Tim Burton:
UFOs
| Title: | Tim Burton UFO |
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| Project Collaborators: | Tim Burton and The Neon Museum |
| Date: | October 12, 2019 |
| Location: | The Neon Museum: Las Vegas, Nevada |
| Materials: | steel tube, EP200, EPS foam, cast urethane resin, aluminum tubing, fluorescent acrylic, automotive paint, LEDs, neon flex LED tubing, various hardware |
| Project Goal: | To create three UFO characters that were to be installed as a permanent exhibit at the museum from Tim Burton’s provided drawings. |
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| Project Challenges: | Having only 3 weeks from the start of the project, the permitting approval process was extremely challenging due to the height of these sculptures. After finally getting wind shear rating approvals and stamped, we were able to build these sculptures and installed on-site in 9 total build days. |
The initial drawings were created to ensure that the sculptures could resist the wind at their respective heights.
Different variations of the UFOs were sketched to create different character views.
The leg placement was dictated by the current surrounding sculpture's ground formation.
The first initial scale maquettes were created so that we could get a sense of scale to the fences that were in front of the UFO sculptures.
Creating a clay closeup helps define the characteristics of the sculpture before shaping it in true scale.
The large scale sculptures were built up slowly and calipered to the CAD model during the process to ensure the form was accurate.
The pocket in the back of the heads allowed for access to the LED controllers and power supplies which light up the eyes.
The eyelids needed a lot of detail strengthening because of how thin they ended up being.
Aluminum wire was used for the antennae to hold 2 laser cut acrylic circular pieces.
The cast resin eyes lit up from the hollow chamber that was sculpted inside of the head.
The UFOs stood at greatly elevated heights at the museum and created a sense of warped perspective.