Avenue Q Sweden puppet workshop

[BorkBork]

Let me, as a proud swede, introduce the puppet workshop that made the puppets for Avenue Q Sweden.

If you click here You will be taken to their video gallery. One of the clips show the making of the avenue q puppets.These people are really talented. Have a look

PS: there are also some other great videos of makeup and animatronics.

Also, a warning; There are naked puppet breasts shown in the video

 

[Teenager's]

That's Pretty Cool!...Thanks for the link!

...They have an interesting & fun site.

 

[ravagefrackle]

nice work ,well done

 

[BorkBork]

By the way, here's a clip from the swedish version of "wish I could go back to college"

 

[jcnegron]

That's interesting: they put the wig before the skin on the puppet. I guess that would take a bit of weight out of the puppet. I wish i would have seen this a few months ago. A puppet with a wig. it is a bit heavy.

By the way I think that these same puppets will be used in The French production of Av. Q as well.

 

[ravagefrackle]

Actually Jc, I think the wigs were just being Fitted to the heads, and styled on the raw foam, with so many puppets to build it helps to have an assembley line for some parts.

all the wigs in Avenue q have to be custom fitted to the ehads, which involves taking in a lot of the materila so that they fit the unusual sizes and shapes,

So i am pretty sure that the wigs were just sitting on the un-skinned foam to make sure they would work , the fleece is needed under the wig so that you have something stronger to stitch to than just foam, all that hair would tear right off the foam otherwise.

 

[jcnegron]

Oh I see. One question. I made a puppet that uses a long hair wig on, a lot like Lucy in this video, but the wig is too heavy and tends to deform the head (which was also made in foam with a pattern and is hollow). What do you do to avoid this?

 

[ravagefrackle]

when you flat patern a character you will notice then when assempled the head area is hollow, if you want to keep its shape you will need to carve a "BRAIN" that will fill that arae in, while still leaving enough room for your hand to fit into the upper jaw comfortable, it take time, and trial and error to shape the foam brain.

as for the weight of the wig, not much you can do about that, puppetry isnt about comfort

 

[jcnegron]

Thanks Ravage, I'll try that...

"...puppetry isn't about comfort"

Ha ha ha. I´m not complaining, I guess my arm is strong enough. Although the girl that puppeteers it does. I wish i could tell her that but i am afraid i will end up with the puppet in my head...