Spock: The Puppet!

Being a fan of the original Star Trek series, I felt that building a puppet of Spock would be, well...logical.  Besides, I felt that Leonard Nimoy would make a great subject to caricature.  However, I had no idea when I started building him that it would lead me to meeting the man (or vulcan) himself!  Angie and I went up to San Francisco last weekend for a Trek convention to nab a photo with Mr. Nimoy and the puppet.   I knew it would be a difficult mission, but I was determined! Here are some photos of the puppet in progress.

As you may imagine, there were a plethora of Trekkies there, and a bunch of them even wanted their photo taken with Spock puppet!  I was happy to oblige...

Finally, after a long drive to SF and a full day of Trekkie-ness,  here's the man and puppet together at last!

The puppet had him cracking up and he was so cool about the whole thing.  He seemed genuinely amused and impressed that I had built the puppet version of himself, and I couldnt have been more happy when he said, "Now, Ive really seen it all!"  Mission accomplished! (Thanks Angie!)

Elvis Lives!

This little ecard has a special place in my heart, as it was my first exploration into the world of puppetry. First, I wrote and recorded the song using some old beat up instruments and Garageband.  I even belted out my best Elvis impression for the track!  Then, with the help of some concept art by designer extraordinaire, Alan Cook, I took on the task of building my very first puppet!  Here are some pics taken by Alan and co-worker Maureen Tzudiker of the work in progress.

Finally, I decided Elvis needed a backup band, so why not some frogs?

Heres the final video...Enjoy!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Year In Review 2010

This year, it was decided that Jibjabs' Year In Review would be a full blown puppet extravaganza!  I was more than happy for the opportunity to create some puppets for the short.

The first puppet I made was probably the most complex Ive built so far...The Governator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger!  Starting off, I knew he was going to be a pretty big puppet, but things quickly got out of hand.  He wound up being a beast!  I suppose its fitting for the big guy.  Here are some pics of the work in progress.

Overall, Im happy with how he turned out and feel I made some strides in my puppet making ability while working on him.  Besides, look how friggin' big he is!

Next, I moved on to building a puppet of Rahm Emanuel.  Thanks to an awesome design by Justin Parpan, this was pretty easy and lots of fun to make.

Once the idea was thrown around that the JibJab logo should be made in puppet form, I jumped at the opportunity to make it happen. Unfortunately, I only had two days to build and shoot them.  Thanks to the wonders of caffeine,  I was able to pull an all-nighter and build these suckers.

Check out these guys and more in the final video!