Season's Greeters is just now making its debut, but it's built on a lifetime of decorating and design. Mike Ziemkowski's love of decorating for the holidays began at a very young age. His father, who began the family tradition, handed over the reins when Mike's love turned into full on talent. Over the years, the display grew, becoming more elaborate and technologically advanced. His home in Sherman Oaks California has been featured on the History Channel's Modern Marvels "Christmas Tech" show and the Travel Channel's "Christmas Crazy" show, and was one of the nation's top three finalists in Good Morning America's "My Lights are Brighter Than Your Lights Contest."
Mike receives countless requests each year for the various hand-made yet high-tech pieces in his displays. This year, he answers those pleas with "Season's Greeters," a company to fulfill the need for user programmable animatronics in the home and commercial markets. Just a snowball's throw from "Tinsel Town" (that's Hollywood for you youngsters), Mike gathered a group of talented local artists (many in the film and TV biz) to create and assemble the products. Each commercial grade animatronic is handmade from start to finish. Many hours of design, fabrication, and assembly go into each "work of art."
Thanks to the recent availability of user-friendly, off-the-shelf software, programming and integration of the animatronics into a holiday show is now easy and fun. The predominant control software (that Mike uses) is made by Lightorama, along with their Servo Dog controller, but most any show control software and servo controller can be used for those of you already "in the game" with other preferences. Users can "teach" their animatronics movements in "real-time" using the TrackSkull program by MonkeyBasic. TrackSkull tracks your own head movements using an infrared camera. The exact movement is mirrored by the animatronic! When perfected, the choreography can then be saved and exported into the Lightorama Sequence Editor. The only thing left to the imagination is the creativity that goes into "all the moves!"
If you want to take your holiday display not only to the next step but leaping into the 21st century, then explore the options Season's Greeter's makes available to you. Nothing can bring a holiday light-show to life more than adding some performers! If you share the same wonder and awe that Mike did when he first saw the "impossible" magic that Walt Disney brought to the world so many years ago at Disneyland, then you've come to the right place. Now you can re-create this very same magic at your home --no theme park required! And imagine that same joy and surprise in "kids of all ages" as they watch characters magically come-to-life before their eyes, right at your home, shop, or holiday venue.