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.

Past work: John's Grouch

Here's a fun character we built earlier this year:

This one is a live-hand, sack-monster type puppet with an eyebrow mechanism, meant to look like a Sesame-Street-Grouch-like character.
This is a great example of one of our "Full custom" puppets, with new patterns and shapes made from scratch.



Here's a video of the build progression, and some shots of the final puppet in action:

See some early design work after the break

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:

Small: a little puppet

This character was a custom order from quite a while ago.

These sketches are variations of the character based on a written description of him.

The sketches were based mostly on an explanation of the character's personality.  This description only gave a few specific physical traits, so much of it was open for interpretation.  I wanted to have a variety of options to choose between while still keeping maintaining the essence of the character's personality.

We settled on this for the final design:

We used this illustration as a guide while we built the character.

Here is how the little guy turned out:

Link, comin' to town.

At long last, the fruit of our labors:

Info about the video after the break.

Older Puppets

I don't really have anything new to show at the moment, though I've picked up some very nice new techniques in building.

I thought it might be fun to dip into the past a bit to see some of my earlier puppets, and how far I've come.

So, here are some of the first puppets I ever built.



I decided to make a puppet for my friend's birthday quite some time ago.  It had a fairly simple design, made to his specifications.  It's a bit crudely put together, but it's not fair to judge by my current standards.

 

All things considered though, I'd say it came out pretty well.

 

This was one of the earliest puppets of this kind that I had ever made.

What I learned in making this puppet, I applied in making Gertie: 

  

(She's on the left.)

She is very similar in shape.

Another puppet I made for a friend, was a replica of an even older puppet I had made:

 

...though I don't think I ever got a picture of it in finished form.  it doesn't seem to have hands, and it looks like the legs are pinned on.  However, it's not supposed to have eyes.  The original didn't either.  I decided to give this replica feet so you could tuck the sleeve in, and it would become a little doll-looking thing.

To see what I'm talking about, you'd have to travel way back.  Back to the very first puppets that I ever built.

These two were made out of old shirts.  The red one, "Red," as I took to calling it, gained a really big fan in one of my friends.  So, I made a more up-to-date version for them, also as a birthday present.  I kept the original for myself.

I'm sure I still have it somewhere.

Now, the blue fellow...  I wonder if anybody would make the connection...

Blue, horizontal stripes...  crazed eyes...

 It's Staniel.

Maybe it's not that obvious.

That old, old puppet there, is the first iteration of Staniel.

I grew attached to the character, and when I got to building new characters, I thought it would be nice to update him.  He got a total overhaul.  And among other things, moving eyebrows.

Around the same time as those two came around, I made my first big, foam-and-fur puppet:

That was quite an undertaking for someone who didn't know quite what they were doing.

It's also notable for being my first gloved-hand puppet.  The only problem with this was that the character's arms were so short.  He basically had hands sticking out of his body.

...which despite being what the design called for, it proved to make things difficult when operating the character.

I've come quite a way since then.  I learned new technique, how to better use my materials...  and to quit fussing too much over the details.  Sometimes, simpler is so much better.

At the time, I nitpicked these puppets to death.  Looking back, they're not perfect...  but how could they be?  They look good for what they are, they function fantastically, and have the spirit I wanted to give them in the first place.

You don't need amazing craftsmanship to make a puppet that is entertaining or endearing.  It's entirely possible to get an emotional response from a character that's just a bare hand.