Your team works across puppet making, character design, creatures, and original characters for film, TV, advertising, and live productions. How does the design process change depending on whether a puppet is built for close-up camera work, live performance, commercial production, or social/video content?
It mostly comes down to how close the viewer gets, and how long the puppet has to survive. For close-up camera work, like the campaign we did with Apple in Japan, everything is exposed. Small asymmetries, the weave of the fabric, the way light catches the eyes. It all reads, so the finishing has to be very controlled.
A mascot or a live character is almost the opposite problem. We built Frankie Focus for New York State, and something like that has to read big and clear, hold up while someone performs inside it for hours, and still feel alive from across a room.
Advertising and social usually sit in between, but the puppet often has to still land instantly. With the Nike campaign we did with NIGO, the character had to feel right on camera and also hold up on a real set with people improvising around it. I actually like that tension. It’s fun.
What materials, tools, and fabrication techniques are most central to your workflow, and how do you decide what a specific character needs in terms of foam, fur, fabric, mechanics, armatures, eyes, or animatronic elements?
Foam is still at the center of how I usually like to work. Almost everything starts as a foam sculpture carved by hand. Either as a mock-up or as the base of the puppet. I made that choice early and have stuck with it because of how warm it is. You make hundreds of small, intuitive decisions that end up in the final puppet, and I find that the soul of whoever carved it stays in there.
After that, it is fabric, fur, paint, and whatever the character seems to be asking for. 3D printing has been a lot of fun for us, especially for eyes and internal parts that need to be precise. Having access to a wide range of materials matters a lot, so we source from all over.
On mechanics, I try to use as little as the project allows. Animatronics and servos are wonderful when a character truly needs them, but more movement is not automatically better. If a strong pose and a good natural movement do the job, I would rather keep it simple and let the performance carry it.
