There’s no manual for investigating your missing family. But there is Sunny.
The life of an American woman living in Kyoto, Japan, is upended when her husband and son disappear in a mysterious plane crash. As consolation, she's given one of a new class of domestic robots made by her husband's electronics company.
We were thrilled to work with Director Lucy Tcherniak and Writer Katie Robbins in collaboration with Apple TV and A24 on the 2024 mystery thriller series Sunny, based on Colin O’Sullivan’s novel The Dark Manual. For this dark dramedy, Wētā Workshop was tasked with creating the series' title character, Sunny, a homebot with adorable eyes and a gentle voice played by actor Joanna Sotomura, as well as other robots who featured in the series.
To bring Sunny to life, we made a tele-operated puppet. Joanna’s performance fed through our puppet’s live facial capture, with three additional puppeteers operating the arms, motion base and facial animation in real time.
Director
Lucy Tcherniak
Release
2024
Genre
Mystery thriller
There’s no manual for investigating your missing family. But there is Sunny.
The life of an American woman living in Kyoto, Japan, is upended when her husband and son disappear in a mysterious plane crash. As consolation, she's given one of a new class of domestic robots made by her husband's electronics company.
We were thrilled to work with Director Lucy Tcherniak and Writer Katie Robbins in collaboration with Apple TV and A24 on the 2024 mystery thriller series Sunny, based on Colin O’Sullivan’s novel The Dark Manual.
For this dark dramedy, Wētā Workshop was tasked with creating the series' title character, Sunny, a homebot with adorable eyes and a gentle voice played by actor Joanna Sotomura, as well as other robots who featured in the series.
To bring Sunny to life, we made a tele-operated puppet. Joanna’s performance fed through our puppet’s live facial capture, with three additional puppeteers operating the arms, motion base and facial animation in real time.
Director
Lucy Tcherniak
Release
2024
Genre
Mystery thriller
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Film and television • Design • Manufacture • Armour • Props • Weapons • Robots and automatons • Robotics and animatronics • Life replicas and dummies
Related projects
Y2K
Film and television • Design • Manufacture
• Costumes • Characters • Creatures • Robotics and animatronics
Chappie
Film and television • Design • Manufacture • Armour • Props • Weapons • Robots and automatons • Robotics and animatronics • Life replicas and dummies