A lip-synch exercise done for the monthly challenge at ClayAnimation.com, for March 2014. I've animated to dialog before but my puppets usually have small mouths that basically flap their gums, muppet-style. This time I wanted to try something with more ability to shape the different vowel sounds. Sound clips are from the movies Wizard of Oz (1939), Robocop (1987), and 2001 A Space Odyssey, plus a song that doesn't fit into the giant head/robot theme, but was just perfect for testing the Ahh and Ooh sounds. Marco Pollo (Pollo is Italian for chicken, I do know how to spell the Venetian traveller's surname) is an old puppet made from armature wire, cushion foam, epoxy putty, and liquid latex. The mechanical head was made pretty quickly from MDF, ping pong balls, and wire. The boilers and pipes are part of a set for a future production, with a control panel added so Marco can flip some switches.
Thanks again to Kevin MacLeod for his generosity in providing free music at his Incompetech.com site. A real boon to no-budget productions. I used it for the opening and closing credits.