Sneak Peak: CatNap Animatronic!

Hey all! We're a good ways through our next project video which, by a significant margin, is our most highly requested creature to date. He's called 'CatNap' and we've had THOUSANDS of requests to build him in just the last couple of weeks alone.

Basically he's a super creepy, giant evil cat. 😅

Not sure if the Cheshire Cat was part of his inspiration but he's purple and has a giant mouth so definitely some vibes there. He's from the newest chapter of the game Poppy Playtime.

We started with a PVC frame and we're using our PVC Joints and Flanges for joints in the ankles and knees as well as the rotating PVC joints from the pirate skeleton project! His hips and shoulders rotate so that the back can bend. 

This allowed us to pose him into a "cat pounce" kind of thing with a lot of bend and twist to make it natural looking.

The bend in the back is for a "breathing" animation using a wiper motor that pulls the two sides together and allows it to sort of "open and close". It's a subtle animation that will give the body some movement to keep it from looking like a statue. We're thinking of it like an idle animation.

Jay designed a brand new "PVC Wiper Motor Mount" which will be available to Patrons as soon as the video launches! It's AWESOME. Works perfectly for 1" PVC.

Next we wrapped the spine in armature wire and create duct tape body form.

CatNap has a distinctly gaunt, almost starved look to him with poking out ribs and vertebrae so we used pool noodles on top of the form to create the inner anatomy. Also made him some big hip bones on the back side.

After that, the legs were wrapped in upholstery foam and we used duct tape and bubble wrap to create bulges at the knees and ankles.

So far everything still moves! The PVC is holding up. The BIG challenge next though is the head which is MASSIVE.

The head is as big as the entire body so we're a bit worried about stability. The joints are strong but everything has a limit.....so we'll see!

CatNap's main "attack" is he breathes out a red sleeping gas, so we put a microfogger in the chest with a red LED to create the red fog. A large servo will connect the head to the body so the head can move back and forth as well.

Once it all works, the whole thing will get wrapped in bright purple fur. 🤘😀 OH! And we bought "the world's blackest paint" for the inside of the mouth. So that'll be fun to test!!

So far this project is really challenging but is combining all the things we've learned this past year on a bunch of projects! It feels like a test, or something. Can we put our cumulative knowledge to work on all on a single thing?! We think so! 

Let's just hope the PVC can hold this giant up................. 🤞

Stay Wicked!

~J&J