Building a puppet traffic jam

Hi friends! I’m putting the finishing touches on my traffic scene for my short film, and wanted to share a few updates! This scene has taken me WAY longer than I expected lol (and I have yet to animate it), but am excited about how it’s coming together. A few weeks ago I shared how I made the cars out of cardboard, and since then have been focused on creating the people to drive them!

I needed to make about 10 small puppets for each car. Luckily these puppets don’t require a big range of movement – the animation will be very minimal – and only their torso will be showing, so I was able to take a few shortcuts with my puppet building.

With all this in mind, I decided the best method would be an aluminum skeleton, a body built from foam clay, and plasticine clay over the top. Foam clay (my new fave material!!) is a super lightweight clay that air dries to a bendable foam. It’s not the most durable, but it’s great for situations like mine. It’s also a little difficult to work with at first (imagine trying to sculpt marshmallow fluff - it sticks to everything!) but once you get the hang of it you’ll find it’s pretty forgiving. I like using it over a wire armature, which gives it something to hold on to. And the best part – once it’s dry you can bend it! I noticed thicker pieces tend to snap in half, but the thinner ones bend more easily. You can also paint it with acrylic and a flexible primer, or cover it with fabric.

I used plasticine on top to finish bulking them out. I also love this method because it allows the puppet to be more lightweight (easier to hold a pose and animate), instead of being solid clay all throughout.

It took a while to sculpt each character, but I’m really happy with how it turned out! When I sculpt I like to base each character off a real-life person – it helps me get deeper into the story and create characters that feel more real. Can you guess who some of these puppets are inspired by? :)

For the dog, I used fur to add some variety in texture. I had some leftover mohair from a project I did earlier this year, which was perfect. Also I’m very excited to share more about that project soon – it will be published this fall and I can’t wait to show you all the details!

And finally I made a tiny glittering city for the background :) This is going to placed in the distance behind the hills, for some atmosphere. It’s made from balsa wood, cardboard and acrylic paint.

That’s it for this week, thanks so much for hanging with me! Wishing you a week filled with creativity, serendipity and good snacks.