Arms, Legs, Elbows and Knees

[Fozzie Bear]

Hey, in another thread we were discussing making knees and elbows, and I made a suggestion as to what I use to make Muley's arms and legs, and make the elbow and knees bend and work AS our's do.

Here's the suggestions I posed in that thread:

Here's something that I've been doing with puppets lately. I don't know if I picked this up from Buck Beaver's site, or if it was because I saw it in a book--either way it's awesome. I use it on my own puppet characters, and Muley gets the most use so it's awesome in his elbows (and knees).

The smallest Pipe Warmers you can find that will be able to fit into your puppet's arm, cut it 2 inches shorter than the length of the arm. In the direct center of the arm, cut a divot out of it:
-------\ /--------
_______\/_________

Don't cut it all the way through, leaving some space for it to be connected at the bottom of the divot, then I reinforced the back of the pipe cleaner with some duct tape. Ultimately, you should be able to bend the pipe warmer into an "L" shape to get the elbow. Same technique works on knees.

If you check this part of the website and scan down 2/3 of the gallery, you can find photos of the Muley puppet, and in those you can see where he's slightly bending his arms and his elbows appear.

BTW, folks love his knees. I don't know what the attraction is; but, then again, Kermit sang a whole song about how he loved his elbows on SS once. Go figure.

pipeWARMERs, not pipeCLEANERs.

I'll see if I can find something on line about it and post it here.

There are 2 different Muley puppets viewed on that site (2.5 actually). The older version just has floppy arms with NOTHING in them. That was passable for years and years as an okay means of making a puppet. Nowadays, Muley Puppet Version 3.1 and Version 3.2 has arms with the pipewarmers in them.(his head alone is Version 3.0, and then there's 2 bodies: one for regular, naked Muley, like in the comix; and one to dress up so it's okay if the fur gets all matted up by clothes).

I don't clip all the way through the pipe warmers, I leave them connected some at the base of what is going to be the elbow, but I put a strip of duct tape along that piece to reinforce it so it won't break after bending the elbow too much.

Note, Pipe Warmers is my terminology; they are pipe insulators or-in Toronto they're called 'black foam thingies.' (Inside joke).

And, as I promised: I found a website that includes photos of pipe insulators (basically foam tubes), and even an inner-elbow cut picture (Figure B) as I mentioned above.

Down the center length of one side of the foam tube pipe insulators is a slit, and normally what happens is the insulator is cut the length of the pipe, and then put around the pipe, and finally there are two strips of plastic that you pull off, pressing the two sides of the slit together to make it stick (it has a self-adhesive in there, like tape).

With our's, we won't put it around a pipe, but we'll take the insulator and make it stick to itself in that center slit so we have a solid foam tube. Cut it the length of the arm minus 1.5 or 2 inches. Next, turn the "slit" up. The thing about the "elbow" or "knee" cut is that it is at a 45 degree angle, but do it from the "slit" side, because where the elbow/knee is going to bend you don't want there to be a chance it'll come apart, because it's already going to be a thin area there, which you'll reinforce with duct tape (on the back side, about the size of a normal Band-Aid--in the "Figure B" photo from the above site, it's the area where dude has his finger pointing at the insulation). Put the tubing into the arm with a "tuft" of polyester fibers at each end so you get a more 'rounded' joint at the shoulder and wrist. Be sure the elbow joint is directed so when you bend the puppet's arm you get a proper bend. Muley's is not attached to the arm itself, it's just in there.

This is what works best for me.

If you have any other ideas or suggestions for Arms, Legs, Elbows, and Knees, let's keep them in this thread for easier reference!

 

[Puppetplanet]

Ohhhhhhh! *light finally goes on up stairs*


Way cool! Thanks Foz!

 

[Fozzie Bear]

YAY!! Hope it helps.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

YAY!! Hope it helps.

Found this picture of Muley with his elbows in action, and knees.
http://hauntedweb.com/v-web/gallery/adventurecon1/100_3147

There are several photos of him around www.hauntedweb.com photo galleries, and you can see his knees and elbows there.

 

[King Jim]

Cool picture.

 

[sarah_yzma]

kevin!

you should really teach Muley not to stick his head (and 3/4 of his body) out the window like that! He could lose a head! (and that's not good!)

 

[scarylarrywolf]

All right! So I'm NOT the only one who drives around with their puppet out the window!

 

[buckshot]

haha

 

[Fozzie Bear]

All right! So I'm NOT the only one who drives around with their puppet out the window!

Now, see, that's just plain dangerous. I was in the backseat of a bigger vehicle, my buddies were in the front seat driving and laughing.

The biggest laugh I got from them was shouting out, "Hey, Lady!" and "Capasa!" to some hispanic folks who waved back. Then, there were some hillbillies to whom Muley shouted, "Howdy, ya'll!" He talked to people while we were stopped at the red lights. All this happened on the strip of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, TN.

 

[Puppetplanet]

Yippie!!! I made my first attempt at using this method and I must say that it went off rather nicely! I planned to take some photos after I returned from a visit to the local shop that sells my puppets. I brought this new character there to pick up my check for items sold and a customer bought the puppet right off my arm! lol, gotta like that.


Anyway, I hit a few snags that I worked out with this particular puppet, but I was wondering if anyone might have a better idea.

Problem #1: I wasn't sure how much fabric to leave at the shoulder or how to cut the foam so that there is proper movement at the shoulder joint. I use doll joints or a nuts and bolts system to attach the arms. I can't glue this system to the "pipe warmers" because then the arms stick straight out like an airplane. For this prototype, I simply left extra fabric so that the arm can be attached and the rest sort of hangs to give the movement needed to perform. If I cut the foam at an angle so that the arms sit down.... then I'm only left with a circular motion and no up and down (picture bird flapping wings) movement.

Problem #2: The divet that I needed to cut provided very little foam left on the "elbow" side and I didn't feel comfortable with the durability even with the duct tape there. The cut needs to be pretty wide in order to allow for a nice "L" shaped pose in the arm, but man... it sure leaves a decent gap on the inside and the material caves in a bit. When I stuffed it to my satisfaction, the bend in the arm met too much resistance.

Problem #3: The only color that this stuff comes in is black, which would not present a problem when using antron or fur, but in an attempt to make muppet type puppets available to everyone, I often use anti-pil fleece. On the lighter color that I used (peach) I could see a hint of the black thru the arm. I didn't think spray paint would be a good idea because the foam would probably absorb it... not to mention, it's toxic and would eventually peel over time. So, for this prototype, I wrapped the entire foam arm in white duct tape which re-enforced the arm rather well... but this was time consuming. Does anyone have any other ideas?


I think that was it. Your suggestions are always appreciated. And many thanks to Kevin for sharing his method on arms & legs!

-Michele