#puppet shit

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[hawkinses]

This is Wren!!! I started him November 2022 and finished him around April 2023, after a lot of blood, sweat and tears lol...

I made him for a portfolio application, thinking that another felted puppet would be nice after my thesis guys. His design is pretty simple, but he was a nightmare to make due to felt build-up and structure.

Here are some of his glamour shots!!!!!

Ramble + more photos below the cut, as usual!

I don't really like making puppets for myself without them being pre-existing characters, so, considering I'd just made Wren a couple months earlier in March (sketches and basic schematic ideas below!), I knew immediately who'd fit the bill for a felted puppet.

His hands were living hell to do but I wanted them to look like a little stylized, so the effort I ended up putting into them really paid off, I think. The same went for the tapering on his arms and legs.

In-set eyes for felt were interesting to do, because the eyeball itself needs to be significantly bigger than its socket in order for it to be held in, so I kept having to make and re-make eyes in different sizes to test lol....BUT eventually I found the right size and I love how they turned out!!! And yes, you can move them around super easily! I would have liked to do removable eyelids out of felt, but due to time constraints and, frankly, exhaustion I ended up just doing set eyelids, which still fit him well.

I knew from the start that I'd have to do two photoshoots for him (one before felting on his cape, and one after felting on his cape), but I was NOT ready for his back to snap in in the middle of the first session LOL. Luckily, attaching his cape added support because it touches the ground, so things still worked out.

Pics of him before the cape:

Now that I have access to better material and equipment I'd love to solder him a nice back piece that will last longer than his current spinal fusion, but that'll be wayyy down the line. Anyways, I love him to bits.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading!!!

[hawkinses]

before I started my thesis way back when lol, I had to test out possible methods for puppet construction; so I made this lil' Toa to test the sturdiness of felting + foam!! he ended up really cute and helped a bunch when it came to making my thesis characters ⭐

[hawkinses]

Broder, I decided to open up Roy today (I'm already working with epoxy for another thing I'm doing), and jesus christ man uhhhh "crude" barely begins to describe how bad he looks on the inside omg. His wire is like 18g or 20g also??????? Girl??? I was expecting like 16g or 14g but damn, I really was just pulling methods out of my ass....

I'm thinking of using the Jeton pieces I have right now...considering he's fluffy I think I can get away with it, and as long as I remove some batting I think the size will work ok.

Gonna have to find a way to lock in his sculpey pieces to the armature so they have something concrete to hold onto, but besides that I think sewing him back up is going to be the easy part, aaaaaaah.. Oh my god wait I need to figure out how to make intersection points for the Jeton shit bc I don't have intersection joints.......epoxy putty save me

[hawkinses]

(DJ Khaled voice) ANOTHA ONE. This is Cleo and I made him during the summer of 2019!! Still had no idea what I was doing so he was very educational lol but he regardless turned out very cute and animateable. His face is actually blank, so you can add eyes/eyebrows/mouths either with paper, plasticine, or with a 2D overlay. he's about 10" tall without his ears.

Ramblings about the whole process below!

This was my first like...short-furred puppet? Turns out that minkie is a nightmare to work with because the pile is so short that it gets EVERYWHERE as soon as you start cutting into it lol, the more we know. The wire I used for his body is a LOT more heavy duty than Roy's, so he's loads easier to handle and move. I don't remember what possessed me to use another kind of wire for his tail (I think I thought it'd be maybe too stiff), but I used some other piece of garbage wire and it was awful, the tail's barely moveable and it was hell to animate with.

This was the first time I tried working with latex fingers; I really had no idea what I was doing so I didn't even tint the latex lol I just painted over it afterwards (you can see the peeling/cracking starting to show), but I still had a blast trying it! Usually you apply it in layers to do a buildup process but I was impatient and just dipped the fingers lol.

He has rigging holes in his feet since I'd made him for a test portfolio (we do group films in 3rd year of my program and there's ONE group for stop-mo; so you need to make a puppet and do some anim exercises to prove you're insane enough to want to join the group)