Full-body shots of the puppets are actually kids inside

[AsianStephanie]

Puppets Disscusion;

Ohk,
I have heaps of things to ask about the puppets. I hear that when the puppets have a full body shot on screen, It is actually a little kid wearing the puppets clothes and a mask of the puppet?

This true?

Also,

I noticed in a photo that Magnus is holding onto Ziggy, and in the background there are heaps of puppet heads. I dont understand why.

Is it in case something happens to the original head if something happened to it, they would be prepared?

[Alan314159]

Re: Puppets Disscusion;

I hear that when the puppets have a full body shot on screen, It is actually a little kid wearin the puppets clothes and a mask of the puppet?
This true?

Sometimes. I believe Kristófer Scheving is one of the body doubles.
Probably the best example of this that I can think of at the moment is when you can see Ziggy running away from Robbie in the episode Haunted Castle. I think also there is a bike-riding sequence in Sportacus Who?.

[ooozmin]

Re: Puppets Disscusion;

no shit when it's a whole puppet it's somebody in a suit.

[Racoon]

Re: Puppets Disscusion;

first season whole puppet body shot was cool.

second season whole puppet body shot was shit and made me scared.

[Mr_Gazpacho]

Re: Puppets Disscusion;

first season was cool.

second season was shit and made me scared.

[Alan314159]

Re: Puppets Disscusion;

no shit when it's a whole puppet it's somebody in a suit.

Not necessarily all the time. They use green screen so you could easily dress your puppeteer up in green and stand them next to the puppet for a full body shot.

[Mr_Gazpacho]

Re: Puppets Disscusion;

no shit when it's a whole puppet it's somebody in a suit.

Not necessarily all the time. They use green screen so you could easily dress your puppeteer up in green and stand them next to the puppet for a full body shot.

I think Mr. Ooze here was just commenting how blatantly obvious and lame the kid extras looked, one of the most evident examples being the episode Haunted Castle. I believe this discussion surfaced about a year ago as well when the community first got hold of the new episodes, and we did all indeed cry out in agony back then as well.

[Fron214]

Re: Puppets Disscusion;

In season one, the full-body shots of the puppets (which were few and far between) were actually full-body puppets, usually operated by the puppeteers from behind (in green suits, against a green screen). If memory serves, you can see a lot of this in the "Always a Way" video.

For the sake of efficiency (it take a long time to rig and light those set-ups), this was pretty much abandoned for season two. Instead, costumes of the puppet characters (which, in order for a child to fit inside, were a little bit larger than the actual puppets) were constructed. This was used sparingly, however, because -- as a previous poster said -- the effect can be somewhat jarring, as the character suddenly seems more "human-like" (and less stylized and character-specific).

As for the collection of Ziggy heads, yes, these are replacements. The head of each LazyTown puppet is a fiberglass skull (with the eyes and eyelid mechanisms set inside), covered by a foam latex skin. The skull is a constant; the skin, however, undergoes a lot of wear and tear and needs to be touched up and eventually replaced. On average, each skin lasts a handful of episodes.

Hope this answers your questions.

[Sportzilla]

Re: Puppets Disscusion;

...the skin, however, undergoes a lot of wear and tear and needs to be touched up and eventually replaced. On average, each skin lasts a handful of episodes.

On "Sportafake" you can see pretty obvious wrinkling on Pixel's neck during the scene where Sportacus pretends to want to do nothing and lounge around with the kids because it's so hot out.

Fron214 - You sure are knowledgeable about this subject! Are you a puppeteer?

[AsianStephanie]

Re: Puppets Disscusion;

Not necessarily all the time. They use green screen so you could easily dress your puppeteer up in green and stand them next to the puppet for a full body shot.

Yeah like, in Defeeted When stingy is being blown away by the wind, well his kite, you can tell its been edited.

[Victoria]

Re: Puppets Disscusion;

In season one, the full-body shots of the puppets (which were few and far between) were actually full-body puppets, usually operated by the puppeteers from behind (in green suits, against a green screen). If memory serves, you can see a lot of this in the "Always a Way" video.

For the sake of efficiency (it take a long time to rig and light those set-ups), this was pretty much abandoned for season two. Instead, costumes of the puppet characters (which, in order for a child to fit inside, were a little bit larger than the actual puppets) were constructed. This was used sparingly, however, because -- as a previous poster said -- the effect can be somewhat jarring, as the character suddenly seems more "human-like" (and less stylized and character-specific).

As for the collection of Ziggy heads, yes, these are replacements. The head of each LazyTown puppet is a fiberglass skull (with the eyes and eyelid mechanisms set inside), covered by a foam latex skin. The skull is a constant; the skin, however, undergoes a lot of wear and tear and needs to be touched up and eventually replaced. On average, each skin lasts a handful of episodes.

Hope this answers your questions.

Thanks for clarifying this Fron! It was fascinating :)

[Alan314159]

Re: Puppets Disscusion;

the effect can be somewhat jarring, as the character suddenly seems more "human-like" (and less stylized and character-specific).

I think they call this "uncanny valley"; paradoxically, the more human-like (but not exactly identical) something appears, the more it disturbs people. :?

[Victoria]

Re: Puppets Disscusion;

I think they call this "uncanny valley"; paradoxically, the more human-like (but not exactly identical) something appears, the more it disturbs people. :?

I thought The Polar Express's animation was awesome.

[Mr_Gazpacho]

Re: Puppets Disscusion;

I think they call this "uncanny valley"; paradoxically, the more human-like (but not exactly identical) something appears, the more it disturbs people. :?

Other fine examples are Resident Evil: Degeneration and most recent video games trying to outdo Halflife 2's character animation.

What makes the subject interesting is the question: what makes the robot above look creepy? :?

[Lazycus]

Re: Puppets Disscusion;

What makes the subject interesting is the question: what makes the robot above look creepy? :?

We had that before :)
She doesn't focus the viewer or anything else. Dead eyes. Furthermore she ... it moves as if in pain.