Hi everyone,

I'm going to be offering a nine week online puppet building workshop over at PuppetBuilding.com. I'm just putting the finishing touches on it today, but I thought I would post a "sneak peak" - http://www.puppetbuilding.com/puppet-101-course.html

The outline is deliberately rough; the actual content will be tailored to meet the needs of whomever is involved. I'd love to get feedback and suggestions are, of course, very welcome!

Wow, very interresting. But I do have a question, will the participants have to pay anything other than their own materials that they will use? And also, when will this start? If all I have to invest are in my own materials, I will definitively be in as from July 1st I will have my very own workshop and this will be really awesome to do.

I'm really glad to hear you're interested SHould. I hope a few people from the P&S Community can participate. The course is actually going to start June 8th I think. I know that is short notice but what I'd like to do is limit the enrollment to a small group and keep the fee fairly low since it's the first time I'm doing something like this (I've taught a lot of workshops before, but never something this long or in-depth before). The course is structured in such a way that everyone will have time to gather up whatever materials that they may need and I'll also be talking about cheap vs. expensive materials and the pros and cons of each from my experience.

There will be a fee, which I kind of hate to do, but even just preparing something like this is an enormous amount of work. I am going to try to keep it as affordable as possible. When sign-ups start officially over the weekend you'll be able to get the initial lesson about puppet design for free to get an idea of what the course will be like.

What I'm hoping to do with PuppetBuilding.com over the next year is fill it with lots of free high quality resources and tutorials, but also offer some "premium" training and materials to help support the site, which gets a lot of traffic and is starting to cost me some money to run. A couple of insanely talented puppet builders who have expertise in areas that I don't know a lot about like marionettes and animatronics have expressed interest in running their own online courses too, but we'll see how this one goes first.

It is a great idea Andrew and I am interested. But I have to know a few things,
The first what time are going to give the online classes. I am 9 hours ahead of you so when you do it in the evening it is midnight with me here. And in the middle of the night to get up and miss A lot of my nightsleep isn't a nice solution. So what time are going to give the online classes.
 
The second thing I want to know is what time it will take. My family takes a lot of time and when I am going to do it. I don't know if I can give both things enough time and energy but here I don't find classes about puppetry. So it would be very great.....

And thinking now I think you need a webcam, we don't have and don't want to have it. Is it possible than to participate

The bulk of the course will be done through weekly videos and .pdf downloads. I'm also setting up a private forum specifically for the course for discussion of everybody's projects and to answer questions. That's where almost everything will take place.

If some people want or need to take more than nine weeks that's completely fine...everyone is free to work at their own pace and the forum will remain open beyond the nine weeks for the people who choose to do so. I'll provide as much help and support as I can after the course ends, although I won't be able to guarantee response times (during the course I'll endeavor to respond to all questions/requests within 24 hours during the week and within 48 hours on the weekend).

As for the weekly live sessions, I know that time differences are going to be an issue. There seems to be a fair bit of interest from people in Europe and Australia so what I might end up doing is have one or two per week, geared to different time zones. I won't really be able to determine that until I know who actually enrolls. I'm pretty flexible and will be committed to making sure no one misses out.

Something I should really point out is that the bulk of the course is the videos, .pdfs and the forum. The live chat is really just a bonus. All of the live video chats will be recorded and archived, so even if someone misses one they can watch it later. You won't need a webcam to participate in the live chats.

The bulk of the course will be done through weekly videos and .pdf downloads. I'm also setting up a private forum specifically for the course for discussion of everybody's projects and to answer questions. That's where almost everything will take place.

Andrew this sounds very interesting. Will the cost of the complete course have to be paid in full before starting or will one be able to pay as you go. Will each person have a password to access each lesson and will others be able to download the videos and pdf.

I hope to hear more !

Billy D.

This sounds awesome!  Hope to hear the price soon.
So...if I understand clearly, we can participate, even if we aren't available for every class(?)  My schedule is pretty busy...as I'm sure everyone else's is too. 

That will be awesome. Since I will be moving at the end of June, I will still be able to participate in the class. But I am waiting to see how much it will cost before I can give my full ok or if I will have to wait for the next turn. But I am VERY interrested.

Love the idea Andrew ......Can't wait to see the detail itinerary....what a great opportunity for builders or newbies to building.....like most communities you don't get a chance to have a workshop on learning how to make professional style puppets......you get to do it at home (if you choose) at your own pace and look at all the money you will save on gas.  

I would love to find out more about the animontronics portion if things work out down the line.....I always like to learn and advance in that area.

Good luck with it.......

Daryl H

Billy - Yes, the cost is paid before it starts just like an offline workshop (also that's the way the membership software I'm using works). At the same time, if someone at P&S needed to pay and installments I could probably work something out privately. Everyone will have a user account and password they use to access a private forum with the videos/lessons.

lovable puppet pals - You're right, you can participate and work at your own pace. Although there will be lots of opportunities for real-time interaction, I understand that some people are very busy or might be away for part of the summer so I'm designing everything so you can work on your own.

I really want to offer a puppet mechanics and animatronics course because I know there is a huge demand for it. The problem is finding someone to teach it because although I have done some of that kind of work I don't consider it my area of expertise.

The aforementioned membership software is the bane of my existence right now. I'm pretty sure that I know what the price will be, but I am just holding off mentioning it because if I can't get the software I'm using right now to work properly I may have to invest in a new system and build that in to my costs. If the software cooperates, I'm hoping to have everything ready to go by tonight.