Nojoy's Sideshow

Been a while...

2009-08-06T06:52:00.000-07:00

But I just HAD to post these somewhere so that I never lose them! How cool is this...

Cool Music video I tripped over

2008-08-28T19:03:00.000-07:00

Enjoy!

Basil Twist

2008-05-28T12:49:00.000-07:00

Normally, I don't push things onto anybody that reads my blog that I haven't stumbled on myself.. you know, the whole e-mailed link from some anonymous stranger thing... but I recently received an e-mail with a link to this site, and I have to say I was impressed enough to share it with you...

Now I haven't seen much of this guys work, but the short video is enough to get me curious to see more. I kinda wish they had focused a little more on actually showing his puppetry a bit more, it's obvious he's quite talented.

Anyone with further info, feel free to post it in the comments.

Also, and totally unrelated to the above... I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. My wife had a bit of an accident and her recovery is taking some of my free time... so things have slowed down for a few months here.
The good news is that over two hours of footage has been shot for my brother's show, "LFT! The Podcast for Superheroes!" and is currently in post-production now...
So hopefully soon I can feature my own creations in a video! Woot! I'll keep you guys posted as I learn more...

Unsung Heroes...

2008-03-12T08:25:00.000-07:00

I remember waiting for these guys to pop up with as much anticipation as I waited for Spidey on Electric Company... A great set of characters no one ever seems to mention much.

Psst... Hey buddy...

2008-02-27T07:40:00.000-08:00

The brilliance of Sesame Street.

Mass Update Round-up!

2008-02-16T15:42:00.001-08:00

Just so nothing gets lost in the shuffle of my multi-posting binge...

New puppets!

Boris

Pepper

Wilt

Quickdraw McGraw

These guys were all completed last year actually. Check them out and tell me what you think!
So far this year, I'm working on a few more LFT! puppets and am gearing up for my first attempt at the new Mostro pattern. There's definately more on the way!

Thanks for stoppin' by!

It's alive.... ALIVE!!!

2008-02-16T15:33:00.001-08:00

Boris was created during my pre-halloween classic monster phase, along with Rico, Cassandra and Lonnie. The last of the batch, Boris has been neglected until now... so here he is.
He was an original design, no pattern was used for the head construction. I totally adlibbed it. Much like my Gir puppet, his head is mostly a cylinder of foam, just with a wider jaw.
This was another "Trick or Treat" puppet I embarrassed my wife with by insisting on taking it out with the kids on the candy gathering (and hanging it out the car window as she drove, taking it into Walmart with us and just general goofiness... ah, good times...)

A Dash of Pepper!

2008-02-16T15:14:00.001-08:00

This puppet was very experimental for me. Pepper is an original character, and my first "full bodied" puppet.
I started construction with the roly pattern, and drasticlly altered the basic "sock" of the body, and added her legs to the mix. I kept all of the patterns for this design and may revisit some aspects of it on a later build. Overall, I like how the body shape came out.
This is also the first time I've tried using yarn for hair.
I've considered making one like this for sale, but my poor photography skills just don't do the design justice. It really looks better in person than what I caught on camera.

Takin' it to th' hoop!

2008-02-16T15:01:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite Cartoon Network show is Foster Home for Imaginary Friends... so here we have one of them, Wilt, the tallest nicest unreal friend a guy could have.
He was built with the Melonhead pattern, I just added the sides to the head after construction. His eyes were made with a ping pong ball for the larger eye, and a super ball for the other.
This is one of the puppets I took out with me on Halloween night last year, the kids loved him.

Now hold on there, Babba Louie!

2008-02-16T14:43:00.000-08:00

Okay, been a long time coming... but I'm finally posting some pictures of puppets I've finished in the last few months.

The first here is a horse of course, Quickdraw McGraw to be exact. Ol' "Quickstraw" here was made from the pinhead pattern, and is my first attempt to sculpt foam into facial features. The tutorial on Project Puppet was really helpful here. Even though the nose is not the most complex shape I could have created, I learned a lot about altering the pattern prior to construction on this project.
Actually, the real pain of this project turned out to be the hat... Had to construct it out of foam and fleece from scratch.

Do ya?

2008-02-09T06:23:00.000-08:00

This just further restates my view that Youtube and puppetry are a natural match. This one was done by two "beginners" with a pair of puppets and a video camera.

So what are YOU waiting for... put something on your hand and start recording!

Nuff Said!

2008-01-27T07:07:00.000-08:00

Yup... soon... as in when my bro gets his new puppet and gets his act together!

The original photo and another shot of Electrik...

"A Holiday-Inspired Rant" by Chet

2007-12-21T16:44:00.000-08:00

Okay, yeah, another lazy post by me... but this video is pretty awesome...

heh... Merriest of Holidays to ya! Thanks for the great vid Bubblefilms!

"Gazmo & Friends"... and assorted ramblings...

2007-12-05T07:22:00.001-08:00

Okay, apparently "soon" to me means more like a month later... sorry about that... Once again, busy season, and the fact that I've been doing a LOT of experimentation.
I have several puppets on the workbench right now in various stages of development... some closer to completion than others. Just to tease you... and keep that interest high... I'm working on the Joker, Captain America, Quickdraw McGraw, and an original design that may very well be the first one I start "selling"... still debating that.
The ideas keep coming and I'm trying new things with these each time... been a few failures (I'm still working on trying to get a good looking anime-inspired design)...

Now, something cool... "theshadowfan" from Stuffwelike.com made his first post at the Muppet Central forums and directed me to this little gem of his...

See, this is what makes Youtube so cool when it comes to puppetry... If you have an idea, and the drive, you can show others the stories in your head. Youtube could be such a great tool to express yourself, it's not just "viral videos"...

Back to the workshop... I feel inspired...

Okay, sorry for lack of posts...

2007-11-07T07:25:00.000-08:00

Been busy with the kids and Halloween, etc... Starting to get into the busy time of year. On the plus side, hopefully next time I post I'll be able to add at least 3 new puppets.
I finished "Boris" my Frankenstien's monster, "Wilt" from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. and "The Flash", my first "superhero" puppet...
Pics will be coming soon.

In the meantime, Jeronimus over at the Puppets And Stuff message boards, posted about this neat little Youtube gem... "Hold Me Now" by Polyphonic Spree. Enjoy!

TV TV's signal has been hijacked!

2007-10-24T06:22:00.001-07:00

Well, it was inevitable... Shortly following Transylvania Television's pilot hit the airwaves in Minneapolis, it was uploaded to the net.
I gotta say... it is fantastic. High production values, great writing, killer music... This baby has legs!
What's that? You wanna see too?
It was uploaded illegally... a totally pirate (Arrrr!) thing to do... but here's the cool part, Gordon Smuder, one of the creators of the show, tipped us off to it on the Muppet Central Forums. He will drop the hammer on it soon, but is giving us the chance to see it while we can! How cool of him is that?
Where is it? Afraid you'll have to find it on your own... But it's not VEry hard tO find tHis... you just need to hop to it before it disappears.
After you see it, or heck even before you do... send off an email or call your local CW affilate station and direct them to the TV TV website... spread the word out there and help get this thing on the air!
If the pilot is this good, think how great a full season would be!

I've been "swamped"!

2007-10-22T13:03:00.000-07:00

And here we have Rico, the puppet formerly known as "Gil" (An imaginary cookie to anyone who correctly guesses why I named him Rico).
This is another original design based off the sketches I had done for my Halloween series.
A few changes were in order from the original design... the first being the actual gill placement. At first he was going to have another set of gills under the ones shown, but during construction the single set looked better.
His dorsal fin also became more "shark-like" in appearance. My thought was that the performer could use the larger fin to some good "Jaws"-style effect by keeping the puppet low to the stage.
Overall it was a good build, even if I had to rip the seams out twice on his head to get the two-tones of green to line up right.

More Youtube puppetry silliness...

2007-10-18T03:43:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm halfway through the build on "Gil"... and it's looking pretty good. I've had to deviate from the plans a little, but it looks better this way. I'll post how things changed when I post the finished puppet.
Whole family's been sick, hacking and wheezing... otherwise it would have been done last weekend.

In the meantime, to keep you entertained... here's a few vids from Youtube that I found and snickered at...

Mountain Dew Puppet Commercial

Puppet Mastaz

Heh... enjoy!

Bark at the Moon!

2007-10-10T14:48:00.000-07:00

His name is Lonnie the Were-wolf, and it's my second original character.
This little fuzz-ball was finished up just this morning... and was my first puppet using faux fur. I really like how the fur hides any stitches, but turning the arms inside out was a pain. Trying to sew them to the body wasn't fun either, but it looks good now that I'm through.
I wasn't sure the one eye lid would work at first, but it really gives him character.

Cassandra - Vampire Queen

2007-10-10T14:33:00.001-07:00

And now we have what I consider my first true original puppet...

Cassandra - Vampire Queen.

The inspiration came from a combination of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark", Halloween props that are lining the shelves of stores at this time of year, and "Transylvania Television".

I cut the lips based on the head pattern and sewed them in place during head costruction... was going for that "Bratz/Angelina Jolie" look to them. The fangs are "Cosmetic Wedges" cut to shape, and the hair is a Halloween costume wig I picked up at Wally World.

The really hard part of this build was her body. I started with a foam body, the same pattern I used for Harley Quinn. I added a pair of foam nerf balls to the chest and fleeced them for that "Elvira" effect... Unfortunately the results were less than impressive.
The body made the head look rediculously small... and I ended up tearing the whole thing down. In the end She has a "sock" body with a sponge ball sliced in half and cover in fleece for her *ahem* ba-da-boom.

This puppet has the unique distinction of the first one my four year old has called "evil".

By the way... I am sooo open to having her (or any of my creations) "guest-star" on TVTV...

Wakko packs away the snacks...

2007-10-10T14:27:00.001-07:00

A new one in a series... guess what the theme is? Wakko Warner was a straightforward build. The big hiccup here was the baseball cap he wears.
At first I tried finding a ball cap small enough to fit, but in the end wound up having to construct my own.
I added tufts of black fur to the cheeks, and for the eyes this time used a sheet of "foamies"... that cheap thin colored foam you get at craft stores.

This one's a fav of mine, and I intend to do his brother and sister later on. When I get to experimenting with rod puppets, I may even knock out Pinky and Brain.

Bow before me, pitiful human!

2007-10-10T14:19:00.001-07:00

Another "had to do it" puppet... Gir went so well, I instantly started the construction of Zim.
Not much to say, the build was almost identical to Gir's except the costume... Had to start over when I realized the white parts I was looking at were actually pink in all the source photos I had.

The only change I might make on him is to add teeth to the mouth. I've been having good results from "Cosemtic Wedges" (foam make-up applicators).

I'm Gonna Sing the Doom Song!

2007-10-10T14:14:00.001-07:00

Quite proud of this one... and it's also a favorite with my youngest son.
Gir was built totally from scratch.. No pattern. Granted, the head is not the most complex thing in the world to build, it's still my first venture into uncharted waters.

This is also the point where I decided that not every puppet needed a foam body... sometimes the basic "sock" does just fine.

D'oh!!!

2007-10-10T14:09:00.001-07:00

Okay, not every pattern is gonna work for any application I come up with. Case in point, one Homer J. Simpson.

It's not "bad"... but it's definately not what I was looking for. It's the first build where I saw it going wrong halfway through and plodded on anyway... why waste the fleece?

On retrospect, I should have done a custom head instead of trying to do it with a pattern. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Project Puppet patterns... but sometimes you need to color outside the lines.

And yeah, his "beard" is too orangey... I know, I know.

Pikachu, I Choose You!

2007-10-10T14:04:00.001-07:00

One my kid loves... simple build. In fact I recycled a failed smurf body here for Pikachu's.
Tried to get a more source-material look for the arms, but I think they are too short... it'll make manipulation by the puppeteer a little limited.
But hey, it's an electric mouse... not like it needs to play the piano.

Reving Up My Harley!

2007-10-10T13:58:00.001-07:00

And here's Harley Quinn!
Harley's body was a complex foam pattern I came up with to try to get an hourglass shape. The end results were pretty good, but I'm not 100% sure I'd do it that way again...

She's probably going to be done again sometime later on... I've learned a lot since then and have a few ideas that could make it even better.

Smurf you... Mother Smurfer!

2007-10-10T13:42:00.000-07:00

It was at about this time that my confidence started growing and I decided to try adapting a few characters to my new found medium... and just like those times before I chose the Smurfs to start with.

The "Generic" smurf was made from the Pinhead pattern. The hat was easy... a simple pattern I cooked up in Illustrator. The hard part of this build? The ears.

I ended up folding the fleece and sewing it in several places to form them just right. It was a pain to duplicate.
This was also my first attempt at a foam body... A little experimentation and a copy of "The Foam Book" helped out here.

Next up was Papa Smurf. The build went pretty much the same as the first one... except I added the beard made from white fuzzy fleece.

And finally, Smurfette... unlike the first two smurfs, she is built from the Roly pattern. It was during this build that I discovered that flipping the foam inside out would smooth out the corners and give a more rounded appearance. I also found out how well the "Baseball Stitch" works when sewing fleece directly across foam.

My first trio of puppets...

2007-10-10T13:35:00.000-07:00

As promised, I'm about to flood my blog with pictures... Starting with the first three puppets I've constructed. They're all built from the patterns available at Puppetproject.com.
They were really simple to build... and those basic shapes provide a great launching pad for many designs. Even tho these three I consider my "Learning Puppets" It was well worth it.

2007-10-10T09:38:00.000-07:00

Heh... Youtube is awesome for puppetry.

Potter Puppet Pals in "The Mysterious Ticking Noise"

Wind It Up(puppet style)

Enjoy! I did!

Monster Doodles...

2007-10-10T08:54:00.000-07:00

Okay, so yesterday at work during my lunch break I spent some time doodling up some puppet ideas for Halloween. This was all brought on by the last puppet I had done, Cassandra - Vampire Queen (Pics are coming soon, I promise)...

Anyway, "Jack" (or maybe I should name him "Lonnie") is up first, then I may make "Gil"... Blame the festive time of the year... or the impending Transylvania Television... but I'm on a monster kick now. Meh, at least I'm making "original" puppets.

Are we there yet, Papa Smurf?

2007-10-06T17:31:00.000-07:00

So here's the first photos I have of a few of my puppets... enjoy.

Batter up...

2007-10-06T17:30:00.001-07:00

Okay, so here goes with my first blog posting ever. I built this thing to try and chronicle my endeavors and obsessions... hope I don't bore you to tears.