What Were Reading

Time for an update! Heres what we are reading and looking at:

Paper Puppet Palooza by Crankbunny is a great insight to the world of puppets and toy theater. For us it's also an incredible insight into how puppets move so we can determine how to animate pieces.

Book.

"The design of a puppet is about both looks and mechanics. Adding life to a puppet comes from experimenting with and balancing these two important facets. It is a mistake to assume mechanics is the essence of making a paper puppet. Some of the most wonderful puppets are simply flat cutouts on a rod." - Norma V. Toraya

The next thing were looking at is the three dimensional aspect of more mechanical toys and how that can translate into a more flat looking design.

Heres an example of a wave and boat toy.

Two things I love - Puppets and Maurice Sendak

Here is a fantastic shadow box theater image of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are.

http://www.terribleyelloweyes.com/2009/06/shadow-box-thing.html

Keeping Busy

Here are a few things you should be looking at.

Dante's Inferno Toy Theater

And heres what I've been doing.

I've been trying to learn different approaches to paper puppets and toys.

While Nathan finishes up...

While Nathan finishes up his Grad School work I've been testing kits, adding and subtracting materials, and developing test animations. But what I've also been up to is trouncing through the vast interwebs discovering and rediscovering bits of useful information.

One bit of information comes from Lou Romano's concept art for the Pixar film UP. See link below:

http://louromano.blogspot.com/2009/05/art-of-up_3697.html

Half way down this page is a small desktop diorama that they used to look at certain composition and lighting.

Check back later this week when we reveal more information about the first kit.