We have discussed in the past the importance of keeping your character animated to make it seem to be alive. This is an important feature in holding your audiences attention and keeping the audience focused on you the performer.
Here is a suggestion that won’t cost more than about 5 cents. Watch this short video of one of our characters. Pay attention to the head movement and the corresponding movement of the characters hands.
This is quite simply clear mono-filament fishing line doing all the movement of the characters hands. As the head moves, bobs, jerks or whatever, the hands also move.
It is very easy to do. Start with about 30″ of thin clear fishing line. Most of us don’t have to buy any, just cut off about that much from your fishing pole. (Make sure that you leave the hook with the pole.) Make a loop at one end of the line that is big enough to slide easily over the puppets hand. This way if you don’t want to use the movement for some reason, you can very quickly disconnect the line from the hand. When you slide the loop over the hand, let it rest as close as practical to the hand, but have it on the puppets wrist.
Then position the puppets hand in the middle of the range you want the hand to travel and hold it in that position. Have someone hold the puppets head straight up and with your other hand take the line and hold it up next to the puppets ear. This way you will be able to tell the approximate length you need. Now tie a loop on the other end of the line and loop it over the puppets ear. (You can sew it into the puppets earlobe if you wish, but for now we recommend that you just hang it off the ear).
With the line looped over both the wrist and the ear, put your hand in the puppet and have a little conversation with the puppet. You will see that as you move the head from side to side that the puppets hand will also move with the head. Since your audience cannot see the line, they just assume that the hand is moving by itself.
If, for instance you are using a left armrod, then only put the line on the right wrist/ear so that you can continue to use the left armrod for more specific movements. If you are not using an armrod, put the line on both wrists/ears. Play around with the concept. You may just find that we have given you an effective new tool for animation.
Until next time,
Steve & JET