Diego's Murdock

This is a fun character from a while ago. Murdock here is a really unique character that was a lot of fun to build.

This is a fantastic example of how interesting and distinct a character can be when created from our Simple Style puppet shapes. At his core, Murdock is a Simple Style Egghead puppet, with the live-hand monster-body variant.

Even from the early inspiration stages, this character had a really unique look and distinct personality which was a lot of fun to interpret and build.

Since this character was already so distinct, much of the design work had been done for us already. All we had to do was translate the design character into our Simple Style shapes.

It was a lot of fun working on this project and bringing this character to life.

Past work, Aaron's puppet:

This was an interesting request that we received not all that long ago.

Your eyes do not deceive you, this puppet was blank by design.  The reason behind this was pretty clever.  This puppet was to be used with a green screen, so that it could be keyed out along with the background, leaving any costume and props floating, with an “invisible man” sort of effect.
Here’s a video of this puppet in action (including some testing with keying the puppet out):

This puppet is one of the first examples of our new Deluxe-style puppets, in its purest form, even.This puppet has our Deluxe round-head and oval-body, as well as gloved, live-hands. Only one of the combinations possible from the shapes we will have available soon.

Past Work: Mini-Mary

Here's a fun one from a while back.

We were asked to make a portrait-puppet of sorts.  She wanted the character to look like her, if she were a Muppet.

This puppet is an example of a mashup of two of our new puppet styles.  Mary's head is exemplary of our round, "Deluxe-Style" head.  Her body is similar to how our "Simple-Style" puppet bodies will be.  The hands were mittens by request.

Here's a bit of her in action:

We had been considering offering portrait-puppets like this for a while.  This this request was a bit different than what we had expected however, in that Mary had basically done the hard part for us.
As eager as we were to try our hand at puppet-izing someone, she knew exactly what she wanted, and had designs ready for us.

We absolutely love it when we get design drawings.

That made our job of finalizing the character design really easy.  There wasn't much for us to do other than be sure the shapes and proportions were right.

Dan's Puppet- Past Work:

Here is another fun build we did a while ago:

This one was a unique challenge.  We ended up tailoring a sweatshirt into a live-hand arm for this character.  Which at the time, was the first time we had done something like that.

This character turned out to be several firsts for us.  This was the first time we shipped a puppet internationally, (though this didn't influence the build at all).  This was also marked the first attempt of our technology-assisted pattern making process, to create the skull for the puppet.  To get the shape we wanted, we modeled the head in a 3D software, and through some computer magic, we ended up with a pattern that made the head you see.

It turned out exactly like we wanted.
In retrospect, this method may have been better suited for a more complex shape.  However, we learned that we could use that process if we ever needed to make something particularly intricate.
(For example, we would likely use it for a particularly involved Full-Custom style request.)

Here is some footage we shot of him in action:

Link, comin' to town.

At long last, the fruit of our labors:

Info about the video after the break.

LINK!

The puppet's been finished for a while, but I didn't want to show it off until I had finished the video we had started.



{The video has since been finished, and can be found in by clicking here.}



The video will take some more doing, but here's some stuff anyway:

During shooting of the video.

Puttin' On the Ritz VIDEO

Video after the break

Quick video in the works

Ages ago, I felt like it had been too long since I'd tried to make some kind of video, so I started on something.  Just a simple lip-sync.

I took the four blank puppets I had, quickly dressed them up, then attempted to perform a 4-part musical number with the aid of a green screen and some computer magic.

The cast:

He eventually gets eyes.

I wish I had some hair to give her...  oh well.

There's a reason for the wonky eyes.  You'll see..

Very fun one to perform.

The preview:

This is a very rough work in progress shot...  the background is basically a test-pattern.  (an arbitrary photo I had)  

What started all this puppet business, anyway?

Years ago (high school), I had the idea to create a video series with some puppet characters.
I liked the idea, and always wanted to do something with puppets.

There were a few impediments preventing me from doing this, though.
First and foremost:  I didn't have any puppets.  I had no idea where I could find one that didn't look like a toy, and I didn't know the first thing about making them myself.

The short version of the story:  I still haven't gotten to that video series, but I managed to teach myself the ins-and-outs of puppet building.

As I was learning how to put puppet characters together, I ended up making a few characters for friends and family.  One thing lead to another, and I began offering my services selling custom puppets, which is why you're seeing this webpage right now.


I built a cast, then life hit me hard (college will do that), and I wasn't able to pursue video-making much.  I did make the occasional test here and there, though.

Such as this "gem" before all the characters were finished:

I started on a character that was perhaps a bit more ambitious than I should have attempted as a beginner.

I worked with materials that I could find, and made sure to save my patterns, in case I stumbled backwards into any "happy accidents" that I wouldn't be able to replicate later.









All things considered, this character turned out pretty good for a first attempt.  I've considered going back and giving it real eyes and teeth.











You can see it here, with a few of my other, very primitive early puppets:

I had even made plans for some more elaborate characters:

And eventually, I amassed enough of a "cast" to put some sort of videos together.  






But, like I said, life got in the way of that goal.  School demands attention, you know.

Around this time, I also made an attempt to sell some puppets, too, since I'd just learned a pretty interesting skill.
For a hobby-level, I did pretty well with that.

Which, eventually resulted in the webpage you are now reading, and the armfuls of puppets that we've built for people.
And, if you're interested, you can have a custom puppet from us.
Have a look at our custom information, and order form here.