It Came from Outer Space!

I've been slacking on updating this blog, but Im determined to get back on track this year!  Anyways, here's a weird space creature that I made awhile back.  Just thought it would be fun to create another GIANT puppet!

Storybots: The Letter P

Recently at JibJab, we have been creating tons of content for the new children's brand, Storybots!  I recently had the opportunity to create the puppets for one of the videos, "The Letter P".  Here are some pictures of the bots in progress...

With help from the amazing puppeteers at Swazzle...Here's the final video for The Letter P!

Dancing Cupcake

I have always wanted to try my hand at stop motion animation, and I finally got a chance with this new ecard.  I was going for an old school "California Raisins" claymation feel...so, I grabbed some clay and armature wire and got to work building the little guy!

Next step was to animate.  Being my first time venturing into stop motion, it was a difficult and tedious process.  However, just the learning experience alone made it all worth it in the end!

Click on the link below to watch the video!

http://www.jibjab.com/view/iwCjGic1hC6rlVH2jOJm

Trucks!

Recently at work, I animated this iPad book with some help from Dylan Forman, for the Jibjab Jr. brand.  Here's a video of an enthusiastic customer enjoying the book.  Its so cool to be a part of something that brings happiness to kids and their parents.  This really made my day!

El Gigante: The Singing Luchador!

Last week at work, we got two days to make anything we want for whats known as The Jibjab Lab.  This time around, I collaborated with Francisco Hernandez and Kevin Elam to create a remote controlled animatronic puppet.  I've been dying to get into animatronics for a long time and this was the perfect opportunity to learn from a technology wizard like Francisco!  While Francisco and I focused on building and making the puppet somehow work, Kevin was painting the ring.  The main challenge for me was figuring out how to fuse the design with the technology that Francisco was building.

Here are some pictures of the work in progress...

After two or three sleepless nights, El Gigante was complete!   As you can see in the video, our Luchador's movement is jerky, to say the least.  However, I feel he has a certain charm to him and think he's super cool and hilarious.  Awesome work gentlemen!


El Gigante from Mike Chiechi on Vimeo.

Opera Man

Heres a little birthday ecard I made a few months back.  It was my first foray into live hand puppetry, and I think it suits the piece well. Assisting with the acting is Artist/Animation extraordinaire, Kevin Elam.  Thanks buddy!  Here are a few bts pics from the shoot.

...And heres the final video!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Cave Worms

Its always great when I get to collaborate with super talented/cool people at work.  Thus was the case when Justin Parpan and myself got to work together on this fun (and bizarre) little short.  We describe this as our ode to David Lynch in ecard form!  Justin drew some amazing concept art that I based the puppet on.  I felt that the puppet needed a slimey, veiny texture, so I pushed aside the fleece and got out a jar of some latex rubber for the creatures exterior!

Here are some pics from the shoot. Alan Cook helped with the lighting and Justin made some awesome backgrounds made of clay which fit perfectly with the puppet.  In the end, I put everything together in post and The Cave Worms were born!

Heres the final video.  Enjoy!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!