Full-body costume puppets

[Show and Tell]

Well, this is a public forum. If you didn't want others to comment on something you said specifically about another member, then it should have started out as a private conversation. Posting it in a public forum leaves it open to speculation, and comments from the peanut gallery.



Yes Trent.... please do stay!



There it is! Thank You!

*takes shovel and begins to build Fraggle caves*

*snatches pick axe Blink has in his other hand, poised at puppet planets juggular*
Who do you think you are fooling here? Nothing in you first statement was in any way "just stating facts". It was a vicious slam and not really appropriate. If you have any sence of decentcy about you, you will stop this garbage form spreading any further. In other words to be quite blunt "Shut up already" No one wants to hear anymore about it.

 

[Puppetplanet]

LOL! Yikes Puppet Builder! Things have just settled down to a dull roar! Play nice and help me with this Fraggle Cave Please!

Anyway...... is that what this thread was about? Full Body Costumes? Your idea for Halloween sounds really cool. Did you start on it yet? Would love to see progress photos as your building.

-Michele

 

[Blink]

*snatches pick axe Blink has in his other hand, poised at puppet planets juggular*
Who do you think you are fooling here? Nothing in you first statement was in any way "just stating facts". It was a vicious slam and not really appropriate. If you have any sence of decentcy about you, you will stop this garbage form spreading any further. In other words to be quite blunt "Shut up already" No one wants to hear anymore about it.

Dude what do you know about it? Buck has even said itself it is a fact. The issue as I understood it was that people felt it was an attack because they didn't think the comment was fair or relevant. I disagree. As puppet planet said this is a public forum, so I am entitled to stating my opinion. Frankly, I am not interested in fooling you. Think what you think, it makes little difference to me. Like I said, if Buck has a problem with it he can contact me himself.

The garbage that you are talking about stopped. You are the one now opening it up again. You are right, no one wants to hear about it anymore so practice what you preach.

- Blink

 

[Puppetplanet]

ALRIGHT ALREADY! Can't we all just get along?

The subject has been talked to death...... it's dead, no pulse, flat line!

*kicks subject*

See, no response..... just leave it there to rot..... okay?

 

[Blink]

ALRIGHT ALREADY! Can't we all just get along?

The subject has been talked to death...... it's dead, no pulse, flat line!

*kicks subject*

See, no response..... just leave it there to rot..... okay?

Yes, yes, yes yes, yes. On this point we absolutely agree.

*checks subject's pulse*

Yep, it's dead.

- Blink

 

[Erine81981]

Need help w/ Fraggle cave? *stands there w/ shovel* Oh sorry about Pig Piling on u. *holds out hand*

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Just before we finish sweeping up and send this thread off to MC heaven (or would it be hades?) I wanted to address a few statements and make a point of saying that the drawing Blink referred to was in fact copied from somewhere else - but when I was still a kid.

I couldn't find my copy of the sketch, but I believe it's from like `92 or `93 or something. I have a copy of the book he mentioned in a drawer somewhere (there's a suspiciously similar image in some of Corel's clip art too). At the time I gave him the sketch (2000? 2001?) I had probably forgotten what it had originated from.

This is increasingly a big problem for artists I think. I've heard of composers that won't listen to music while they're writing for fear they'll accidently infringe on someone else's work. TV shows employ entire departments to research and clear trademarks and copyrights (that's why coke cans usually have their logos disguised on TV).

One of the problems I've had to deal with doing Bear Town is copyright issues. Most of the characters were originally designed when I was 13 or 14. Several of the puppets in the original BT video were store-bought or converted stuffed animals. We used a Boglin in it if memory serves and I think a few of the background puppets were bought at a flea market. Of course you can't do that which is one of the reasons we remade it two years later and there's no video from the `94 version on the site now.

Anyway, if the two characters ended up in Bear Town they'd have to be altered significantly.

Last year I had to go through a bunch of old puppets and sketches and sort out what was truly original and what may have been inspired or copied from something I saw as kid to avoid problems like this. A couple of characters got cut because they were just too similar to other things people have done. It was a huge pain to deal with so when I suggest (and it's just a suggestion) building original stuff from the get-go I know of what I speak.

As for the two Big Bears thing, I know Steve occasionally checks the forum and if he's reading this no offense was intended. The similarities are rediciously small (name, type of bear) which was kind of my point. People can and do make lawsuits out of less over less in copyright law and courts seem to have little regard for creator's rights. It isn't right, but it is happening.

Also, I should say Steve's Big Bear is a great puppet...best of all he actively ENCOURAGES people to use his copyrighted characters in their videos (he compiles a highlight reel every once and awhile), so long as the credits mention that they are (c) Axtell Expressions. He's one of the good guys.

I've heard Folkmanis has a similar policy and they seem to have endorsed the Funday Pawpet Show (which uses their puppets) so not all companies are evil when it comes to copyright.

*Turns off the lights and closes the door*

 

[ScrapsFlippy]

As I stated earlier it was relevant to the alien puppets as they related to myself and Buck. If you look closely at the post I was directly speaking to Buck. The fact that I have been on this board for years and I have never said anything about Buck is proof that if I had wanted this to be about Buck, I could have done it many times and long ago.

I had thoughts that I felt compelled to raise with Buck regarding the topic that I had been reading about, and I did. It is great that Buck has people who respect him so much. That aside, my points were valid in the context that they were directed to Buck. I was NOT trying to manipulate you or Beepers, especially since my points were not about how you did or did not take them, I was clarifying.

Hey - IM Buck if you want to talk directly to Buck. Or, if you are such great "friends" pick up the telephone. Don't air your dirty laundry here, and don't patronize us. "I was NOT trying to manipulate" indeed! This is a public forum, pal. You just hatched an open-letter to Buck accusing him of theft. NOT cool.

If you want to rant about Buck, post a blog on your website like any reasonable person would.

-- Scraps

 

[Marky]

Wow! Wasn't this an MC history lesson!

 

[TheGirlIsABear]

No Peep Holes

The trickiest part are the eye holes-- keeping them disguised yet large enough for a not-too-obstructed view and making sure they line up properly.

At Disney's California Adventure in Anaheim, CA, in the show Playhouse Disney Live on Stage, I performed as Bear from BBBH. Two cameras were wired into Bears eyes, and over my head inside of Bear, I watched on a goggle-mounted monitor system, and could "see through Bears eyes." I had totally forgoten about having to see out of a puppet without such a device. Monitors are technical but make such "peep holes" un-nessecary. I want to develop a full body character with all of that brilliant technology. I could develop and build it and my husband could wire the cameras and monitor (we met when he was my technician for Bear).

Disney, in there other full-body characters revolutionized the performer visibility. One thing that worked well is painted, thick, reticulated scott foam, the same used for puppet construction.