PROPROOM

Hero props · oversized props · sculpture

Prop makers for hero props, oversized pieces and sculpture

The agency's deck has your bottle three metres tall on page four, and the client has just said yes.

Start a projectWhat we make
A three-metre crystal-studded caged perfume flacon standing in a decayed baroque hall with a curved staircase, a woman in a red track jacket leaning against it for scale
Concept · Three metres tall, with a person beside it for scale

Prop making company for a hero prop that has to be ready on shoot day

A hero prop built to spec for a photographer, stylist or agency producer with one shoot day booked.

A low-angle view of the giant flacon, amber glass behind its jewelled black cage and a fluted black cap, the same woman leaning on it beneath peeling green frescoes
Concept · From below, the cap fills the frame and the stones catch the light

Oversized props and giant replicas of your own product

Your product, three metres tall, in the middle of a launch, a shop window or a trade stand.

A three-metre crystal-studded caged perfume flacon standing in a decayed baroque hall with a curved staircase, a woman in a red track jacket leaning against it for scale
Concept

Sculpture fabrication for an artist's maquette that needs building at full scale

You have the maquette on your studio table, or a 3D model on your screen, and a commission for a piece many times its size.

Studio

Draw your prop before it is built

Describe it or send a photo. The studio draws a concept and a 3D model you can turn, free, in about six minutes.

Open the studio

How it goes

  1. Brief

    The product or maquette, the size, the date, and where it will stand.

  2. Render

    A full-scale render with a person for reference, drawn from your product's geometry.

  3. Carve

    The core carved or machined, with a frame inside wherever it carries load.

  4. Finish

    Coated, painted and matched to your references.

  5. Install

    Crated, delivered, assembled and stood up where it was drawn.

Concept

Drawn three metres tall and set beside a person, this flacon is oversized on purpose. It is our own test object, reworked by each room in turn, and no client asked for it.

Where the drawing becomes the thing you pick up.

The assembly hall, a long clear span under a saw-tooth roof of skylights
Factory
The machine shop: benches, bandsaw, panel saw and racking under strip lights
Factory
A maker at work under the mezzanine, with racking, ladders and tall panels
Factory
The yard outside the assembly hall, where finished pieces are stood up whole before they travel
Factory

What this room will not do

  • We won't start carving until you have seen the piece at full size and agreed it.
  • Nothing that won't fit through the door.
  • We won't send an indoor build outside and hope the weather is kind, and if your piece needs building for the outdoors, you will hear it at the drawing stage.

Questions

What materials are large props usually made from?

Large props are usually carved or machined from expanded polystyrene for lightness, then hard-coated with polyurea or given a fibreglass shell for durability. Steel or timber frames carry the load inside tall or heavy pieces, and resin or acrylic is used for clear, glass-like parts. The finish, often hand-painted, is what makes a prop read as real.

How long does it take to build an oversized prop?

An oversized prop can take from about a week for a simple replica to ten or twelve weeks for a complex sculpted piece, with most falling somewhere between. Complexity matters more than size. Proproom agrees the date first, then shows what is achievable by then as a full-scale render, so the timeline is realistic from the start.

How much does a custom prop cost to make?

Custom prop cost depends on size, complexity, materials and finish, and on whether the piece has to survive outdoors, on tour or in regular handling. Complexity matters more than size: a simple replica and a sculpted hero piece of the same height are very different jobs. Rush timelines add to the price. Proproom prices from the full-scale render you have agreed.

Can you fabricate a sculpture from an artist's maquette?

Yes. Proproom 3D scans the maquette and enlarges it into a full-size model, checking it for thin sections, joins and how the form reads at scale before anything is cut. The artist sees the piece at full size as a render first, and signs off at the key stages of the build.

Do props need to be structurally engineered for outdoor use?

For anything large, usually yes. An outdoor prop has to resist wind, rain and UV, so it needs a hard coat or fibreglass shell, UV-stable paint, anchoring or ballast, and for bigger pieces a structural check on wind loading. At Proproom this is settled at the drawing stage, before the price is final, so an outdoor piece is designed for outdoors from the start.

How do you transport a giant prop to a shoot or venue?

Giant props are designed from the start to split into sections that join cleanly on site, each with its own crate. Before the build, the route is checked: door widths, lifts, stairs, floor loading and whether lifting equipment is needed. Proproom delivers, assembles and installs the piece, and can take it away again after the shoot or event.

Send us the page of the deck with the prop on it.

Or the product file, a photo of the maquette, or the window measurements. Tell us how big you have in mind and where it has to stand.

Or write to info@stillroomcreative.com

Hal is automated, so there is no wrong hour to ask. Say what the prop is, how big it needs to be and the shoot or install date.