Hey, I was just wondering what kind of camera you guys are using for such awesome pictures!  I am going to purchasing a digital soon, and I'm wondering what to look for.
These are great!
Sara

Hey Puppet Lady I love the alien, did you sew all those stitches by hand or did you use another method?  Those eye brows make him even more dark.

I will be glad to post them I just need to make sure that I get permission from them.  I was out today to watch them film some of the scenes so I have some of those pictures as well.  I was hoping to be the puppeteer as well but it was in french so no luck this time.  Oh well it was great to hang out with other puppeteers and chit chat. 

I just thought it was funny that many of us have been making aliens for the past month for different reasons.  

Daryl H

Mr Dark is so awesome!

I'm very jealous of all this great building talent out there

My friend took the pictures for me. He uses some Canon D40 or something. Some pro cameras. My wife has similiar, Canon EOS 400D. Thats good camera. Easy to use, and gives pro pictures.

Mine is an Olympus Camedia C-4000 Zoom.  It is not a professional camera by any means, but it is digital.  I bought it on ebay for cheap because it was missing it's lense cap and user guide. I might have paid $200 for it.  I can't remember exactly.  I love it.  I'm not sure that you can buy the cards for it anymore, but I have enough to keep me happy.

Excelent!!!! What is the eye made of. I love the look of the pupal.

Dr. Dark's pupil?  It's a hand painted ping pong ball covered with thick glossy fingernail polish.  The pupil was amazingly easy to paint.  I made a mock-up and it turned out so well that I used it for the final puppet.

Great job Puppet Lady, he's pefect!

Dr. Dark's pupil?  It's a hand painted ping pong ball covered with thick glossy fingernail polish.  The pupil was amazingly easy to paint.  I made a mock-up and it turned out so well that I used it for the final puppet.

You've certainly got an eye for painting......I can't make such nice circles when I paint nor do I have the patience for it.  It is a fantastic job with the eye.

Daryl H

There's a cheat to that Stiqman.  I used a circle template to mark out the pupil in a fine tip Sharpie.  I now had a perfect circle to paint within.  I then loaded a flat brush with my pupil colour and painted from the outside of the circle into the center so that my brush strokes radiated outwards from the center like the streaks on a real eye.  Once that was dry, I used the circle template again with a smaller circle to mark in the black center of my pupil.  That center was just filled in with a Sharpie marker as well.  I made a few final touches with my fine tip pen, allowed it to dry and glossed with clear fingernail polish.  Voila!

Also: I find my initial placement for my pupil by putting a self adhesive velcro circle on the ping pong ball.  I check to see if my puppet eye is focused on the "audience".  I put my circle template down over the velcro sticker on the ball, rip the velcro circle off and draw the initial outer circle right away.
Hope that helps.

Pam