The sculpted form of the Skeksis Carriage was done in ZBrush by one of the 3D concept artist and sculptors on the series. The file was then handed to me to turn into a Carriage in the many forms that we needed it to take for the Series.
The design was scaled to fit on to the exterior sets, however a complicated series of SFX and puppeteering requirements meant that what seemed like a small set, took a huge amount of planning and construction meet all the set ups and transformations. A thin plate steel frame sliced into the Polystyrene body, lifting eyes concealed all round and entire sections of the floor, sides and 'doors' made removable and reattach-able.
The interior scenes were filmed on a set piece that was 200% the size of the original exterior carriage. The walls were split in to eight parts that were individually removable to give camera and pupperteering access while keeping structural integrity, but also expandable with internal drapes that could be used to fill gaps between the sections should more space be required for additional puppeteers or lighting. The whole set piece was then built upon a suspension rig that would allow SFX to give the feeling or motion to filming.
