This is a little screen test we threw together just to play around with the latest puppet I built for our Youtube channel. Somehow the audio got a little off during editing but I would love to get some critiques on the puppet and the puppeteering. I'm still really bad at lip syncing to prerecorded audio. We had a few problems with his glasses falling off and so a few times I messed up the lip syncing because I was overly concerned with making sure the glasses didn't fly off.

Thanks in advance to anyone that takes a look and offers tips or critiques.

Fantastic!

Great! LOL!!!

I like Grandpa.. he's got character.. Nice puppet.

Love the teeth..er..tooth and gums :D 

I think you did pretty good. Things where a bit stagnant with him just standing there and singing.  I think maybe once you are more comfortable with him (fix those glasses so they wont fall off) you'll be more apt to relax and move him around a bit more, but don't get frantic with him. He already seems a bit frantic simply because the song is so fast.  Actually while I'm not normally a big fan of a lot of camera work in this case you might be able to simply use more then one shot from different angles to help make it seem less static. Careful with your eye contact. They drifted to the sky a few times. 

I do like grandpas look. Really nice. Keep at it you have a great start!

Thanks for the critique Shawn!

This is our second character with glasses and we've had a hard time keeping the glasses on both puppets. Our first take was a bit more animated but the glasses flew off and then the whole time I was concentrating on keeping the glasses on so the movements became a bit stiff. We're trying to come up with a good way to keep them on. I've thought about either using velcro or possibly drilling a small hole in them and stitching them to the side of his head.

I also had a very hard time keeping the eyes pointed at the camera. My wife was directing and that helped. You can actually see a few time where I drifted up and then quickly looked back down because she was behind the camera directing. Once we start shooting our real shows we're going to have a monitor so we can see what we're doing. That should be a big help.

Your welcome. I know folks are often hesitant to say something that might seem negative but I think it is one of the best ways to learn. Sometimes it is hard to see things when you are close to a project.  I know in the past even on puppet builds I've looked and looked at something knowing it just was not right but could not see what... then along comes someone who has not seen it and they catch it right away. You did a lot of things right and I know you'll only improve with time.

Yes a monitor will help quite a bit. Might take you some time to get used to but you'll know right away if you are starting to drift.

I would suggest drilling small holes in the arms of the glasses and maybe even one in the nose of the glasses to tack them to the puppets head... that is if you don't need to be able to take them off. Even then if you needed to in a shoot you could detach them for the specific shoot then re-tack them.  That is the beauty of film/video.

I value and welcome honest critiques. You're right. It's the best way to learn and the best way to spot something you may have overlooked. I don't blame people for being hesitant to offer critiques though. I know a lot of people take things the wrong way and get upset even when they ask for people's opinions. I'm new both to puppet making and puppeteering so I'm sure I'm making a lot of common, noob mistakes with both but I've learned a lot from reading here and watching other people's Youtube videos.