Tinkerbelle, Disney, Digital Sculpture

Our four legged friend was sculpted with production in mind. Please note the pose, especially how all the limbs were arranged so that this figure could be molded in a two part side to side draw mold.

We are proud of this figure because with it we felt we captured the warrior nature of this Centaur as well as meeting the production needs of our client.

We love this item! Dumbo was sculpted to be a bubble blower. We really enjoyed this sculpture because it gave us a chance to work with a really classic property and with one of our favorite licensors.

Yes! It's True! We Found NEMO!

This sculpture is in the paint master phase of production-

that means our friends at Disney and Pixar

have approved the sculpture

and now we are having the way we painted it approved.

We are provided with the exact colors they want,

it's up to us to match these colors and

apply them exactly where they need to go.

This sculpture is a combination of a milling material called "Ren Shape"

and sculpture wax for the eyes and mouth.

It takes the skills of a machinist and a traditional sculptor

to bring this Lightning McQueen figure to life.

OK, so this picture is from a LONG time ago, these figurines with hinged wrists were designed by me after I was flown to San Francisco to tour the "Skellington Productions" facility as they were making the film Nightmare Before Christmas. I got to spend the day with Henry Sellick and his team walking through the multitude of sets, walking past model makers.. I actually got to hold the Jack Skellington and Professor Finkelstein puppets!
A couple of Days later I got to sit down at my desk and create an entire line of products based on what I had seen. Figurines, Dolls, Mechanical rolling toys, Plush, Ceramic Mugs, Key Chains... you name it.

It's true that these particular items were not made by our current incarnation Little Wonder Studio- but they were made by one of our team members and that shows how deep our toy making roots go. Actually- they go further back than that, but that's another blog post!

Koala Brothers and their airplane.

This job is featured on our website

in the digital services section as a digital model.

What you see here is the completed prototype

This is a large bas relief tray of our good freind Jack Skellington.

It was made bt one of our clients to be a place to display candy

when trick or treaters come to the door.

We of course love any chance we get

to do Nighmare Before Christmas products!

Mister Incredible next to a quarter!
This is a sculpt in progress and you can
see at least two different colors of wax
used on this sculpt.

This is a great photo to me because it really shows how we work.

First there is a beautiful sculpture of Cinderella.

She's in a great pose with a flow to her dress and wonderful gesture.

Behind her is a high Bas relief of her castle,

built within a computer here in the shop and rapid prototyped.

Beneath both of these parts is a mechanical base

that will blow snow particles all around a snow globe dome

that is not pictured here.

Art meets engineering!

Painting Bambi

This is an actual studio shot of a Bambi paint master in progress.

You can see how all our colors are hand mixed to match Pantone Chips.

One of the secrets to a great paint job for most cartoon characters

is crisp clean edges where colors meet.

It's harder than you might think to achieve!

Here is a wax of Minnie.
When I see our projects in wax like this
I am reminded of how much art goes into what we do.
While this sculpture is destined
to be made a million times in plastic
it starts off as a well crafted gem of pose and character.
It really makes one proud .

Our freind the Mouse,

His freind the Goof

and a set of turning gears.

This job was cool because we got to make

a simple set of revolving gears and characters

all in one project!

We pulled this image from an EBAY sale.

It's kind of low quality as a photograph

but it really blows us away that our work ,

the design and sculpting we do day to day-

it gets out into the world!

People we will never meet or know

enjoy the work we do.

Its really incredible when you think about it.

Here is her royal highness Snow White. This sculpture was on the large side for us, she stood at about 10 inches tall. I like this shot because to me she looks like she's just about to speak to someone who she knows, as if her prince is standing just off camera and she's happy to see him.