Hi everyone,

Just wanted to introduce myself. My name is John Ikuma and I'm a puppet maker and animator. I do both hand puppets and stop motion puppets.
I was trained as a child in marionettes and clowning. I currently own and operate Stop Motion Magazine and a indie film production company (Penny Royal Films). I'm always looking to collaborate with others in making fun childish puppet movies. So if you live in Los Angeles and ever want to join forces, then drop me a line.

Thanks
John Ikuma

Welcome to Puppets and Stuff.......I subscribed and it looks like you have a lot of things to get a person very interested in stop motion. I'm very glad you joined the forum...We have quite a few that do fim also. Can't wait to see more of your work and learn some tips from you. Make yourself at home, the others will be around shortly. Meanwhile if you have any questions just ask.

Billy D.

welcome!

and I'm in the LA area and would be interested in chatting with you

....ellen

Hey,    to P&S

Hey there, John. Welcome to P&S. The  magazine looks interesting (I have subscribed) and I wish I still lived around the LA area. It would be fun to work with someone who likes making childish things.

Welcome to the board!

Welcome and glad you took the time to sign up and joined us.....hope you meet up with some people in your area and hoping you show us some of your work that you have done.

Daryl H

Hi and welcome to P&S

Bhanu

Great to have you here. I experimented with stop motion for a very short time with my children's video series. My puppets were nothing but pipe cleaners and wooden ball heads with clothes on them. After two episodes, my head hurt so bad I went to cartoons. Much respect to the stop motion puppeteers.

Thank you all for the warm welcome.

I put two pictures of some work I've done in the gallery. I will put more up soon. I usually work in moldmaking, Latex casting and Fabric for hand puppets and soon will be trying resin casting and rotomolding. If you ever have any questions about molding techniques and latex, let me know.

@archangel: I completely understand about the headache from animating. It happens when you first start. But luckily their are tons of tools out there to make it extremely easy. Take a look at: http://www.giantscreamingrobotmonkeys.com/monkeyjam/index.html

You can use this software for free to assist you when animating puppets or handdrawing animation. Its called a framegrabber and makes the whole experience a lot nicer.