Many of you may not know this, but I spent a few years working in the movie FX industry. Specifically, I made animatronic props and movie monsters for films like AVP:Requiem, Snakes on a Plane, and Epic Movie. Interestingly a mini documentary just came out profiling the studio “Mark Rappaport’s Creature FX” and my beaver prop from Epic Movie’s featured about halfway through! It’s kind of exciting as I never actually saw Epic Movie and never had much of a chance to see the finished prop in action. Video after the jump.

As a machinist, I only ever worked on the mechanical guts of the prop. Giving the creature skin, paint, hair, and all those cosmetic details happens after the animatronics are complete, and sometimes in a completely different studio. We were moving at such speed during this production that I only caught a brief glimpse of the finished prop before it was rushed to set.

Next time I make something for a movie I’ll be sure to take more pictures.