BIGFOOT & GRAY: on the run.: March 2010

LITTLE UPDATE....

Lot's of things happening on the home front...

Gray 2.0 is in the final stages. The talented knitress STACY RENFROE (@JEDIMOM) is fashioning the pattern for Gray's head covering. We are trying to figure out the best way to have as few seams as possible. Not easy, but i am confident she will succeed! Pictures soon!

As for Bigfoot, I am moving into a 2.0 phase as well. I'm starting to think that the costume I am currently making, although cartoony, may not be as easy to move around in as i once thought. I don't mind making this change, as the performance is far more important to me than having the costume look exactly like my drawings. Pictures of this progress soon as well!

And finally, I have reached the half way point in my fund raising efforts. If you click the link to the right here you can see the fund raising page at INDIEGOGO. I'm super thankful to have so much support from my friends and colleagues! If you believe in the project as they believe why not click on over and let us know!

Thanks to everyone!---------------------------------------->

Chris

SNEAKY PEEKS...

Gray 2.0 is nearing completion...

...What do you think?

AND VOILA!

In my previous post, I pointed out that the extra foam at the bottom of the puppet would form the chin. First, I divided the tube into eight equal parts. Then I cut each part into points, glueing all points together forming a nice flat dome.

I reinforced the joints just in case. Always a good idea. No worries about how it looks since it will all be covered by fleece anyway. This is a nice look at what goes on under the hood, so to speak. I say, do what it takes to make it right, because it will all be hidden anyway!

I cut a hole in the bottom for my hand and voila! Gray 2.0 under structure is complete!!!

Next steps are to cover the structure with fleece, add the body (which is already complete) and the details: eyes, ear caps, etc. I think I will refrain from posting about it until Gray is a complete puppet. Oooo.... suspense!

Until then.... thanks!

A FABRICATION SUCCESS!!!

Gray 2.0 is coming along surprisingly well! I learned more than I thought while fabricating the first one. I wasn't sure how I was going to attack it, but oddly enough the answer was in front of my face all along. This early sketch that is pinned to my bulletin board (which I discarded when I went with a puppet pattern) is pretty much how I constructed it this time, darts and all.

I was stumped as to how I was going to cap off his head, but again, the sketch showed the way. As you can see, the top is made of a black foam that was sturdier than the green. It was cut from a circle and a dart cut in to make the dome. I rounded the point with some scissors as well as trimming the edges to meet the arc of the lower tube. It fit well together. It looks like Frankenstein's Monster.... and it kind of is.

After completion of the top I located his mouth position. I knew I wanted his mouth to be able to open wide, so I cut it further than half way around the cylinder. The problem I ran into was the foam on the back of the head didn't allow the mouth to open really at all without buckling the back of the head. I came up with the idea of cutting out the shape in the pic below on the back of the head.

This allowed the mouth to open nice and wide without a weird ripple of foam in the back. I'm not sure if this is the proper way to do things but, it works for me. After a bit of reinforcing of the corners of the mouth and neck slit to prevent tearing during use I moved on to the mouth plates.

I slipped a piece of cardboard into his mouth slit and traced his shape making sure to subtract a quarter of an inch inward to allow for the thickness of the foam

I glued two pieces of foam core together as it is light weight and made the plates more durable. You can't see it here, but I also applied finger grips on the inside of both the upper and lower plates. I hot glued them into the mouth slits leaving a bit of lip overlap for the fleece to wrap around later.

There you have it! I'm shocked I made it this far. As you see at the bottom of the cylinder are black marker lines. They will be cut and glued to the underside to form his lower jaw and chin which will be only a couple of inches thick (again, very similar to the drawing), but that is for tomorrow!