I have built a few puppets before just to entertain myself and my sister in laws kids, but now I decided to make one of this character for a filmproject.



I started by buying a few patterns, but nothing really fit to the shape of his head, so I'm trying to make my own pattern.

Looks like the pattern you came up with should work pretty good. What program did you design it in?

I used Light wave 3D to do the pattern. I built a simple head and split where I thought the seams might go and then flattened the head for an UV-map wich I traced in Photoshop. It's quite a simple process and works really well. The problems I run into is more because of my lack of knowledge in puppet-construction and where to put the seams than because of the pattern itself.

I made a prototype head, but had to go back and change the pattern and make new ones until the mouth moved as I wanted. All in all I made three prototype heads before I got it working.


Then I made this foamhead. Seems to work quite well. Now I have to try making some kind of construction for his eyebrows.

Wow, that looks great! 

The head looks fab. Makes me wish I had more software to play with...

Na, you could do the same in the free Blender.

Here is an update to the snowman. I made a pattern for the rest of his body the same way as for the head.
I made claws in paperclay. The teeth and the eyebrow control in some kind of plastic board I got from a printshop.




Now I just need to find some fur for him.

Thanks for the Blender suggestion, will have to try it out.  Is something like this difficult to someone who isn't very skilled?  Interesting design for the body.  If you don't mine me asking, what type of foam are you using?

I guess 3d modeling in Blender is kind of difficult to learn, but there are a lot of free tutorials online. As for making the pattern itself, you just have to split your model and make an UV map that you can print out as a pattern.

I'm using the foam that sleeping mats for outdoor activities are made of. It's quite stiff and really light, and I can use a much thinner foam than with regular cold foam. The color doesn't relly matter since he's going to be covered with fur.

Na, you could do the same in the free Blender.

Thanks, though I work now only with flat shadow puppets - but the 3D modeling may come in handy for future reference.

Here is a bit of an update. I couldn't get any fur in town and I have been searching online and in other places and finally I found some. His looks changed a bit when i put the fur on him, but I think he looks kind of ok. Next are his arms, hands and lower body.