Foam shaping / designs

Hi all, I've been making puppets for a few years on and off and have had good results using One Way Street Patterns, David P video and the Grey Seal methods... I need some help though. Those three are all very different designs and I'm trying to figure out the best way to get the results I want. I know the shapes I'd like and the looks, sketched out and all but can't seem to put foam pieces together to get that look. I just want basic looks (circular head, tall head, triangle type heads) but how to cut the sheet foam... that's the question.

Do any of you have any great tips, techniques, tricks to help determine darts and foam cuts to create a good pattern which can expand to others? I like the David Pannabaker look but seems like there are so many pieces -- can that be simplified but still have the main seam down the center and not the side? I'd love to have clean mouths with different widths, shapes, etc to go along with different head shapes.

I'm not a fan of the three-piece head method because I'd like to have a pretty complete look (front and back down toward neck attachment) and have the flexibility with that.

Please help...

Thanks in advance.

Doug

I am sure there are alot of different ways. And everyone will tell you different. The way I make a head is I take a 4" thick piece of foam. I draw the shape of the head I would like to see (Smaller than actual head would be.). I am only making side profile of the head not the whole head. Then I take sander and knifes to cut the shape I would like the head to be. Then I hollow out the head leaving the about 1/8" . You will see that you have a miniture side profile of the head. Then I cut that into patteren pieces so that it lays flat. You will cut darts and everything is cut in a curve not a straight line. I take those to the copier and blow them up to the desired size. And make my patteren out of that. I just flip the pattern of the other side and glue them all together. It takes some practice but, they come out being beautiful puppets. For the mouthplate I take the head which is full size of what I need and place a piece of poster board in the mouth and draw it out. I will work with it and fine tune it to the liken. I know it sounds little hard but...I love it.
Also you can do the way they made Barney and make a clay scupture of what you are looking for. Wrap it with plastic wrap and cover that with masking tape, over the entire thing. Then cut the side profile out and do the same as above to make the patteren.
HOpe that helps a little you can email me darren@dpuppets.com if you need me to explain more.

I use a very different method for creating heads, what I've dubbed "the wedge method." Basically you cut out a series of identical foam wedges and glue them together.

I have a tutorial online here that explains it pretty well I think. The tutorial isn't complete yet, but what's there should be enough to get you started if you wanted to try this method.

I hope that helps!

Buck-Beaver said:

I use a very different method for creating heads, what I've dubbed "the wedge method." Basically you cut out a series of identical foam wedges and glue them together.

I have a tutorial online here that explains it pretty well I think. The tutorial isn't complete yet, but what's there should be enough to get you started if you wanted to try this method.

I hope that helps!

Click to expand...

Hey do you have any finished pictures of tumbles? How about a tutorial on putting the fur on tumbles and maybe more pictures? I like the info u did give though. Thanks

No pics yet because Tumbles isn't finished. He's about 90% done at this point. I actually covered his head in fur over the weekend (his body & arms were done months ago) but some adjustments have to be made to him but that's not a priority for me right now because between myself and a puppet builder I am working with aprox. 25 - 30 puppets have to be finished for "Bear Town" between now and mid-March which is when we start shooting so I've been concentrating on other puppets.

I will be finishing the tutorial eventually (I wrote a good chunk of part five last night) but it probably won't be online for a little while. Sorry!!

Buck-Beaver said:

No pics yet because Tumbles isn't finished. He's about 90% done at this point. I actually covered his head in fur over the weekend (his body & arms were done months ago) but some adjustments have to be made to him but that's not a priority for me right now because between myself and a puppet builder I am working with aprox. 25 - 30 puppets have to be finished for "Bear Town" between now and mid-March which is when we start shooting so I've been concentrating on other puppets.

I will be finishing the tutorial eventually (I wrote a good chunk of part five last night) but it probably won't be online for a little while. Sorry!!

Click to expand...

Buck did you look at that wedge theory i adapted? What do you think? Would it work? http://www.angelfire.lycos.com/comics/puppetbuilder

I emailed you privately with a more detailed response, but the only problems I see are:

1. The opening for the mouth should be deeper and cut closer to the arm hole

2. The edges of the darts in the pattern aren't straight

3. This approach to making a round head will make the sides of the head appear slightly flat...which might be OK depending on the look you are going for.

Incidently, there's a page with pictures that (sort of) describes the method that Darren was discussing above available at http://www.geocities.com/campbelltowntheatregroup/lsoh2.html