| The Polar Bear head sculpt and molds had already been completed for a Warner Bros movie called "On Deadly Ground". That movie went through some changes during pre-production. Originally, the hero (played by Steven Segal) gets attacked by a Polar Bear. The bear was changed to a Grizzly bear during prep. The original, animatronic Polar Bear molds were set aside, and the Grizzly molds were used to create a bear figure that wrestles with Segal. At the same time that "On Deadly Ground" was filming, so was another film, "Legends of the Fall". Animal Makers was already up for serving that film, as well. Jim Boulden, President of Animal Makers, made a deal with both production companies that let the movies split the cost of making the $100,000 animatronic bear figure. "Legends" shot with it first, then sent it over to the Alaskan set of "Deadly". Since then, the animatronic Grizzly has regularly shot for film and television. The latest project is an advertisement for Hummer Automobiles. In the UK, an advertisement for "The Guardian" newspaper featuring the bear strolling through the woods and discussing toxic food issues.
The polar bear's skin is made of foamed latex and the under-shells are created in epoxy with fiberglas cloth. The animatronics are made of lightweight aluminum tubing, needlepoint bearings, and swaged stainless steel cable. The eyes are hand painted acrylic with an overcoating. The fur is hand-wefted National Fiber Tech material. Claws were created in flexible urethane and in stiff epoxy resin over steel.
As for the large python, that lifelike prop was also originally created for another film. A brand new casting was created from the existing molds. The skin is made of latex and the inside is urethane polyfoam.
More than 2,000 animal molds now exist in Animal Makers' collection. These molds are constantly being reused to create new props for new films. This process has saved film-makers in time and money.
Inside information about the work we do here is available at right here: That link is an ever-growing menu of the services that come together to create animatronic animals, birds, reptiles, insects, fish and fantasy animals. Just one example is a look at dental replication and enhancement.
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