Hi, I'm Anam. Please view the fish tanks below and drag and double click the icons to explore my work.
This model was about showing a day in the life of a church in Ealing. There were over 200 LEDs in the model illuminating the spaces with computer speakers positioned underneath the model to add to the lighting sequence. Choir music plays as the day sequence progresses. The sequence was animated in Cinema4d and baked out as a CSV to be read by an Arduino from an SD card. The sound was played back using a Bare Conductive Touchboard. The model was completed whilst at Piercy and Company. Model Maker: James Robinson. Photography: Alex Jackson
The exhibition was a culmination of over 2 years of work making 8 animated models. I worked on the mechanics , animation, sound design, hardware and software for each of the models. Each architectural model was a building designed by Piercy and Company that was either, completed or in the process of being completed.
For this model it was important to show all the floors of the building so I thought about a tool box mechanism. The mechanism consisted of 2 arms being pulled down by a linear gear rack on either side in the base of the model . There are several neo-pixel lights dotted around the stair case and in the basement to add some illumination to the spaces. The sound was created in Audacity using freesound.org and audio from The Grand Budapest Hotel , it was played back using a Bare Conductive Touchboard. The model was completed whilst at Piercy and Company. Model Maker: Liam Merrigan and Alex Wood.
I was asked to initially create a bird with a very delicate structure that was a combination of thin wood and paper. The final outcome was 5 birds randomly flapping their wings at the entrance to the Supermodels exhibition. The motors were cheap sg90 servos controlled by an Arduino. The bird installation was completed whilst at Piercy and Company. Model Maker/Mechanism: Kaspar Ter Glane. Photography: Alex Jackson
This was a projection mapped model showing the day in the life of an employee for a client. The content was produced in Cinema 4d, After Effects and used Anima XYZ for the animated people and Madmapper to calibrate the content with the model. The model was completed whilst at Piercy and Company. Model Maker: Sam Twaite. Photography: Alex Jackson
This model was initially going to only be illuminated, but then we decided on adding a winch mechanism to lift the roof of the building. This gave the illusion of part of the model floating in space. I used an rs485 shield with two Arduino's to control the motion of the winch. The rs485 meant I could position the winch mechanism far away from the main model without any interference in the signal.There are also several neo-pixel LED's dotted around the model. The model was completed whilst at Piercy and Company. Model Maker: Eleanor Harding. Photography: Alex Jackson
A projection mapped model to show how the building space can be occupied. One of the animations shows a day pass sweeping across the building with people working in the spaces. The other 3 animations show how the space can be used for exhibitions as well as a fashion show. The content was animated in Cinema 4d, Golaem for the animation of the people and After Effects for post work. The content was calibrated used Madmapper. The sound was mixed in Audacity.The model was completed whilst at Piercy and Company. Model Maker: Jun Wei Koh, Photography: Alex Jackson
This model was projection mapped and showed some of the workings out that an architect goes through while they design a building. So some of this data was projected and animated in plan on the model such as the window setting out, the occupancy and the fire escape routes. I used Madmapper to calibrate the projection.The model was completed whilst at Piercy and Company. Model Maker: Jun Wei Koh. Photography: Alex Jackson
This model has a low resolution light arc that sits around it, 8 lights cast shadows across the black model to mimic the sun path. There are two dimmer boxes and an Arduino with a dmx shield controlling the fading on and off of the lights. The model was completed whilst at Piercy and Company. Model Maker: Eleanor Evason. Photography: Alex Jackson
This model was a physical representation of the architectural flythrough animations that are produced by architects regularly. The model itself is an abstracted version of the actual proposed building. I wrote a script that culls the geometry not seen by the camera path in the 3 key views we wanted to show, what you are left with is a model that only makes sense through the camera. The mechanism is a sweeping arm moving across the 3 scenes with rotational and vertical motion using a combination of stepper motors and servos. The camera is an Arducam and in real-time displays the content on a projected screen next to the model.The lights are from Mike Stoane and are custom made. The model was completed whilst at Piercy and Company. Model Makers: Sam Twaite,Rob Forsey,Wui Lin Lee,Alex Dickie. Photography: Alex Jackson
This was the first animatronic model I worked on for the Supermodels exhibition. It is a house in Kew, the brief was to have the model pull apart vertically and horizontally to reveal the illuminated spaces within, it also had to have a functioning chimney and small moving bird with sounds of the house playing back. I designed a custom PCB to control the motor, lights and the chimney. The chimney was an inexpensive desktop humidifier with a relay to turn it on and off. There were two linear gear racks that created the main motion of the buildings and the bird had a smaller servo controlling the wing flaps. The lights were Neopixel LEDs and the sound board was by Bare Conductive which allowed me to playback an MP3 file. The sound was composed in Audacity. The model was completed whilst at Piercy and Company. Model Maker: Jun Wei Koh, Photography: Alex Jackson
A light performance for LG for their new products which included a washing machine, an air purifier, a fridge and an OLED tv. There were four types of node in the installation each representing one of these products. The lights were all arrayed in a fibonacci pattern in plan and hung from various heights from the ceiling. The content was created in Cinema 4d and baked out as a CSV and played back using Unity to see the content. The project was completed whilst at Jason Bruges Studio.
I worked on animating the robots for one of the sites in Hull. I had to create a game of catch between the 6 robots as they swayed their arms at each other and passed around the light. Their end effectors were large lights that could mimic a ball being thrown between them. The animation for the motion of the robots was created in Cinema 4d as well as the light content. The project was completed whilst at Jason Bruges Studio.
169 whisky barrels in a cave privee in a whisky distillery in Scotland are each illuminated by a single spotlight to tell the story of a glass of whisky. The content was animated in Cinema 4d and Houdini and baked out as a bitmap sequence. The sound was created by Daniel Sonabend. The project was completed whilst at Jason Bruges Studio.
For XTX markets I came up with the idea of Conway's game of life. They wanted to use the recently discovered 15th Pentagonal tiling system as a canvas on a wall in their building. So I was tasked with trying to get Conway working on this tiling system, I used Houdini to code the logic and developed some cool visuals using Houdini's particle system integrated with my code.The project was completed whilst at Jason Bruges Studio.
A bat cave for the natural history museum life in the dark exhibition. The geometry was refined in Grasshopper and the content was animated in Cinema 4d and then baked out as a CSV to be sent to the hardware. The end result was an audio visual performance that made you feel as though you were in a cave with bats. The project was completed whilst at Jason Bruges Studio.
This installation was for a temporary exhibition in Paris at the Museum De Parfum. It mimics a perfumers organ with prisms representing each scent. A laser positioned centrally in the organ created beams in a hazed room . When a prism was triggered by a ray of light passing though it a specific sound was played. Several individual scents together produced one perfume's overall scent. The early concept was animated in Cinema 4d by me and the design form was developed further in Houdini. The project was completed at Jason Bruges Studio. The sound was created by Daniel Sonabend,
My first animatronic project was building a walking shed robot that retracts its arms and lifts its body off the ground, it worked albeit slowly. The whole shed robot was controlled through Cinema 4d I built an interface to control the robot in real-time using python. The hardware was a pololu maestro controller.
This was a project I wanted to complete in my home. I had watched Harry Potter and read it far too often to want a small array of LED candles floating above the dining table. The mechanism is one that I found online and adapted to control the vertical motion of these candles. A single 12v 5RPM motor controls the motion.
A project inspired by my dad, he kept leaving his keys outside the house. So I created a monster that shouts at you if you don't feed it keys when you walk into the house . The initial version of the monster had a load cell sensor to measure the weight of the keys, this monster has an RFID tag on the keys and a reader in the mouth of the monster. The LEDs inside flash in rainbow when the monster is full and plays a happy fulfilled sound.
This project started when I created these abstract objects in Grasshopper that were images or words when a light shone through them at a specific angle. I decided to animate the sentence with a linear gear rack and a small Maglite controlled by a relay. The objects read "Anam Loves Penguins" when the Maglite moves across them, An Arduino controls the motion and the lights.
The potato express was an idea I had when we moved into our house I wanted a funicular train to go up the staircase. The mechanism is quite simple it's a stepper motor controlled by a TMCL driver with 2 limit switches at either end of the staircase, with a bike chain along the staircase with sprockets every half a meter up the stairs. The train can carry a cup tea to the top. Two buttons trigger the motion of the train.
A small room was made by me to explore a pepper's ghost effect for a client. A Hyperpixel 4 inch screen sits on top of the model and a 45 degree angle acrylic sheet sits within the model below the screen to give the illusion of a these animated dancing people inside the model. Photography: Alex Jackson
An animatronic model for Derwent with vertical motion, lights and sound . The model had 2 linear gear racks controlling the vertical motion of 2 sections of the building with lights embedded on each section . The model was controlled by two Arduinos and a custom shield for the motors and the lights the sound was played back on button press by a DFPlayer with an SD card. There were two modes to this model as requested by the client, full motion and lights sequence with sound and a separate button which played each part of the sequence separately without sound. The model was completed whilst at Piercy and Company. Model Maker: Sam Twaite, Ross Burns and Alex Dickie. Photography: Alex Jackson
This is a project I worked on mostly all of 2024 outside of my work time. I wanted to build a train that moves upside down after building a funicular train the previous year. There were many iterations and I tried to use what I could from the tools at home, so the majority of this is 3d printed, with the track being partially cnc'd at MadeCNC and 3d printed at home. The train is completely powered by an aluminium track above it. This powers the speaker, lights, motor, the smoke element and the sound board. The train itself will carry herbs and spices on its carriages.
I was asked by Piercy and Company to bring to life a Christmas window display in 2024. The model consisted of a made up white model village resembling a Norwegian harbour scene with a boat and a large church on a hill. Piercy and Company wanted me to illuminate the village with over 280 LEDs, create a starry night above using fibre optic strands, a moving boat in an arc motion using a stepper motor, make it snow with 2 centrifugal fans placed in the base of the model within a trough full of fake snow and finally create a soundtrack to accompany the model. The final sequence is about 3 minutes and is activated from the outside using a button by passers by on a street in Camden.
This model was for a client that Piercy and Company work with. I was bought on to create a sequence with over 200 LEDs. The model pulls apart in two sections and when each section hits a limit switch the sequence is triggered. This sequence consists of each floor lighting up. It was a pretty simple setup with an arduino, neopixel strips and 2 limit switches.
This is another project at home I've enjoyed working on. I wanted to make a lazy susan but have tea cups revolve around with sweet treats and lights and music play as you eat around the dining table. There is also a magnorail with cars and tiny people walking around as you dine. The majority of this model is 3d printed and partially cnc'd at MadeCNC. There is an arduino inside with 2 motors rotating the magnorail and the merry go round itself. Planetary gears rotate the tea cups. Sound and lights are played off the arduino and dfplayer and a small speaker.
