(birds chirping) (whimsical music) - I think I was always curious as a kid what it would be like to be a tiny little person going in through the woods.

I think that's pretty universal, really.

What kid doesn't like to get down on their knees and check things out?

(pencil sketching) (whimsical music continues) Becorns are little characters I make out of acorns and sticks.

I take 'em outside and I pose them in a little scene.

I wait for animals to come and then I take pictures of them interacting with wildlife.

(camera clicking) (bright music) There's a wide variety of personalities in the Becorn world.

They tend to be gentle.

They're almost always curious and up to something.

There are warriors that are defending against squirrels.

They definitely are nurturers.

They feed the wildlife and care for them.

My first job out of school was as a toy designer at Lego.

The real beginning of Becorns was when I worked at Bionicle.

- [Announcer] Bionicle takes off with new wings, weapons and boosters.

- [David] Normally when you build with Legos, you try and build in a really structured way, but we would just hack 'em apart and hot glue 'em together to quickly arrive at a prototype.

Then we'd show them to kids and get their feedback.

And I just loved hearing their thoughts.

I learned so much.

(broom sweeping) After five years, I left Lego.

And I was at home sweeping my mom's driveway thinking, "Wow!

What a great job that was and what am I doing now?"

And I looked down at all these sticks and acorns at my feet and I kind of realized like, "Oh my God!

Everything I did at Lego, I can do with these sticks and acorns and kind of create a whole world with them."

(tool clacking) I was building the figures and I was like, "Okay, what do I do with 'em now?"

And sort of the clear first step was to take pictures and it sort of evolved from there.

(camera shutter clicking) (soft piano music continues) So every time I go for a walk, I'm always on the hunt for good, good sticks and good acorns.

The perfect stick is about as the thickness of a barbecue skewer and it's got nobby parts.

And I like 'em to have a slight bend in it, 'cause I've found if they're straight, then the characters don't really look alive.

But if they have like just a slight bend, then they look more alive.

And then the perfect acorn has a cap that goes most of the way around and then just has a perfect little circle, and the nose just sticks right out in the middle.

(soft piano music) A lot of times I have a pretty good idea about the scene I'm trying to go for when I build it.

And so, I'm trying to think of what the right pose should be.

And as I'm building, I'm kind of thinking about the mechanics and how they hold their weight.

And if they're running, they should be leaning forward, or if they're kind of scared, like are they leaning back?

So I kind of have a pretty good idea of what I'm going for.

And on the day when the light's good, there's no wind, I'll go outside and I'll set up the scene.

(soft piano music continues) I'll set up the camera and I use a remote control.

I stand way back, far enough that I can kind of see what's going on.

And then when the animals come, I push my little button and hope for the best.

(camera clicking) Almost always, something different happens than what I expected.

Usually, there's a surprise that's great.

It'll jump on its head and suddenly, it tells this other story that I hadn't even imagined.

The pinnacle of Becorn lore, is when I built this character, it's holding a basket and I filled it with seeds.

I set it out and I was trying to get a cardinal to come eat from the basket.

Instead, a squirrel came and carried it away off into the woods.

I chased it into the woods.

I kind of felt like an idiot chasing it into the woods.

At some point I was like, "I'm not gonna catch this squirrel, what am I doing?"

So then I built another.

The first one that was taken was named Joonie, with two Os.

And then the second one was, Joonie Junior.

And Joonie Junior also was carried away by a squirrel into the woods.

(spooky gothic organ music) So then, I really wanted the shot.

I'm not gonna give up on this shot.

So I built a third Joonie, Joonie III, who still lives today.

I choose names that kind of speak to the personality.

One of my favorite characters is named Dink.

He has his arms in front of his face.

And anything you put in his hands, he's automatically excited about.

You put a berry in his hand and he is like really excited to eat it.

Or you put a flower in his hand, and he's really just in awe of this flower.

I have two characters named, The John John Brothers.

And you can put anything in their hands to be carrying and they're always up to something.

They always have a plan.

So if they're carrying this squash, it's like, "What are they doing with this squash?"

I have them carrying a bunch of grapes and then they're offering the grapes to this sort of Elder Becorn.

I was scrolling Instagram one day and I saw this picture of a bird splashing in a bird bath.

And it just looked so fun and lively and I just thought, "Wow!

That's a scene I want to get with a Becorn."

So I started sketching.

My favorite at first was to get a Becorn in a boat.

And the bird would be next to it kind of splashing it, getting it wet, 'cause I wanted some kind of interesting interaction.

And then I did this other sketch, which I think is so much more fun, where the two are just splashing and playing.

And it reminded me of being a kid in the summer, splashing with my friends in the water.

And this was the one I had to do.

(bright music) (drill whirring) (twig snapping) (drill whirring continues) (water splashing) (sand pouring) (upbeat quirky music continues) All right, let's see if the birds come.

(water splashing) (bird croaking) (bird splashing) (camera clicking) (bird croaking and splashing) (camera clicking) I'm really happy with the shots I ended up with.

I think some of 'em really did capture that joyful summer celebration that I was going for.

And then, I got some surprising shots too.

So as usual, I kind of started out with a plan and the birds took over and gave me stuff that's just better than I ever could have asked for.

Kind of the essence of Becorns is this wonder about the natural world and sort of experiencing nature and the wonder of nature in kind of a really pure way.

And a lot of people have said, "I haven't felt that since I was a kid.

And I didn't even realize that I was missing that feeling."

As an artist, that's, I don't know, that's the dream.

That's really a gift.

(disturbance hissing)