By: Nik Korba

Achieving excellence in animatronics requires mastering a unique mix of demanding disciplines, including engineering, sculpture, performance, and artistry. When all of the components come together in a seamless blend of art and technology, magic happens.

Los Angeles-based Romaire Studios is one of the premier at delivering that magic. Founded in 2000 by Emmy Award-winning artist Lee Romaire, Romaire Studios is a leading innovator in the field of animatronics. When the world’s biggest entertainment companies need to bring art and technology to life, they come to Romaire Studios.

The Celebrated Artistry of Lee Romaire

Romaire Studios began as a boutique creature and character company providing make-up, puppets, and special effects for movies, television shows, and commercials. Its reputation quickly grew, opening doors for Romaire to work on some of the entertainment industry’s iconic projects. In 2002, Romaire’s work on “Six Feet Under” — a show considered by many to be the pinnacle of TV performance — earned him an Emmy for Outstanding Makeup For A Series (Prosthetic). 

Romaire credits his early successes to the training he received from industry masters.

“I was very lucky when I first started in make-up effects to be taught by the very best, Dick Smith,” Romaire shares. “I definitely learned from other people but he was the main man, the famous make-up artist whose jaw-dropping work can be seen in ‘The Exorcist,’ ‘The Godfather,’ ‘Little Big Man,’ and ‘Amadeus,’ amongst many other films. Dick was as great a teacher as he was a make-up artist and his high standard and perfectionism really pushed me to do my best, which is why I push everyone at Romaire Studios to pursue and achieve high-quality work. Over time, we’ve developed a reputation for having it all — a top-notch engineering department as well as top-notch artistic talent.”

In 2008, Romaire’s commitment to high-quality work attracted the attention of Walt Disney Studios, which offered him a historic assignment. Disney wanted Romaire to play a key role in updating its Abraham Lincoln animatronic, making him the first artist outside of Disney to sculpt the likeness of a former US president.

Driven by a passion for believability, Romaire and his team conducted extensive research on Lincoln’s image and likeness. They identified many of the former president’s unique facial features, including the peak in one of his eyebrows and the way some white showed under his irises, then brought them to life in the final product. Romaire even hand-placed each hair for the sculpture’s beard stubble and hand-shaved them to make it appear more authentic and lifelike.

“Working with Disney revealed to me the need for a cinematic approach to animatronics that would capture an audience’s attention with movie-quality realism,” Romaire says. “The realization inspired me to increase my studio’s efforts in that area. We began providing sculpture and skins for animatronics, then worked on full characters, and eventually began producing extremely complex animated effects used by several theme park companies.”

A New Standard for Animatronic Aesthetics

By infusing movie-quality realism into animatronic features, Romaire Studios set a new aesthetic standard for the theme park industry. The industry acknowledged Romaire’s contribution by doling out numerous awards, including two prestigious Themed Entertainment Awards (THEAs) for the “The Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash” attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood in 2021 and Brand Experience for “Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser” at Walt Disney World in 2022.

The industry also acknowledged Romaire’s leading role by bringing animatronics challenges to his studio that others found impossible to overcome.

“We were once given a project others had tried to complete for decades with no success, which required creating an insanely difficult animatronic hand-held prop that had to extend and retract and glow at the same time,” Romaire recalls. “We were tireless in our pursuit of a solution, but eventually managed to figure it out!”

Romaire Studios’ work on that project earned it a patent on the technology — one of many it has secured over the years for its animatronics work. It also cemented the studio’s reputation as the go-to choice for innovators in the industry who can make the impossible possible.

A recent example of Romaire’s ability to achieve the impossible can be found in his work with YouTuber Socksfor1. The challenge handed to the studio was to deliver six fully functional “Five Nights at Freddy’s” character suits in only eight weeks — a daunting timeline previously thought impossible in the world of content creation — but Romaire Studios once again delivered. The costumes played a central role in Socksfor1’s “Five Nights at Freddy’s in Real Life” video which, since being uploaded in October of 2023, has been viewed nearly 27 million times.

“Our tenacity is central to the success we have achieved in the entertainment world,” Romaire says. “You need to have a firm belief that you can overcome whatever challenge you are handed.”

Tenacity has empowered Romaire Studios to develop groundbreaking animatronics technology, but Romaire notes that technology is only half the equation. Consistently combining technology with unparalleled artistry has made Romaire Studios one of the foremost providers of live-action creatures and characters for the worldwide entertainment industry. Those who need award-winning art engineered for outstanding performance know they can find it at Romaire Studios.

Published by: Holy Minoza