New Melonpool puppet WIP

[Melonpool]

Well, I finally started putting together that puppet I've been talking about for the last five months. I managed to complete the head today. Enjoy. The two movies are the same. The .mov file works on macs and .avi file works on PCs .. or so I'm told.

http://www.melonpool.com/BLC/ralphheadfinal.jpg

VIDEO:

http://www.melonpool.com/BLC/ralphhead.mov

or

http://www.melonpool.com/BLC/ralphhead.avi

And, if you're wondering what the heck I'm making, here's a drawing of the cartoon character:

http://www.melonpool.com/BLC/RZturn.gif

Enjoy!

Steve

[Blink]

Great work Steve!

What did you use to make the eyes (the overall shape)?

Also how did you attach the antennas? What are they made out of?

I think you made a very good translation from 2D to 3D.

Nice.

[Melonpool]

The eyes are made from 4-inch Plastic Christmas tree ornaments (the clear ones they sell at Michael's and come already halved so you can put things in them). I melted one edge on each half at about a 30-degree angle so they'd wrap around his head. I epoxied a binder clip on the back so they wouldn't come apart after I got the thing put together (a hazard I found after I built the prototype).

The antennae are made out of clear vinyl fish tubing (like for a fishtank). I made a little black sock, stuffed the ends and then put it over the "sock". I made a little wire "X" with two 1-inch prongs sticking up that fit just inside the fish tubing, then cut a slit in the fleece and stitched around and and around the "X" and closed up the slit.

The beauty of making the antennae this way is that when performed around kids, you don;t run the risk of poking out an eye like you do with wire antennae because the vinyl is really soft and pliable, but has really good memory to it.

Steve

[gfarkwort]

ooooo's and ahhhhh's

[Jinx]

Steve, that is simply fantastic! You are such a great artist! First of all, your character designs are just incredible and they translate really well to 3D.

I really love how even with a very little movement of the eyelids, the expression changes profoundly.

Well done!

[Phantom]

Rockin'!!! Coolest thing I've seen today. Kudos.

[hennesprod]

VERY COOL! Well done!

William

[Tztz]

i really love the expression and the colors!

[Iokitek]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the melonpool puppets are some of my most favorite puppets out there.

I just love the way you've tranlated 2D to 3D. Something I've been working on (and thinking about) for a long time now. I really like how those black outlines on the eyes look. What do you use for that? elctronic wires or something?

Anyway I'd love to see a step by step tutorial sometime of how you make them actually. Including how you approach translating from a 2D drawing to a 3D object.

[puppetise]

wo thats great work but how did you make the eyes so expresive and move

[Melonpool]

Here's the finished puppet:

http://www.melonpool.com/BLC/ralphdone.jpg

And a vew movies...

MAC:

http://www.melonpool.com/BLC/ralphdone1.mov

PC:
http://www.melonpool.com/BLC/ralphdone1.avi

[faze]

very nicely done , its looking very good, is it same size as your avatar? and does it has bendable fingers?

PS: are your movies working on your website

[Melonpool]

Yeah. I got the movies working yesterday. Apparently, the site where they're hosted changed their IP address and I wasn't aware of it.

The puppet is the same size as the one in my avatar. The fingers are posable, though the arms are a little different. It seems like with each puppet I build, the puppeteers have suggestions on ways to make them better.

Since I hadn't rebuilt the Ralph puppet since 2000, I had a lot of notes of things I tried to add into this puppet. One was the eyelids, the other was a more flexible lower jaw and the third was that I should use a lighter, more flexible foam for the arms. It seemed the the denser stuff I was using was really making the arms difficult to manipulate, even with the elbows. They decided more of a Grover arm would be better.

I'm anxious to take this one to a con and see what we can do with it.

Here's a pic of the last version of Ralph that was built in 2000:

http://www.melonpool.com/BLC/GAH.jpg

Steve

[ChinoXL]

The way you move those eyelids is very impressive i wish i knew how to do that!

[Fozzie Bear]

That's so awesome, bro! I love the new 'un!

When Muley got his...face-lift...all over...anyhow, folks kept saying, "Did you wash him? He looks cleaner--different!" Let me know if you get that!