PUPPETS! Secret Project Revealed!

[furtech]

Puppet Show Full FLickr Set!

I was working like a madman from June until mid-August on a project I couldn't talk about or even show some of the pieces I was laboring on...much as I wanted to! The project I was making these for wanted to keep everything under wraps until the show was performed. Puppets. Lots of puppets!

The show was the EF Pawpet Show: Pompeii-- and I can now show off the characters I made for the performance.

I was very excited at the chance to help out with the puppet show. I've seen several of their shows and- at the end of each- wished I could have been involved somehow.

This year they were making the transition to much larger rod puppets that were custom-made for the show. They needed an extra hand with this, so I volunteered. Watching the show come together, even from many miles away, was a thrill. All of those involved do so much work and all of it for one performance only. Thousands of man-hours for one show. Amazing.

I made ten puppets for the show, all of which were either sold in the art auction or bought by the show to use in future productions.

Of the puppets I made, my favorite is Caius Gavius Rufus: he is a wolf and the villain of the show. My inexperience with puppets and not being able to handle the current batch of already-made puppets meant that I ended up making Caius twice: Caius the First was a good 25% too large. Caius II worked much better. Villains are cool to make.

I was also pleased with the Hare and the Boar. I'm still fairly new to puppet-making, so I took this opportunity to experiment with styles as much as possible. Here you can see the ten or so puppets I made , along with the other members of the cast.

I can't tell you how awesome it felt to see all of these puppets together in one place.

The show was wonderful and the cast and crew took well-deserved bows.

Comments

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh HA! ;-D

[ruggels.livejournal.com]

This looks like a lot of fun. The villain and the hare look I think the best. Is the performance up on Youtube?

Scott

[frysco.livejournal.com]

Not YouTube, but they have a private server where you can watch.

From bigbluefox's journal:

To those who are interested in watching the pawpet show, the EF Prime stream (the live-cut video that was broadcast) is available here:

http://prime.eurofurence.org/play/EF18/PawPetShow (user: efprime, password: nomnom)

[iisaw.livejournal.com]

Wow! I'm amazed by the amount of work that went into it for only one performance!

[furtech.livejournal.com]

In a way, that's what makes it so cool. They certainly don't treat it like it's a one-shot, either!

[fenris-lorsrai.livejournal.com]

They look really awesome overall. The boar is particularly awesome. He's got smaller eyes than the rest (as he should) but still has a great facial expression even while he's not in use. He looks lively even just on the stand.

Great job, that's a lot of work!

One minor critique. the three felines looks a bit doggish, the cheetah being the one that seems least feline. I think its the length of the muzzle. Don't know if that was the character design you were given to work with or they needed to be longer for mechanical reasons. They may read better at a distance.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

The topology of a cat's head has always baffled me. Round, yet not-- and all kinds of subtle things that make it a "cat". Also very hard to exaggerate: when you do, they tend to look canine (look at Sylvester the cat of Warner Bros fame). The lynx and cat play well at stage distances. The cheetah was sculpted for a different fur-- one that is poofier than was used. I need to try it with the same fur that is used on the hare.

The two felines I am happy with are a lion (manticore, actually) that I had to completely re-sculpt about seven times before it looked good:



And Spotticus:



...which I also spent a huge number of re-do's getting the head right (or as right as I could determine!).

[kynekh-amagire.livejournal.com]

Wow, what a treat! I love puppets so much, and yours look fabulous.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Do you puppeteer at all? I am only fair-to-poor at puppeteering (and I'm not being modest: I just don't have the knack yet). I loved seeing them brought to life by people who were good at that.

[henriekeg.livejournal.com]

I liked this year's show, but the one from last year is still my favorite! It's on youtube, you should check it out :)
It was a real treat to work with you! Karpour and I want to build puppets for next year, and I already talked a bit with Cheetah and Eisfuchs so I can get the character designs done earlier next year. It will be fun, for sure! :)

[furtech.livejournal.com]

It would be so cool to see you make puppets! Stay on Cheetah and Eisfuchs for a theme!!

And I did see last-year's show: it was -great-! My own favorite is the first one I saw, at EF2008 I think. I had no idea what to expect-- so I was blown away by the story and acting!

[diadexxus.livejournal.com]

VERY cool to see something completely different from you! :)
-J

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Puppets are fun! They're smaller to work on (so I can take them with me and work on them) and they're a lot easier to "wear" than suits! I'm hooked!