Animax Designs: Intern Project 2022

I was fortunate enough to intern at Animax Designs during the summer of 2022 in the mechanical engineering department. Animax Designs is company based in Nashville, TN that creates animatronics and puppets for themepark companies such as Disney and Universal Studios.

At my time there, I worked on animatronic projects under the Harry Potter and Avatar IP. Additionally, the intern group was tasked with creating a puppet from start to finish. The purpose of the project was to teach the interns how a project functions, whether it be parsing a vague scope, working as a cohesive group, or learning new skills.

Who Is Max?

Max, short for Animaxolotl, is a “hillbilly mud puppy who lives down in the Appalachian hollers.” His main functions include head movement, mouth open/close, right arm movement, and the left hand sliding along the neck of his banjo.

My particular task, alongside the other mechanical intern, was to create the mechanism that allowed Max to slide his hand along the neck of his banjo. I also made his eyes while learning under the eye maker at the company.

What I learned while interning

At the beginning of my internship, I was primed into organizing hardware catalogs and small part redesigns. Soon enough, I was thrust into a Harry Potter project under Universal Studios, which lasted my entire internship.

During the design process, I greatly improved my skills in SolidWorks to a professional level and learned how to use Rhino to optimize object files for use in SolidWorks. On the more collaborative side, I was engaged professionally during client meetings with Universal Studios and developed professional communicative skills, to the point where I was leading meetings with the client.

I had to learn how to approach budgeting during the design process. Specifically, I helped decide on a set of actuators that would both meet the budgetary contraints and maintain the quality and longevity necessary for theme park requirements. The same could be said for Max, where I helped procure the appropriate hardware that would meet our budget and mechanical requirements.

Another important skill I developed was meeting timeline deadlines. When working on Harry Potter, I experienced the full concept design process. I was taught how to assess the scope of work, engage in element questionnaires, evaluate asset compatibility with the design intent, create professional mechanical drawings, and much more all while meeting the timeline deadlines.