JackofHearts
New Member
So I want to make a large puppet of Spyro from the new Reignited game with two hand controls. My inspiration was the Zazu puppet from the Broadway Lion King (check out this video to see the puppet explained a little) because of how expressive he can be and how simple he seems to be to operate. I printed a drawing I did of Spyro's default pose to scale with how big I want him to be roughly. Here he is on my door with doorknob and hand for scale. He's a little over two feet long from nose to tail tip and about 18 inches tall not including crest or horn.
I want to keep most parts of this similar- I want to have a left hand control under his belly to support his weight and also open his wings, and I want a right hand control that supports and guides his head while also controlling his mouth and eyes. However, I want to make some changes because obviously Zazu and Spyro are very different in design and character. On the right hand control, instead of blinking his eyes, I want to move his eyebrows independently (I'll get more into how I want to do this later). On the left hand control, I want to add a second mechanism that blinks his eyes. This gives me most of my expression control concentrated on the right grip and extras on the left.
The controllers will look and function pretty similarly with their biggest difference being they are designed for opposite hands. I designed the grip off of Zazu's (I dont have exact designs for Zazu but after looking at how he moves and how the pilot moves, I think I pieced it together pretty well) as it was well designed and can be repurposed into what I want Spyro to do. The controllers will have a large front trigger (right will control the mouth, left will control the wings) and a thumb ring (or maybe a side trigger I pull down with my thumb) (right controls the eyebrows, left controls eyelids). I have designs for how I think the mechanisms will work.
I need someone who knows how puppet mechanisms work to tell me if I'm on the right track. I want to start building a prototype of the mechanisms soon, so I want to know what you guys think. I can go into a lot more detail with my thought process for each mechanism's design if you like. I have never built a puppet or anything like this before so I only know what I've learned from various youtube videos and online forums. Any links or directions to resources on puppet making and design would also be greatly appreciated.
TLDR; I am trying to build a mechanical puppet but have very little idea what I'm doing. Do my designs and thought process make sense?
I want to keep most parts of this similar- I want to have a left hand control under his belly to support his weight and also open his wings, and I want a right hand control that supports and guides his head while also controlling his mouth and eyes. However, I want to make some changes because obviously Zazu and Spyro are very different in design and character. On the right hand control, instead of blinking his eyes, I want to move his eyebrows independently (I'll get more into how I want to do this later). On the left hand control, I want to add a second mechanism that blinks his eyes. This gives me most of my expression control concentrated on the right grip and extras on the left.
The controllers will look and function pretty similarly with their biggest difference being they are designed for opposite hands. I designed the grip off of Zazu's (I dont have exact designs for Zazu but after looking at how he moves and how the pilot moves, I think I pieced it together pretty well) as it was well designed and can be repurposed into what I want Spyro to do. The controllers will have a large front trigger (right will control the mouth, left will control the wings) and a thumb ring (or maybe a side trigger I pull down with my thumb) (right controls the eyebrows, left controls eyelids). I have designs for how I think the mechanisms will work.
I need someone who knows how puppet mechanisms work to tell me if I'm on the right track. I want to start building a prototype of the mechanisms soon, so I want to know what you guys think. I can go into a lot more detail with my thought process for each mechanism's design if you like. I have never built a puppet or anything like this before so I only know what I've learned from various youtube videos and online forums. Any links or directions to resources on puppet making and design would also be greatly appreciated.
TLDR; I am trying to build a mechanical puppet but have very little idea what I'm doing. Do my designs and thought process make sense?
