Animax Interns Blog: End of Summer

Hi there! I’m Malcolm Bornmann, Animax’s Summer 2021 Marketing and Events Intern. Welcome to my final entry in the Animax Interns Blog, where I share first-hand accounts of what it’s like to work at this awesome company!

On behalf of us interns, I would like to express how much joy these past few months have been for all of us. We’ve been able to meet and work with amazing people, have gotten to do really cool things, and have grown as young professionals in the process. Because our internships have allowed us to grow our individual skill sets within the interdisciplinary, collaborative, and creative environment that is Animax, we’ve all been able to gain a better understanding of how we can each use our individual strengths to support the team effort in bringing beloved characters to life.

Animax truly has been a wonderful place to be. So much so, that some of us are actually staying at Animax past our internships, with others returning to school for Fall Semester. Regardless of where our journeys will lead us, however, we all are grateful for our time at Animax.

We would like to thank everyone at Animax for being so supportive and welcoming to all of us throughout these past few months!

We additionally would like to thank everyone who has viewed our blogs for taking the time to read about our experiences! Those blogs can be found be here:

Malcolm Bornmann, Marketing and Events Intern

Melody Sivri, Mechanical Engineering Intern

Anna Buntin, Soft Goods Intern

Devon Limcangco, Controls Intern

Jessica Mizuno, Marketing Intern

Sidney Chan, Mechanical Design Intern

As we look towards the future, the hope is that this internship program can grow. For those interested in future internship positions at Animax, we highly recommend applying when those positions become available! You’ll have an Animax Awesome time :)

And with that, The Animax Summer 2021 Interns say our goodbye.

Animax Interns Blog: Controls

About

Greetings! I’m Malcolm Bornmann, Animax’s Summer 2021 Marketing and Events Intern. Welcome to the Animax Interns Blog, where I share first-hand accounts of what it’s like to work at this awesome company!

Today’s post is about Animax’s Summer 2021 Controls Intern, Devon Limcangco:

Working in Controls

Devon has utilized her background in electrical engineering to assist the Controls Team in a variety of ways. She helped refurbish the wiring of a puppetronic for a major theme park, ensured that the power supplies for a well-known costumed character was in working order before submission to a client, and brought a dinosaur to life by tuning motors, labeling cabinets, and pulling an e-stop button when the dinosaur needed a nap!

Devon is currently working in conjunction with our R&D team on a humanoid robot! The objective of this project is simple, yet complex to achieve: to get every electrical component as tiny as possible in order to ensure that movement and look is as natural as possible. To help with this effort, she has routed wires to mimic the veins of a human body, tied cables together with an Automation Knot, programmed maximum and minimum ranges of motion into our robot-moving software, soldered circuit boards, shopped for parts listed in our BOM, and created electrical drawings for a 4-budded e-stop that details such things as the location of safety relays and where ground and power go. Animatronics typically only have two e-stop buttons, so having one with four provides a unique learning opportunity for Devon!

Reflection

As a result of working on a multitude of projects, Devon’s been able to learn more about the engineering design process and how engineering teams must work together to solve problems. She additionally has grown her technical skill sets in all aspects of electrical engineering, while having fun and making friends in the process! When asked about how Animax has impacted her understanding of electrical engineering, Devon states, “Working at Animax has taught me just how creative the engineering field is and how wires and cables are like paint strokes that create great, beautiful artwork!”

Animax Interns Blog: Mechanical Engineering

About

Hello again! I’m Malcolm Bornmann, Animax’s Summer 2021 Marketing and Events Intern. Welcome to the Animax Interns Blog, where I share first-hand accounts of what it’s like to work at this awesome company!

Today’s post is about Animax’s Summer 2021 Mechanical Engineering Intern, Melody Sivri:

Engineering At Animax

Melody’s background is in mechanical engineering and drafting, which she uses to help the Animax Engineering Team in their creation of dynamic characters. Thus far in her internship, she’s revised the drawing packages for three hero figures that were then submitted to a major client for use during assembly and maintenance, she’s collected data that helped the team internally, and she now is designing a water mitigation feature in SolidWorks that will help a figure withstand climate conditions.

When not assisting the Animax Engineering Team, Melody loves to shadow the other Animax departments to learn as much as she can! Most recently, she witnessed the first-motion of an animatronic, a major accomplishment for our Controls Team, Assembly Team, and Engineering Team. This experience taught Melody more about the innerworkings of show control, which helped reinforce the importance of her own work.

Reflection

Throughout her internship, Melody’s been able to learn and grow as a result of each department welcoming her with open arms. In interacting with each department, she’s learned that teamwork is crucial to the Animax design system. “Learning something new every day is beyond exciting: the techniques, the materials, and seeing the parts on paper assembled in real life!” says Melody. “Above all these things, it's exciting to see everyone come together to bring these figures to life and come up with amazing solutions. It's truly emphasized the importance of teamwork and supporting one another.”

Animax Interns Blog: Social Media

About

Hello! My name is Malcolm Bornmann, the new Marketing and Events Intern here at Animax! As part of my newfound marketing duties, I am starting this Animax Interns Blog to share first-hand accounts of what it’s like to work at this awesome company!

Today’s blog entry is about the behind-the-scenes adventures of making an Animax social media post:

The Adventures of Botdog

Last week, I was tasked with brainstorming and executing a creative social media post for the Animax Instagram and Facebook accounts that celebrated the 4th of July. Taking inspiration from the plethora of animated figures that surround my office desk, and the annual Animax 4th of July Barbeque, I wondered: What would robots eat for the 4th of July?

A brainstorming session with my supervisor, Shay, quickly ensued, where it was soon determined that we would make a robotic version of a hot dog, or as we like to call it, a botdog!

I created a list of ingredients and then went food shopping in our various departments. Our Engineering Department provided the hot dog (a steel rod), our Soft Good Department provided the bun (foam), and our Controls Team provided the condiments (red and yellow electrical wires). It was a team effort!

Once the botdog was cooked and ready to be served, Shay, Jessica, another intern, and I then conducted a photoshoot of our animated figures enjoying their meal. Shay touched up the photos in Photoshop while I wrote a witty caption. I compiled everything into Metigy, our social media management platform, and the post was made, mission accomplished!

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Reflection

While an admittedly silly project, in many ways this social media post helped me understand the innerworkings of the Animax design process! In order for the project to be a success, we had to work as a team within the provided parameters while maintaining healthy and effective communication to ensure project goals were met. Each department contributed their unique skillsets, helping to creatively solve the challenge at hand, building off of the work from other departments.

It was such a joy to see the smile on peoples’ faces when I asked them to help me out with making a botdog! I could tell that people at Animax truly love their individual lines of work!

Overall, I appreciated the creative freedom of this project and how it allowed me to learn more about the various departments of Animax!

Check out the post here