

I love the way these guys are so secretive about the most trivial thing. The artform is almost dead due to CG and they're still living in the 80's clinging to their "secret" methods of the Dick Smith era.

[GregOrca]

@coredor

"I love the way these guys are so secretive about the most trivial thing"

It was a joke dude. Chill. No huge secret. I found a bit of plastic lying around the workshop. Don't remember what it was.

BTW I work in high end CGi animation. HappyFeet, docos etc

[AlderaanBoy]

So, what happened to all of the masks after filming? LFL Archives?

[GregOrca]

@AlderaanBoy

Yup. All shipped back to the ranch. The material in many of the masks has a very short useable life before crumbling into dust.

Sometimes only flexible for a year before going hard, cracking and crumbling away.

When foam latex is used it has about the same lifespan as a rubber band but that depends on light exposure, temperature , humidity etc.

[RobertsDigital]

Wear that thing and you will be given free access into area51

[GregOrca]

@RobertsDigital

Sshhhh. Don't tell anyone! That's how I've been getting all the free strawberry ice-cream.

[eebledeezo]

@GregOrca That is actually heartbreaking.

[joeyvader]

@rustoxide ...nice....

[rustoxide]

@GregOrca Hmmm let me guess... Low friction substance used on Star Wars... must be Astroglide!!!

[nckey42]

ITS A TRAP!

[ps3specter]

I want one.

[DragonBoy425]

You can't repel detail of THAT magnitude!