I'm a beginning puppeteer...

[YoyoYoda]

Hey, so I'm a beginning puppeteer (I have experience in 2d animation, and puppetry is a translation of that - it's interactive, realtime animation - which is absolutely awesome). I've been fooling around with puppets at stores, but now that the time has come to make my own, I'm absolutely stumped. I've sculpted before, and I've sewn before, but somehow getting the design from paper to a performing puppet is just mindboggling.

I've been going through designs and trying to figure out what to go for - I know I want mouth and head mobility, and arms on rods. I had one design for a guinea pig, but I don't think a guinea pig really lends itself to being terribly mobile... the only way I can think to make that guy is like a stuffed animal.
The design I'm going to try and make is a monkey. I have foam scraps that I picked up from the local upholstery store (they let me have all I wanted on trash day), but I still need fabric and the stuff for the internal mechanisms.

The problem I'm running into is that the foam that I have seems to be too thick or dense to really move much, which means that I wouldn't be able to get much expression into the mouth. Maybe if I make the head structure out of foam and then just build the muzzle using fabric? Would that collapse?

You can probably tell from my post that I'm excited about doing this but totally clueless on how to get started.

So how do you organize your puppetbuilding? What do you do first? How do you work out the patterns that you have to use for whatever it is you're using for skin?

 

[ravagefrackle]

there are a lot of great post here, try reading thru all of them , almost all of your questions will be answered by them, good luck!

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Welcome to the forum!

I've written an article that might help - The Tumbles P. Bear Project which explains my personal approach to puppet building. I haven't gotten around to finishing the last few parts of the article yet, but it might help get you started.

Re: your muzzle/mouth problem, Tumbles' head is pattern from sheet foam but his "muzzle" is fur with a small pillow placed inside the top of it to prevent it from collapsing. That approach would probably work for your puppet.

As for foam thickness, how thick is the foam you're using? I find that 3/4" foam usually works best, but it's hard thickness to find in some areas. 1" foam which is all some people can find is often too thick to allow proper movement (it gets really hot inside the puppet too!).

A good book to pick up is The Foam Book by Drew Allison and Donald Devet which covers the basics of foam puppet construction. You can also learn a lot from studying how stuffed toys are patterned.

I hope that helps!

 

[thatonekid]

Sometimes, if it will go with what you're trying to make, you can make the head out of two peices of foam. you can make the bottem jaw one peice and the rest of the head another peice and then cover the whole thing with fleece or something.
it just seemed like what you were explaining was one paice of foam, which can work, but it's harder to control.

 

[Infinity Sirius]

Have you ever thought of making the puppet from wire? That is what I did with my puppet. I made the base with wire and covered it with cloth, then I stuffed it with quilt batting. The only problem with wire, though, is that it leaves little room for expression. So I have to practice with head gestures and voice changes.

 

[scarylarrywolf]

Translating from 2D to 3D was a matter of Saxon Algebra II for me! Geometry books are incredibly helpful (though incredibly nerdy ). I'd imagine you could find something of the sort at a library or by just browsing around online.

Break everything down into simple shapes, then judge where you can combine a couple shapes to avoid too many seams in your puppet.

Good luck!

 

[thatonekid]

Translating from 2D to 3D was a matter of Saxon Algebra II for me! Geometry books are incredibly helpful (though incredibly nerdy ). I'd imagine you could find something of the sort at a library or by just browsing around online.

Break everything down into simple shapes, then judge where you can combine a couple shapes to avoid too many seams in your puppet.

Good luck!

wow

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Seriously, whoever thought that math would come in handy if you weren't an accountant!

Another think that I've heard some people do to work out 3D designs is they design their puppet in a basic 3D modelling program using primative shapes so they know what shapes they need to make to create their character.

 

[scarylarrywolf]

Yeah, what Buck said. Or if you don't have software for creating a prototype and you'd like the added bonus of getting used to how your materials will work, make a mocquette (miniature model) of the puppet first. I did that with my most recent puppet -- made a model of the head out of foam about 7 inches tall, fine tuned the patterns, then converted it all to the desired scale. Complicated, but very rewarding results.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

John Kennedy has written an interesting article that briefly explains one method for converting a drawing in to a 3-D puppet. There are a few photos too.

http://www.puppetkit.com/c/81