Hello ! I'm specializing in 2D traditional animation, stop motion fabrication and illustration. I love everything having to do with animation and animals !
JJ Dog Puppet
JJ dog was a personal project I did during a quarter of my senior year at SCAD. The goal was to create a puppet that stands a little over a foot. She is made out of foam and covered in fabric fur. I wanted to try new things as well as practice what I had learned during my previous puppet projects.
Character Design & Mechanicals
Sculpts - Head, Body, Tail
JJ's head was sculpted in two pieces , her head and her muzzle. That way I could have the opportunity to make multiple mouths for her.
JJ's Plaster Mold
Foam Body & Fur Test
JJ with her final plastic head with her magnetized muzzle and her foam body and tail.
Costume test for JJ's clothes as well as some of her fur pinned onto the test body to make sure everything is looking good. This was also a good time to create the patterns which would turn into her final fur.
JJ's Costume
From the beginning I knew JJ would have a shirt and a skirt but not exactly what they would look like. I did some different versions until I found something that I liked.
Final
JJ's Final Armature
JJ's final armature consisting of wire, proxy as well as a polycarbonate disk. This is how I would keep her skirt connected to her body. She even has a plug for her tail.
JJ's Head / Hair
JJ's hair was one of the challenging parts of this project because it wasn't something I had tried before. I think the recipe can be tweaked for the future but I started with mocking up pieces of wire that would get put into the head on a loop. I mapped these out on a test head before drilling the final holes into the final. The wires were then painted and covered in thin stretchy fabric. I then attached real human hair to the fabric. Its a good idea in concept but I still need to work with it a little more to find what glue works best on all the materials.
Final Puppet
I had so much fun working on this project and it just solidifies my love for puppet making. I learned a lot and still have a few things I can work on improving in the future. I did a turn around and even some short animations with her. I took photos of the puppet and even got to see her next to my first puppet.
