In addition to traditional glove and rod puppets, we occasionally build “poser” puppets. Articulated mainly for photo shoots and specific shots usually, this poser was commissioned by artist Lucien Smith as part of an art installation celebrating artist David Hammons.
In addition to creating the poser puppet and custom clothing, we also worked closely with the client to design the puppet’s overall look to work with his unique vision.
Puppet Design Studio fabricated over 15 puppets for Episode 5.07 of FOX’s hit show “Glee.” The episode, aptly called “The Puppet Master,” centered around Blaine (Darren Criss) imagining all of his friends as puppets. Not only did we design, build and coordinate the puppeteers for the shoot. we consulted with “Glee’s” production staff to help make the puppet shoot run smoothly.
Last year, Puppet Design Studio created and performed Rod Puppets for the Cartoon Network Show “Teen Titans Go!” episode #S1:E52, “Puppets, Whaaaaat?”
Grocery Outlet Bargain Market uses our puppets to bring their unique commercials to life. We’ve done almost a dozen spots for them over the years, creating a brand that have jumped media to bobble heads and tote bags, among other things.
One of our specialties is translating 2D characters into 3D puppets. In 2D animation, often a character is designed to look one way from one angle and another, completely unrelated way from another. The real trick is striking that delicate balance so that our puppets can exist in three dimensions — while staying on model.
Not all of our puppets are made from Fleece and Foam, In fact, you may not be aware that some of the puppets we’ve built are puppets at all.
For Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios, we built hand puppet versions of Chucky from the “Child’s Play” and “Chucky” movies. Unlike his cinematic counterpart, who was complete animatronic, our version had to be able to interact in real time to visitors, meaning that a hand puppets the only option.
Made from silicon, his custom airbrushed paint job and hand-punched hair, we took great pains to match the movie version while creating a functional puppet. This level of detail continued down tot the rips on his signature “Good Guys” overalls and the red replica tennis shoes on his feet.
Much like the Captain Caveman puppet, we also built puppets for Ricochet Rabbit and Deputy Droop-a-long for Warner Bros. Animation. As with all 2D to 3D puppet conversions, we pride ourselves on walking the fine line between staying true to the original source material and making a functional puppet.
We built and puppeteered puppet likenesses of several “Chowder” characters used in several 30 second segments for the CArtoon Network Show. Since Chowder and Mung puppets had already been created, we had to take great care to both make functional puppets while still keeping the characters on model and consistent with the look already established.
Fans of Comedy’s Central’s “Mind of Mencia” may remember the popular “Dippy’s Happy Hut” sketch. We built and performed the puppets!
Here are some behind-the-scenes pictures of some puppets we built and performed for an American Greetings E-Card.
