Nightmare Before Christmas Vampire Puppet & Coffin Restoration & Display
Restoration and a custom inspired base for a vampire puppet and his coffin prop from The Nightmare Before Christmas
We are all really big Tim Burton fans here at the studio, and were really excited to provide some TLC and a custom display for this screen used Nightmare Before Christmas vampire puppet and his coffin prop.
Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas is a classic of stop motion animation. The technique requires a lot of repetitive movement and handling of the puppets, which can put a lot of strain on the foam latex. This screen used vampire puppet showed signs of that handling and additional small damage due to the foam becoming more fragile with age. The coffin, being fabricated from other materials, was in very nice condition and would make a nice addition to the display. Our client wanted to come up with something elaborate that could display both of these original film props together with a lot of context and themed elements from the film.
For the vampire puppet, our first step was to stabilize the delicate foam latex to give us a more solid foundation to work with. We were able to gently repose his arms and head for more appealing display and once his body was in position we began the subtle restoration process. We reattached a few pieces that had broken off over time and then patched any of the areas where the material was missing.
In order to maintain as much of the original material as possible we use an in-painting technique, where we only paint areas that they have patched or where new material has been added. It is a much more tedious and time consuming process, but maintaining the history behind these pieces is very important to us on a personal level and part of the high level of service provided by our experienced prop conservation team.
For the themed display we discussed several different elements that were important to the client. That was turned into a concept sketch by Patrick Louie. Along with Patrick, 3D artist Christian Maggi and restoration artist Melissa Ocampo used a combination of hand sculpting, digital sculpting, hand painting and finishing to bring the display to (undead) life!
Have an original movie or television prop in need of restoration or a unique display? Email or call today and let’s discuss your project!
