How do I...

[erniebert1234ss]

...make a Donald Duck puppet that is just as expressive as the duck himself? I'm not entirely sure how to do this, so I'm asking the puppet-making experts here.

Thank you in advance for any help you give!

BJ

 

[mummytomb]

If we knew, someone would have made it by now.
Tell us the specifics of what you want Donald to do, the we can give you tips on individual mechanisms.​

 

[ravagefrackle]

first of all u will never get all of the movments of a cartoon character into a puppet ,cartoons stretch and squash in a way that puppets do not,

secondly you will need to figure out what sort of materials u will use, are you going to sculpt then cast the puppet in foam latex?or build it muppet stye in foam and fleece, and fur?

you can most likley pattern something out but it will take lots of trial and error, especialy if you are not familiar with the basics of puppet design and building.
good luck

 

[practicecactus]

Yeah, just from a problem solving point of view, I think the challenge would be to make those big eyes expressive like the drawings.
Because they're big and flat, it would be difficult.
Eyelids would be a pain, because they'd have to work more like blinds, rather than eyelids, and same with eyebrows, they have to travel from above the eyes all the way down to the beak.(well,the middle of the brows anyway)
I guess it all depends on how much time you wanna spend on it right?

 

[Fozzie Bear]

The most expression you'll need is if you make him mad.

There's almost a McDonald's "M" logo over his eyes. If you could find a way to make that scrunch down in the middle of the top part of his eyes you could get the angry expression out of that. If you shape the head out of foam, you might be able to connect the foam somehow that you can pull a string and make the eyes frown there.

 

[Phantom]

Mmmmmmmmmmmm....famous duck-burgers....do you want fries with that?

 

[erniebert1234ss]

I wanted to mainly do a routine where I worked him and his mouth movements actually were in sync with what I was saying. And also some blinking eyes thrown in for good measure. That's all I meant. I only meant his very expressive mouth and blinking eyes.

BJ

 

[ravagefrackle]

well blinking eyes are a real challenge even for characters with out such a extreme eye shape, mouth sync is somthing different ,

but recardless you are amking a assumption that many novices and people with little puppet designing, and building expierience make, that is thinking of the puppet as a three dimensional cartoon ,

cartoons can be designed to be almost anything, and still move in a fluid manner that is believable, puppets , hand puppets especially need to work within the confines of the medium, even with all the video tricks, and mechanisims, out thier , thier are somethinsg a puppet cannot dop in real time,

look closley at the design you are trying to owrk around, he has HUGE oval eyes, and a very skinny neck, a long body and arms , now how will u make all those things work as a three D creation, with out losing all of the trademark featre that make the design work?

aside for the fact that you will never achiev a proper blink with those oval eyes in the confines of that small head, i suggest you start with some simpler ideas, and learn a little more before tackeling aproject that will never reveal the results you want