I have been asked to create a few Muppet-style puppets of M-Rated game characters that will teach children important life lessons such as the ESRB rating guidelines and talking about your feelings instead of resorting to excessive violence.
My design for the puppet.The first puppet I'm building is Kratos, the temper-tantrum prone Ghost of Sparta from God of War. Here's the progress of the first build day: the understructure of the head.
A quick orthographic of the parts.In order to create this shape, I needed to carve an 8" foam cube, and to do that I needed to draw proper guidelines. It probably just looks like a mess though.
The guidelines for the upper head piece.The cube would be cut in half. The top piece will be carved into a cylinder and the 8" foam half-sphere would be glued on top to form the upper head. I drew the circle on the top of the foam block as well as a few tangential lines for the ease of carving. The X's show what I'm going to shave off.
The guidelines for the lower jaw.The lower jaw was a much more complex form. On the bottom of the cube I drew out the curves of the U shape and on the sides the diagonals of the jawline.
I began carving the foam first using a small hacksaw (the cleaver looking thing) to cut off large chunks. It's one of my favorite tools, an x-acto #5 with a fine tooth saw blade. I continued to shave it down with a Dremel with a sanding wheel attachment. Be careful, the Dremel will eat through the foam pretty quick, so keep it on low power. I finished it off with some heavy grit sandpaper to eat away small lumps, then fine grit sandpaper to smooth it out.
The foam is very soft, and a little bit of grinding goes a long way, so when working with the stuff always go slow and the sandpaper should be your weapon of choice (because it's more precise) unless you have a huge piece to take off.
More sanding and I cut the cube in half with a hot knife.
The space for the puppeteer's fingers.
The lower jaw.
The back of the head is beginning to take shape.
So is the lower jaw.
After I cut the cube in half to create the two pieces, I began to shape the lower jaw. I neglected to compensate for the back of the head being rounded when I created the shape of the jaw (which is why the back of the jaw sticks out in the picture up there). Fortunately this was really easy to fix. A good rule of thumb is it's always better to be too big than too small. It's easier to take away than add.
The mouth.
The mouth is what would connect the pieces and allow them to move. I cut two separate pieces of cardboard and duct taped them together to make the hinge. When I get to putting "skin" on the puppet in the next few days, I'll probably reinforce it.
Things are starting to come together.
The mouth closed...
I cut the space for the fingers in the upper head inward in order for it to be shaped more like an actual head. This also made to jaw open easier.
... and open.
From the back.
And open again.
The hinge worked really well, but just in case, I added in elastic straps for the thump and fingers to make the head easier to hold and move.
What a mess...
I began carving the foam first using a small hacksaw (the cleaver looking thing) to cut off large chunks. It's one of my favorite tools, an x-acto #5 with a fine tooth saw blade. I continued to shave it down with a Dremel with a sanding wheel attachment. Be careful, the Dremel will eat through the foam pretty quick, so keep it on low power. I finished it off with some heavy grit sandpaper to eat away small lumps, then fine grit sandpaper to smooth it out.
The foam is very soft, and a little bit of grinding goes a long way, so when working with the stuff always go slow and the sandpaper should be your weapon of choice (because it's more precise) unless you have a huge piece to take off.
More sanding and I cut the cube in half with a hot knife.
The space for the puppeteer's fingers.
The lower jaw.
The back of the head is beginning to take shape.
So is the lower jaw.
The mouth.The mouth is what would connect the pieces and allow them to move. I cut two separate pieces of cardboard and duct taped them together to make the hinge. When I get to putting "skin" on the puppet in the next few days, I'll probably reinforce it.
Things are starting to come together.
The mouth closed...I cut the space for the fingers in the upper head inward in order for it to be shaped more like an actual head. This also made to jaw open easier.
... and open.
From the back.
And open again.
The hinge worked really well, but just in case, I added in elastic straps for the thump and fingers to make the head easier to hold and move.
What a mess...I had to include this one because I am sort of proud of the ridiculous mess I made. That green foam dust got everywhere. It's like beach sand that will get into your phone even if it was locked in your car five miles away. When using the Dremel or sanding, wear goggles, because it will get in your eyes. Also, I wish I had a dust mask. It's not hazardous, but it got in my mouth and tasted terrible. So wear one of those.
Besides the crazy jumble of guidelines on the foam cube, this part of the build was pretty straightforward. It just comes down to a few hours of careful sanding.
This is, however, a build where the time involved is reliant on the tools used. A couple different grits of sandpaper and a fine toothed saw are an absolute must. Dremels and hot knives aren't typical things people have around, but they definitely make the build a lot quicker and easier. The saw took off large pieces, but wasn't good for finer work. The Dremel was good for quickly shaving off large lumps, but takes off a lot if you aren't careful. The hot knife (the thing with the burgundy handle), which is essentially a heated metal wire, was perfect for curves, but was flexible, so not great for straight cuts.
The hot knife was wonderful, but be careful. The wire has a tendency to bend and if you press too hard it will snap. I learned this the hard way and had to make a second run to Michael's. You don't need to apply any pressure. Gravity will take care of everything. Also wear heat resistant gloves. You are holding a 500ยบ piece of fragile metal after all.
Safety first!
Besides the crazy jumble of guidelines on the foam cube, this part of the build was pretty straightforward. It just comes down to a few hours of careful sanding.
This is, however, a build where the time involved is reliant on the tools used. A couple different grits of sandpaper and a fine toothed saw are an absolute must. Dremels and hot knives aren't typical things people have around, but they definitely make the build a lot quicker and easier. The saw took off large pieces, but wasn't good for finer work. The Dremel was good for quickly shaving off large lumps, but takes off a lot if you aren't careful. The hot knife (the thing with the burgundy handle), which is essentially a heated metal wire, was perfect for curves, but was flexible, so not great for straight cuts.
The hot knife was wonderful, but be careful. The wire has a tendency to bend and if you press too hard it will snap. I learned this the hard way and had to make a second run to Michael's. You don't need to apply any pressure. Gravity will take care of everything. Also wear heat resistant gloves. You are holding a 500ยบ piece of fragile metal after all.
Safety first!Check back tomorrow where I will be attaching the fabric skin. Hopefully I can get this puppet done by the end of the week!
No comments:
Post a Comment