Building a Star Puppet!

So...... myself and shel have been constucting puppet after puppet searching for the perfect main character. I am sure our main character {Dog} has been through at least 20 revisions since the begining of this project......INSANE! Someday Ill show his initial drawings and his various stop mo versions....just for kicks and lookback.

I feel we are very close to locking down the puppet for final shooting though. The latest incarnation involves 3 methods being mixed to create a puppet with the abilities needed for my character to perform.

1-my puppet is foamed with a hybrid armature{spine and neck of metal armature pieces.}
the legs and tail are armature wire.

2- the puppets foam feet are cut off - after that the front legs are extended due to the mold
sculpts not being long enough for the poses Im looking for......this require a foam buildup and
cut away method... then on to propasting to blend the 2 together.

3. Sculpy feet are created ontop of the 5 minuet apoxy and used for animatabity ...his foam also
must be dug out of his side belly sections to allow more extreme movement for the dogs
Hips.

this is the process to create one of the 3 puppets needed for my Film .....alot of work not including all the painting and so forth....not to mention Ill probably need more due to how active this char is in the film......possible breaks and aches.

here is an intermediate pic of the 2 of them together....

Foam Dog is sad having just had a bath in the kitchen sink......I imagine hell be sad untill hes finished...Maquette dog is quite happy having reached his his final form.....

soon enough Mr. Foam puppet will have the last laugh.....hell be bouncing and pouncing and
rolling and living ....Full of life ............while mr maquette will be incased in his frozen coffin for eternity!!

Its almost SAD.....ha!

jriggity