Inflating/Deflating Puppet (any ideas?)

[staceyrebecca]

I've been asked to make a puppet that gets bigger throughout the show. Conversely, his counterpart needs to shrink.

They'd ideally be sitting on a cactus & operated with a foot pump while the storyteller does her thing (since her hands will be full of giant book)

Any thoughts on how I could accomplish that?

I know that Philip Huber has a marionette that's belly inflates/grows & then deflates, but I'm not sure how he does it. I suppose I could ask him... BUT I thought I'd ask you guys first

 

[Melonpool]

I wonder if you could make it out of an inflatable beach ball attached to a foot punp? Just make the body hollow (and light) and insert the uniflated beach ball inside. The ball would start out partially inflated, but get bigger as you added more air.

I have no clue how to do the shrinking one, though.

Steve

 

[mrhogg]

How much of the puppets need to grow and shrink? Which body parts?

 

[staceyrebecca]

oh beach ball might be a good idea for the one that grows...the other one needs to shrink.

Brian, imagine the character being a small, round little guy that kinda resembles a Sprite from Rainbow Brite. The main body/head needs to grow or shrink.

 

[puppetsmith]

Just to be clear...you need the characters to grow and shrink. That's a little different than inflating and deflating, right? You don't want the character to look like a deflated balloon...all empty and loose...after it shrinks. You want it to get smaller in size with no distortion. Correct?

 

[Jinx]

Rather than involving pneumatics at all you might consider building something with telescoping body parts. It will still require a bit of engineering, but probably a lot more sure-fire and predictable in performance!

I am currently working on building a prop potted plant that grows from about 18"tall into a palm tree about 7' tall in about 10 seconds. I am using a three-stage series of PVC pipe for the basis if the effect.

 

[practicecactus]

Hope your characters are plenty furry, otherwise it'll look weird.
I'd say increase and decrease from the back and use elastic.
Limb extention would be easy, but the head would be tricky.

 

[staceyrebecca]

they're somewhat furry...not terribly

The head *is* the body...think Rainbow Brite's Sprite (C'mon guys, pretend you were a little girl in the 80s).

The character grows throughout the story, so ideally I'd need to find a good stretchy material that also suits the needs of the look of the Character so that it doesn't look all flabby prior to growing...I'm sure that immediately after I find that material that peace will erupt in the Middle East.

Thankfully the people I'm working with are both very nice and patient. If it can't be done, then it can't be done, and that's okay.

 

[Mistersuperstar]

Does the puppet need to grow slowly and continously over time or in short bursts every so often throughout the story?

 

[Beauregard]

I'm sure that I've seen reverse-pumps that take the air OUT of something slowly, same as putting air INTO something slowly. I'd say make the puppets based around good quality beach-balls and inflate one before the show, set up a footpump by each foot...One to inflate, one to deflate.