Halloween 2011: FRANKENBERRY!

Introduced by General Mills Cereal in 1971, this advertising icon is still around today pimping his sugary sweet cereal every October, along with his pals Count Chocula and Boo Berry.

It took me about 6 weeks to put this guy together from scratch. He was really very mobile...just not very fast. And he included a pretty hefty sound system (custom music tracks + sound effects), sound-responsive electro-luminescent wiring, a dozen strobe lights, and some sweet dance moves.

As always, Frankenberry was accompanied on 6th street by the beautiful blinking "Bride of Frankenberry."

43 batteries in all, a bit heavy, but totally worth it.

Halloween 2011 preview

Maybe you should come down to 6th street tonight and see me?

Magic Carpet Ride for Henri

Another Alamo Drafthouse original for the "Aladdin" singalong and after-party. I was out of town for this one, but before I left I was able to drop off this sweet pair of fake legs and magically flying carpet for the host of the evening, Henri Mazza. Sounds like it went well, even though I don't really remember microphones and booze in the movie...must have been a director's cut.

Bud builds big bugs for Starship Troopers

Alamo Drafthouse called again, "Bud...we need bugs. BIG bugs." It's for their showing of "Starship Troopers." Well, a full-sized bug was out of the budget, but I was able to swing a couple of bug victims. Built mostly from styrofoam and chicken wire, these poor guys will be entertaining the movie crowds before next week's show. Two brave citizens will run up on stage, remove the skull caps of our dearly departed roughnecks, and slurp out any brainy goo that the Brain Bugs left behind. What does the winner get? A hell of a lot of respect from his/her movie date. See more pictures HERE.

Cowboys & Aliens & Bud & Styrofoam

Well, I still haven’t seen this movie, but didn’t stop me from building a replica cuff (and replica horse) for the movie premiere at Alamo Drafthouse this past weekend. The cuff is carved from a single piece of Styrofoam and includes micro LED lights and sound effects.

Like I said, I haven’t seen the movie, so I don’t know what it’s supposed to do. I only modeled it after the movie posters and trailer. I’m pretty sure that the one from the movie doesn’t have tiny hidden LED mice in the bottom. I’m also pretty sure that Mr. T isn’t in the movie…even though I built in a Mr. T sound card. Really just a little surprise for the guy I built it for. Thought it would be fun if he prepares for battle by pushing the big red button and hears “I PITY THE FOOL”

The event ended with a Cowboy & Aliens dance party at the High Ball. I actually had time to go this time. Great music and light show courtesy of The Super Set! Loads of fun to build this stuff, and a really fun event.

Alamo Drafthouse needs a dark lord.

So, they came to BudCrud! And I was more than happy to sculpt up a Voldemort mask for them. They're having LOTS of Harry Potter parties, and the host needs a new nose. Of course in the movies, they remove the actor's nose digitally. Also, my "actor" will need to perform, walk, talk and have a drink or two. So far so good!

Get ready to ROCK!

Here's a little prop I recently built for the Alamo Drafthouse here in the ATX. It's a replica of the missile used in the movie "The Rock." It will be used during their super-cool TOUGH GUY CINEMA. In this photo you can (kinda) see the built-in access panel where audience members will have to DEFUSE this warhead by eating all the VX gas inside ... or green Jello-o. Either of which may make the skin melt off your face.

"Face Off: Season 2" Audition

Have you ever seen the show "Face Off" on the SyFy channel? No, it has nothing to do with the John Travolta/Nick Cage movie. It's a "reality" show about special effects artists competing against each other each week to eventually win some cash, some makeup, and some heart-felt pats on the back. I LOVED season one. So (at the insistence of my closest friends and sweet-sweet wife) I sent in this little audition tape.

For this audition, I sculpted this original monster mask.

I think it turned out pretty okay. But from that point on, everything that could go wrong, went wrong. I made a 2-piece mold that created an undercut...LOCKING the front half to my armature. I went ahead and busted it loose, but it broke the front half of my mold. It wasn't in a critical area, so I continued on to latex.

Unfortunately, my latex kit is a few years old, and I usually only bake one mask per year, so all the chemicals had turned a little murky. As a result, I had to make two tries at it (each taking 4-hours to bake). The second attempt was moderately successful, except that I had TOTALLY run out of mold release. NOTE TO READERS: Cooking spray does NOT make a very good mold release. Fortunately, the design of this was supposed to be that of a gross decayed zombie, so a few tears here and there worked out just fine.

At that point, it seemed like I was home free. All I had to do was put it on, video tape it and edit it all together. I shot it all on my FlipCam (in HD) and on my iPhone (not even SD quality). The conversion of this digital media took HOURS. But a couple of Lone Stars later, I calmed down and put together the video you can see above, or at my YouTube page HERE.

Well, it's all in their hands now. Wish me luck!

ZOMBIES INVADED MY BIRTHDAY!

It was a sneak attack. A complete surprise! I was already having a great day filled with great weather, mountain biking, XBOX, mexican food, etc. But I had NO idea that back at my house, my amazing wife was transforming our lovely home into a ZOMBIE QUARANTINE ZONE!

It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life...complete with professional makeup artists, professional light show, zombie themed food and cake, and a zombie rock concert in my living room.

My good friend Michelle Canning (a.k.a. Zombie Audry Hepburn) ran around all night with her video camera. For a sneak peek at some of the footage, click HERE. You can also browse through the full set of photos HERE.

More creature footage

The discovery of Chesterfield Cave

Here's that movie I'm in. ENJOY!

HEY, I'm in a MOOOOVIE!

Check it out! Michelle Canning put my ugly mug in a documentary about HALLOWEEN in Austin, Texas.

Watch it HERE.

Then subscribe to my blog and watch my progress on this year's costume!

If I do THIS to my friends, imagine what I do to my enemies.

It is 2010. An even numbered year. That means that I (try to) contain my Halloween madness to just the month of October. But that doesn't mean that I can't help my FRIENDS with their Halloween exploits. So here is Glen, somewhere under a nice creamy-cool layer of alginate. And as long as I don't accidentally plug up his nose holes, he should be just fine. Next comes the plaster head wrap. Yadda-yadda-yadda. Sha-boom! Two and a half hours later...solid plaster head cast. An exact likeness (except for a curiously flat head) of Glen's head. Next victim...Justin. After that, it should officially be October, and FINALLY my turn!

You may enjoy more photos of the process, and the final result HERE!

AS SEEN ON TV! (well...on the internet, at least)

Indy Mogul just featured my audition in their latest episode of Backyard FX! In the first day, more people viewed it on YouTube than there are in my entire hometown. Pretty awesome. Response is mostly good. Sounds like people want to see how I built the legs, the alien, the Mad hatter and even the turkey (which they thought was a chicken...close enough). What do you think?