Hi all,

I just added a tutorial and free pattern for Talking Lips to PuppetBuilding.com. This is grew out of a discussion here on P&S and request for a pattern to make talking lips (I made the pattern and Maxine was kind enough to take pictures).



These are pretty simple and easy to make. The pattern is a little flat because these were intended to be black light puppets (Black light tends to flatten objects and make them look 2D dimensional), but you could easily give the lips a little more shape by making some minor adjustments to the upper and lower lip patterns, just experiment with cutting and gluing a few darts.

Let me know if you anyone has any questions or needs clarification about the instructions. Enjoy!

Thanks for another great tutorial, very easy to follow directions.

Billy D.

put those lips up agaisnt a blackdrop and lip sync to science fiction/double feature...(the opening to rocky horror picture show...just for those who don't know)!!!! that would be wicked cool!!!

I love it Andrew - I can kinda get some scale in that one shot where someone's thumb is showing - it would be cool to see it actually in use.  They look rather large - so that would be great visually.
Did you have maxine paint hers with black light paint or did she start with flourescent foam?

I'm glad you guys like this. I think Maxine didn't paint them with black light paint just because of time...they were made from craft foam, which was interesting because I would have gone with 1 inch foam, but it seems to have worked for her.

As I said in the tutorial, the only thing I don't like about this pattern is that the lips are pretty flat. It doesn't matter under UV light because you can't read depth, but for non-black light purposes I might do another pattern that is more rounded when I have time later this summer.

Question:

I've been consdering this problem with only seeing the front of black light puppets/props ... loosing the dimensions.  Wether or not they are made 3 dimensionally - if you turn (if I turn) my puppets a certain way, they almost disappear.  So - would adding back lights - or additional lights from above or below and behind help with that loss of dimension (in your opinion Andrew)?

I'm sure others have thoughts too --

Well, you can't use a back light because that will illuminate your puppeteers and ruin the effect. More lights help; from all the diagrams and pictures I have seen on the web the black light set-ups most people are using a horrible and don't provide even light. They are basically a big spotlight (Or key light) with no fill. I do know the exact solution, but the system I used to work with was designed by a Broadway designer and used by the company I worked at for several years, but it's protected by a bunch legal agreements.

All I can really say is read books on stage lighting and optics and think about how those concepts can be applied to black light.

Sorry I can't be more help.

Sorry - I assumed when I said BACK light - that you knew I ment a BLACK light in the BACK position -
I use several long bulbs and illuminate my puppet house from top and bottom.  I thought if it was also illuminated (IN BLACK LIGHT) from the top or sides and/or back - that would give a 180* illumination - wouldn't ya think?

No, that's what I assumed you meant by "back light". It's really hard to tell if that could work without seeing a stage plot, but I suspect it wouldn't if the lights are directly behind the puppeteers. If it's possible you can hang tubes overhead and that will help a lot with providing fill light.

The design and exact positioning of the fixtures the lights are in is really important too. Most of what I know about that I really can't share (again, sorry!) but as with any type of stage light you want to reflect as much of the light on to the stage as possible. If you can find some professional books on stage lighting in your local library you can probably discover a lot of neat tricks that you can use.

BTW, in my last post I didn't mean to imply that your lighting set up was horrible, just I have seen a lot over the years on the web and most are. Black light is one subject in puppetry that needs to have a good, comprehensive book written about it.

I need the pattern for the talking lips for a blacklight show that we are getting ready for at church.