Traffic Tunnel 2000!
This idea has been brought to life
I'm an animator and model-maker based in Northumberland. I combine digital animation techniques with more traditional methods like stop motion. I enjoy sharing my skills with others - I'm an Associate Lecturer at Northumbria University and an animation mentor with TICE - introducing children to what it is like working in creative industries.
The Traffic Tunnel was brought to life by our magnificent maker Chloe Rodham.
Blog entries
We set to work finishing the model, using a flocking technique for the grass in the park and lots of bright colours for the paintwork. Seeing it installed in the Lit and Phil was great and it was lovely to see Ivy’s family also enjoying the invention!
When Ivy came to the workshop, we asked a few questions about the animals that might benefit from the invention and Ivy helped us by drawing a few of them - foxes, rabbits and dogs! Ivy also helped by painting some of the model - the bright green grass to go around the edges. We also demonstrated how the laser cutter works to cut out all the shapes for the model and made a sign for Ivy to paint take home! We ended up making a mini version of the sign to go onto a cafe building in the park.
Fellow maker Mark and I collaborated on creating this model and we started by planning out the dimensions and the kind of materials we should use to bring Ivy’s invention idea to life. We thought we could use acrylic for the tunnel to make it look like glass and use plywood for the other things like the buildings and animals. We knew Ivy was going to come to the workshop to visit us so we got started on a few things to show what the model could look like, and got started on the motor mechanism which would make it look like the model cars were going through the tunnel. We needed to connect up a button for this so visitors to the invention could switch it on and off.