Silicone Skin for Hand puppet
in Puppets
Hi everyone!
I am working on a film that requires me to make a hand puppet. The design of this creature is very similar to a snake face/dragon shape. Open and close hand means opening and closing the mouth..(if you remember the Dinosaur hand puppet toys McDonalds had 20+ years ago, similar to that)
We did a proof of concept/short over a year ago and our first version was very successful. Limited budget, time etc… I had a silicone mold of the creature and roto casted a few layers of platsil gel 10. I added a bit of power mesh here and there to add some strength…like I said low budget, limited time etc…
This honestly worked pretty great and has ultimately got us more funding to do a feature. But I’d like to improve upon this design so puppeteer might be better. (Ps, the reason we went with a silicone skin was because the amount of goo,milk like substance…vomit etc this creature encounters and produces…made clean up better)
I recently watched the “ lab work for animatronic characters with pro FX technician Cory” and it was really great!
I am working on a film that requires me to make a hand puppet. The design of this creature is very similar to a snake face/dragon shape. Open and close hand means opening and closing the mouth..(if you remember the Dinosaur hand puppet toys McDonalds had 20+ years ago, similar to that)
We did a proof of concept/short over a year ago and our first version was very successful. Limited budget, time etc… I had a silicone mold of the creature and roto casted a few layers of platsil gel 10. I added a bit of power mesh here and there to add some strength…like I said low budget, limited time etc…
This honestly worked pretty great and has ultimately got us more funding to do a feature. But I’d like to improve upon this design so puppeteer might be better. (Ps, the reason we went with a silicone skin was because the amount of goo,milk like substance…vomit etc this creature encounters and produces…made clean up better)
I recently watched the “ lab work for animatronic characters with pro FX technician Cory” and it was really great!
Im wondering if making a skin similar to how he made the ET skin would be suitable for a hand puppet? Would deadening the silicone make operation nicer? Maybe too soft for a hand puppet? Would the panty house be suitable to have a hand on top of it operating? Or will it still feel tacky due to the deadener?
There is no added mechanism in the puppet, only my hand opening and closing a mouth.
There is no added mechanism in the puppet, only my hand opening and closing a mouth.
What would you do? Stick to the same but improve? Or create a skin like Corey did?
thanks!
Cassea
thanks!
Cassea
0
Comments
Your approach sounds great. One thing I would look into doing is creating an internal shell to help add structure and control how things move. This could be as simple as using thermoplastic, fiberglass, epoxy putty, etc., inside the silicone skin to create a bit of a skull and jaw, which you can connect to each other with fabric to form a simple hinge.
Would love to see how this turns out.
/Chris