Puppet - Frog
*Responsible for all fabrication.
Sculpt
This puppet was commissioned by the SCAD Atlanta campus for an animated bumper to be featured before their 2024 animation festival. They wanted it to be based specifically on an actual topiary frog located just outside their dining hall. Some accommodations and changes were made to the frog’s proportions to make it easier to animate and fabricate. However, due to the specific pose of the topiary and the actions SCAD Atlanta wanted the frog to perform in the bumper, the puppet had to be designed to smoothly transition between radically different poses. Pose A is a more humanoid "meditating" pose, while poses B and C represent a more traditional frog squat and hop.
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Topiary Frog Reference
Pose A
Pose B
Pose C
Hero Sculpt
During the sculpting process, the puppet was repeatedly photographed in all three poses to ensure that the proportions and design of the puppet allowed for each pose to be hit in a convincing way.
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Polycarbonate Armature
The Frog's armature is constructed from 1/8" wire housed within polycarbonate chest and pelvis blocks, and features extensive rigging. The pelvis rigging includes two 7/32 brass tube ports on all sides and on the bottom (sitting) that are compatible with brass tube rigging and T-bars. The chest has similar rigging but only on the front and back. The finalized armature also contains a foam void in the center, allowing for greater torso movement. Since the frog must also hit quadruped poses, the hands at feet are rigged equally. The "palms" of the hands and feet are rigged to receive 10/24 bolts, and even the fingers/toes are rigged to loop around 4-40 bolts. Finally, the head is also rigged to receive T bars on all sides (4 total), to avoid disturbing the felting as much as possible.
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Foam Casting
The Frog was cast in Smooth-On "Flex Foam". First a mold release is applied to the mold, then Part A and B of the foam are mixed together, and a thin layer of foam is painted over all the smallest crevices of the mold. Then the remaining foam is poured into both halves of the mold. Since this puppet is rather large, a lot of foam was required to properly fill it. The downside of this meant that an additional mold or heavy object had to be placed on top of the bold after it was closed. This was to prevent the foam expansion from separating the two halves. I also had to stand on the mold as well to help preven this.
Final Cast:
After being cast, the foam is cleaned and let to sit for a day as it finishes curing and dries out. Then the flashing is removed with cuticle scissors.
Felting:
The puppet was needle felted with green wool. The goal was for the puppet to match the physical topiary it was based on. So the felt was applied evenly to match the texture as best as possible.
Animation Test
This animation test by Thaddeus Varness shows the Frog transitioning from an extreme squatting position into a jump.
Head Fabrication
The frog's head was equally as complex. Because the scene required an extreme close up of the face, measures were taken to make sure the animator had full control over the puppets head, without disturbing the needle felt. This meant that the back, and sides had to be rigged with brass tubes that could receive an animation T-bar, for the animator to handle. Additionally, the
Polycarbonate Armature:
The frog's internal head armature is split into two pieces. The bottom half has four 7/32-inch square brass tubes on all sides of the head, which can either receive a T-bar or rigging. It also features a 3/16-inch circular brass tube in the center with a threaded countersink that can receive a tensioning bolt. This allows the head to be attached to the neck, with the rotation tension adjustable to the animator's preference. Finally, the top half is attached via two 6/32-inch holes and contains one 7/32-inch square brass tube on top for rigging and T-bars. The brass tubes on all sides of the head also allow for the armature to be registered consistently in a silicone mold.
Foam Casting:
Expressions
The frogs eye lids were vacuum-formed over a plastic cast of the frogs eyes in PETG plastic, first starting with an overall sclera painted white and barged into the eye ball (the edges of which were fitted into crevices into the foam itself). Then lids were cast and painted the color of the wool and wool was barged over them. Finally, pupils were cast and placed over the sclera, with the edges of the eye remaining cut so that the pupils could extend into the lid itself.
