Successful Muppet recreations

[Drtooth]

Hey... great stuff... I wish I could do that. Must be a book on the subject somewhere...

Anyway..Fozzie? Was that Slimer picture on your website a puppet? Did you do it? Looks cool!!!!

 

[MUPPETMONKEY]

Originally posted by Tommie
Gee Tom. Respect, respect!!! You did a really great job. Usually I don`t like seeing replicas, `cause they are never like the original, but YOUR replicas! I almost don`t see the difference!
And Monkey: I love your avatar, and I really want to see the rest of your creations, but your links don`t work. Don`t know why.

I am really getting inspired by seeing al those creations!

Hi:

I checked the pictures and they work fine for me, you can try clicking them again, but anyway, here are other ways to see them:

<img src="http://image1ex.villagephotos.com/pubimage.asp?id_=1163096" width=434 height=310>



<img src="http://image1ex.villagephotos.com/pubimage.asp?id_=1163103" width=576 height=720>




PS: Tom, those puppets are great! I take off my hat.

 

[Tom Morrow]

Originally posted by BryanS
Tom you are really a talented puppet builder.
I saw where you wrote you interned for henson in 93
im sure that gave you alot of insight as to how the muppet style puppets are built. And to scale how big they really are. I am still trying to figure out how to build Kermit. I thought he would be one of the more simple muppet puppets to replicate but I guess I was wrong. LOL what do the muppets mouth plates feel like? do they have any type of finger grips in them? I have been told before that Kermit's head does not have any foam in it. is that true? And they say that his eyes are made from half ping pong balls, but they seem to be too small and hard to attach to the proto type I have been working on. If ya have any PICS of your replica Kermit or Kermit's please please send them LOL. or any other suggestions you have.

thanks!

Well, lesse here. Kermit is indeed foamless in his head. (but i think that's common knowledge. I never did get to mess with the real one. )

Most of them have a rubbery mouthplate. Some larger ones have finger "grabs" on the upper.

Size? Well, for me, they were SMALLER than i expected. That doesn't really help much tho. For a Kermit, why not halve a ping pong ball and then scale it up from there? Maybe blow up a picture of him till the size on the eyes match? (keeping in mind that your hand will be what gives his head shape, so careful not to go too big)

tom

 

[Tom Morrow]

Originally posted by BorkBork
i can not sy it enough times, tom...EXELLENT!

when you say chef is carved from foam...is it like you have a big square foam cube or something and cut out the shape from that???
Isn't that extremely hard to get it correct?


/Anders

Exactly right on both counts... carved from a square block and yeah.. tough to get right! I really enjoy sculpting and molding over carving, but running foam in a home oven just isn't practicle. Start off with an electric carving knife and get your basic shapes, then use a pair of curved scissors (ones where the blades are curved to one side, not up and down.... tough to describe but these take less of a "bite" out of the foam than straight blades). Then use a belt sander to smooth it out. Flocking would be the next step, but that's another tough one to do at home so, sadly, i just painted mine.

thanks again for all the kind words everyone

tom

 

[ToasterBoy]

Tom-

What kind of foam can you use in a belt sander? Wouldn't regular Poly Foam snag? Or am wrong and you didn't make them out of Poly Foam?

Grant

 

[BorkBork]

i am so going to try this! carving thing! I am really excited, it looks so cool. Just out of couriosity, what kind of paint did you use. And i'd also like to know what kind of foam to use for this.

There is a really cool store in my town that only sells foam of different types. I can buy any size i want, and rather cheap too

Also...that cuved cissors...i didn't really get it. Does anyone have a pic or a better explaination?

Did you attatch the head of the chef to the body in any way?

/Anders

 

[Tom Morrow]

Originally posted by ToasterBoy
Tom-

What kind of foam can you use in a belt sander? Wouldn't regular Poly Foam snag? Or am wrong and you didn't make them out of Poly Foam?

Grant

Oddly enough, it doesn't snag... tho it can so you've gotta be careful. The type of sander u want is the kind that stands on it's own with a large belt. You then hold the piece over it and lightly touch the surface. It's definately something you could hurt yourself doing, so obviously don't try it if you're not 100% comfortable with that sort of equipment.

tom

 

[Tom Morrow]

Originally posted by BorkBork
i am so going to try this! carving thing! I am really excited, it looks so cool. Just out of couriosity, what kind of paint did you use. And i'd also like to know what kind of foam to use for this.

There is a really cool store in my town that only sells foam of different types. I can buy any size i want, and rather cheap too

Also...that cuved cissors...i didn't really get it. Does anyone have a pic or a better explaination?

Did you attatch the head of the chef to the body in any way?

/Anders

I used CREATEX paints through an airbrush, sprayed wide with a lot of light coats. It's tough to paint foam cus the paint always soaks in.

The scissors are a tough one to describe (and tougher to find.) I don't even have a good pair anymore. Think of them like large scale cuticle scissors. Where the blades curve to the left (if you're righty) Carving foam can be done with any scissors, the curved ones seem to not "dig in" excessively. The elec. turkey knife is definately key for large cuts... i was amazed how well it works (tho be careful, it works real well on fingers too!) [i feel like it's time for a "don't try this at home" disclaimer LOL]

i did a quick search to see if i could find a pic and there's one here:

http://www.peasridge.co.uk/products/images-products/product-1094.jpg

it's a UK site, and i can't speak for the size of the scissors in the pic, but they look about right. the whole product page is here:

http://www.peasridge.co.uk/products/horses/info-scissors.htm

I've actually never thought to look for these online... it's been a while since i've carved up a foam head, so i guess i haven't had much use for em. Gonna have to dig some more. If i find some i'll be sure to post em here.

hope that helps a little... i'm off to work
tom

 

[BorkBork]

thanks for the reply. When you spraypaint it, is it easy to get it even, or does it tend do get darker on some places?

Sorry for asking so much, but i am planning to do one in a while, since seing your made me think that i want to try it myself.

Is he designed with the mouth open wide or closed?

Cool! Now i know what kind of cissors you are talking about. I'll get one fer sure, rully


/Anders

 

[Tom Morrow]

Originally posted by BorkBork
thanks for the reply. When you spraypaint it, is it easy to get it even, or does it tend do get darker on some places?

Is he designed with the mouth open wide or closed?

Yes. it can be a bit difficult to get the paint even, but if it was easy, it wouldn't be fun

I did the Chef with the mouth closed... it just seems like that's the way the original was when "at rest". (mouth seems to wrinkle oddly when open, rather than when closed, ya know?)

Other carved foam characters would be done with the mouth open. It all just depends on the design.

hope that helps
tom