manufacture of puppets

gulag picture radio · Post by **gulag picture radio** » Sat Apr 06, 2002 7:33 am

Hi there- first time posting. It took me a year to hunt down some of the X-Bomber videos here in the US, but I did and have been gradually watching them. It took me a few episodes to get into their groove, but it worked. I can't believe how ambitious the show is.I am working on a short puppet film of my own and would like to use some of the techniques of puppet construction that were in Star Fleet. Does anyone know of any technically oriented pages that cover the special effects and the building of the puppets?I am especially interested in the faces of the characters. They have very smooth and matte faces. I was thinking that perhaps they are molded with a "skin" of rubber? Sometimes when they do a closeup of a character's mouth, it looks a little ragged... like perhaps it was once a single piece that got cut?Very refined character design... thansk for any help that you out there may be able to offer me!

Shane · Post by **Shane** » Sat Apr 06, 2002 10:47 am

Hi There.This page might give you an idea:http://www.bigdaix.com/xbgallery1.htmFrom what I can gather the puppet heads may have been made from casts using some solid resin material, I do know for sure that the puppets were rod based. Each puppet had a pipe full of wires that was connected to each body which contained solenoids which made the puppets blink talk and produce basic body movements. It's pretty dazzling stuff even by todays standards, where I guess Henson's creature shop has taken it to the next level.There's a fella on this board called Mark who is shortly going to be unvailing the original Makara puppet which he said he got hold of several months back. I think he said he would show us all some pictures mid April.....Anyway I hope that helps.Shane. (Edited by Shane at 11:48 am on April 6, 2002)

gulag picture radio · Post by **gulag picture radio** » Sat Apr 06, 2002 2:22 pm

Thanks! I knew that they were heavily mechanized, but wasn't aware that so much was electrified as well. I though that perhaps they had followed in the Gerry Anderson mold and had used a solenoid for the mouth, but it had never ocurred to me that so much else could be done the same way.I am anxious to learn what systems the Makara puppet might have. It'll be very helpful in my own puppet efforts. Thanks for posting to me!