Hi my name is Mikayla Hotton and I am the founder of MikAnimate product and services. I am an Australian puppet fabricator and prop maker with over 3 years experience in the film and puppetry industry, I am trained in a large range of skills and techniques in various mediums.

 

Most recently, I have worked at A Blanck Canvas where we created large scale jet ski driven dragons that float on the Yarra River, a horse for a festival in Saudi Arabia, 10 flamingos and 10 fish for Perth’s Electric Kingdom light and puppet show and 3 larger than life dolphins for Melbourne’s Moomba festival parade. Working on these multiple projects I got the chance to sculpt and heat treat foam, cut templates and build puppets out of various foams, make armature cores from scratch, make head tilting mechanisms and glue the armatures into the foam puppets.

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In the past year I completed some contract work as an assistant studio technician for last year’s Bluey Myer Christmas Windows at Stage One. Prior to this I have been working as Lead puppet fabricator for Adam Elliot’s stop motion feature film ‘Memoir of a Snail’ for the duration of last year. My previous experience involved working as the sole puppet designer and builder on The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s “Carnival of the Animals” production. I have also enjoyed working at Sharp FX studios where we made a range of full body costumes, muscle suits and silicone rod puppets for a children’s tv show The Spooky files, creating 30 dead hyper-realistic body props for the feature film ‘Before Dawn’ and building 3 life sized fiberglass orca whales for The National Museum of Australia.

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As well as working at studios I work as a freelance prop maker for film and tv, as well as working as an artist who has currently been given a grant to make an installation for a local gallery.

 

I studied my Bachelor of Fine Arts Animation Degree at The Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) where I graduated early 2021. During my time at VCA I directed, wrote, produced and animated three major stop motion animation films. Although I have been trained in different forms of digital and traditional animation I was most drawn to the hands on type of work involved in stop motion animation and puppet making. My style of filmmaking can be described as both innovative and captivating as my audiences are drawn into a world rich with magic, history and wonder. Building stories from the ground up I meticulously sculpts all sets and props by hand, giving my backgrounds a character of their own. Puppet movements are carefully engineered and tested along with specially thought out effects such as bubble wrap rain, toffee water, plasticine fire and manual panning shots.  

 

I am always looking to work on new and exciting projects so please don't hesitate to contact me.