HANDS UP PUPPETS ANIMATRONICS
Contact
Many of Hands up Puppets puppet characters incorporate sophisticated animatronics into their fabrication which we always try to blend seamlessly into the puppet character and performance. So successful have we been at doing this that many people don't even realise that our puppet characters have animatronics or even that we as a Company do animatronics at all. Praise indeed. Watchdog (left) and Bach (right) have animatronic brows and ears. Most of the animatronic components are fabricated (metal bashed and soldered) by Marcus who has an electrical engineering background. Both of these Glove Puppets (below) were also Puppeteered by Marcus Clarke. Being a Puppeteer himself means that he always keeps in mind the puppeteers ergonomic and performance needs when incorporating animatronics into the puppet build. Tricky Business Rabbit (left and below) a very simple looking Glove Puppet and a very early 'Hands up Puppet' (1989) has in fact a completely remote animatronic mouth as well as an ear raise animatronic mechanism. So too do most of the Dappledown Farm puppets and even the very small Dusty Mouse. (right here)
Developing and perfecting the design of these Mechanized glove puppets is something that we have invested enormous amounts of time and effort into over many years. So much so that they are a speciality of ours at 'Hands up Puppets'. Glove puppets are very usable in Television Productions. Being able to carry a whole puppet performance with lipsinc and sometimes other facial expressions while prop handling with both paws at the same time too. All with just the one puppeteer. There small scale makes them additionally very attractive. Mouldings and Castings Dusty's nose and teeth are also sculpted and cast by us in resin as too is Bach's nose. (top) We almost always sculpt and cast our Puppets noses, teeth and eyes to give us the best possible creative options. We even have special ways to make things bounce around on the top of puppet heads.
Marcus created the eyes and eye blinks for BB Alien here which are controlled by a small rod based lever We also do radio controlled and full animatronic puppet characters like Doogy Dog here on the right. We sometimes outsource our animatronics and are fortunate enough to be able to call upon the very best animatronic talent in the world to do so.
With Animatronics as with all our character creating tools the priority for us is always the believability of the on screen character and appropriate use of animatronics is a very helpful addition to Hands Up Puppets character creating tools.