This year, JUMP wanted something big for Illumibrate. The result: MegaDog! At over 20 feet tall, it’s far and away the largest project I’ve attempted.

The structure is framed with steel conduit, followed by steel wire and chicken wire netting to flesh out the shape. The skin is plastic sheeting taped together with packing tape, then spray painted. Each leg has a 26 gallon water tank to help stabilize the structure against wind.

The original frame did not come together well, and had to be torn down and rebuilt to a new design. The skin did not hold up well, with the spray paint flaking off almost immediately. Originally there were plans for a different, more expensive and professional skin, but with time a limiting factor we had to go cheap and fast. Artistically I’m not crazy with the results. The teeth came out too angry, the proportions aren’t quite right, and changes to the frame made it less clear that he’s supposed to be curved around chasing his tail. A well, next time better prototyping will be needed. The structure proved to be very stable though, surviving wind gusts up to 60mph only hours after it went up.