There’s a small storefront on Main Street in Lee that belies the wonders inside.

At first glance, one might think it’s a small retail store or a private office, but upon entering, it’s clear that this is a place where imaginations run rampant.

The walls are papered with bright movie posters, and lumps of clay in front of a small camera suggest some sort of production is underway. Spiderman hovers in the corner in full 3D, ready to pounce, and a monkey crawls across a television screen in time with jaunty music.

It’s all part of Animagic, a museum founded by special effects artists and animators Eugene Mamut and Irina Borisova in 2002 to showcase the animation, art, and the special effects industry, particularly in the Berkshires, where the field has a strong presence.

“It started with Douglas Trumbull,” said Mamut, pointing to a photo of the Oscar-winning film director and special effects supervisor responsible for many of the effects in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and other films, as well as effects for a number of theme park rides. “He moved to the Berkshires from Hollywood 20 years ago, and after him, many more specialists came.”

Mamut and Borisova — who are married – were among that group. Both from the Ukraine, the duo moved to Western Mass. in 1996 from New York City to continue to work in the special effects industry, after equally long and diverse careers.

Borisova began her career designing puppets, sets, and costumes, in part at the Kharkov State Puppet Theatre in her home of Kharkov, Ukraine. Later, she explored other media, such as ceramics and print illustration, before moving on to design models for animation projects.

Mamut has worked for such well-known special effects firms as EFX Unlimited and R/Greenberg Associates in New York, developing effects for films such as Lady Hawk, Zelig, Dirty Dancing, and Ghost Dad, among others.

Upon moving to Berkshire County, Mamut took on projects for other films, including Starship Troopers and The Matrix with the production firm Mass.Illusion, and Borisova worked both independently and in concert with studios, including Out of Hand Animation of Great Barrington and Suspended Animation Studios, a claymation, stop motion, and mixed media design and production house in Lenox. There, she created characters for several national television campaigns for companies such as Vtech, Burger King, and Louis Kemp Seafood.

Soon, however, they took on a new challenge, as curators of Animagic, and as teachers of a dynamic and ever-changing discipline. It’s no part-time gig; the museum is open by appointment 365 days a year.

Dimensions of Success

As he moves through the small museum, Mamut refers often to a special effects family tree of sorts that he’s created, which features photos of several film and animation professionals, and details their work as well as their ties to Western Mass.

In addition to himself and Borisova, there’s Jeffrey Kleiser and Diana Walczak of North Adams, who developed imagery for Universal Studio’s Spiderman: The Ride, Tom Gasek of Great Barrington, who helped created the full-length claymation films including 2000’s Chicken Run, and Joel Hynek of Lenox, who co-created what’s known as ‘the camouflage effect,’ first used in the 1986 Arnold Schwarzenegger blockbuster Predator.

Mamut was his collaborator, and at the time was already well known in his field for developing the predecessor of ‘the camouflage effect’ – ‘the elastic effect’ – which allowed for any moving object on conventional film footage to be stretched, twisted, or transformed.

Their work on the film earned Hynek and Mamut Scientific and Engineering Academy Awards, specifically for developing the technology used in Predator to simulate a transparent effect for its villain – the RGA/Oxberry Compu-Quad Special Effects Optical Printer.

Animated Conversations

The technology is foreign to most, but the gold silhouette of the Oscar is universally recognizable. Mamut’s statuette is safely encased in the museum for visitors to view – another one of Animagic’s wow factors – along with gadgetry such as a stereoscopic 3-D machine and sets from films, television shows, and commercials on which Berkshire-based special effects artists have worked.

Borisova contributed many of the props in the museum. A crab used in a stop-motion campaign for Louis Kemp’s Crab Delights waves merrily from a case, and a penguin with interchangeable beaks, each with a different expression, peers curiously from inside the glass.

Both owners continuously underscore the importance of talent over expensive equipment as they explain its many curiosities. They show early animation techniques – things like flip books – alongside modern, computer-based animation techniques including 3D rendering and green-screen technology, and explain the key similarities between the two.

But it’s the hands-on aspect of a museum tour at Animagic that truly drives that point home, and gives most people the biggest thrill.

Using simple objects, Mamut and Borisova guide participants through the process of creating their own animated short, from creation of a prop to filming to editing.

A flower might be formed from brightly colored modeling clay, for instance, or a monkey from paper cutouts. With these tools, an animated feature can be created on one of the museum’s computers, by carefully positioning and repositioning the item in front of a backdrop.

Pupils learn how to film an object with a small camera and computer program, capturing each pose shot by shot and piecing them together to create movement. Later, the film can be set to music and topped off with titles, credits, and applause (or crickets) at its close, and each student takes a copy of their original work home with them on a VHS tape.

Classes are moderately priced, starting at $20, cover beginner and advanced animation, and occur both in conjunction with and independently from tours of the museum, which are free of charge.

“I always tell people: if you’re talented, you don’t need $50,000 worth of fancy equipment,” said Mamut. “All you need is to make something small, and great.

“Then show it to people, and let Pixar hire you and buy you all the big machines.”

And Animagic is one small way that Mamut and Borisova are continuing to enhance the special effects community of the Berkshires, one frame at a time.

Jaclyn Stevenson can be reached at stevenson@businesswest.com