Nudey Judy (2021)
How does the material language of a hand-made puppet tell a story?
I wanted to make a nude woman puppet to tell a simple and funny story through a feminist lens. Nudey Judy is the story of a woman who takes pleasure in after-work rituals: like stripping naked, and smoking a joint.
The puppet's body is inspired by Etienne Gros' Les Mousses sculptures. The foam is entwined with a handmade aluminum and plumber's putty armature. The rest of the body is covered in canvas strips to give the puppet a skin-like colour that still expresses a materiality; not completely human, she is still a doll.
A magnet is embedded in Judy's head to house replacement eyes - which the performance relies on. The puppet's angular and material quality is softened by a handmade alpaca hair wig.
Stop-Motion Animation; Character Animation; Puppet Fabrication; Set Fabrication; Prop Fabrication; Character Performance; Character Rigging; Storyboarding; Story Development; Lighting Design; Sound Design; Post Production
Dragonframe 4; Photoshop; Premiere; Audition
Created for Wrik Mead's Stop Motion class at OCAD U
Credits
Costume: Anne Tetrault
Voice of Judy: Gabrielle Tsilfidis
Advisor: Wrik Mead
Audio Engineer: Marius Royal
Special Thanks: Gerald Grison
Watch the full animation here.
Nudey Judy was animated in Dragonframe 4 & shot on iPhone 8.
For the set, I created a basement apartment with foam core walls, an upholstered couch, a woven foot rest, and a tiny window. The set was decorated with a carpet sample, items from my recycling bin, and a polaroid.
A close up view of the set pieces I created.
An early lighting & rigging test.
Because of the lockdown, I was forced to improvise an animation stage in my home studio, which provided me with some rigging challenges. It was equally challenging to get my iPhone to focus when the puppet would move away from the camera.
Looking back, I would give myself more time to iron out details while animating and to practice compositing.
Judy the Puppet [Close-up]
Replacement features:
[nail, polymer clay, glaze, acrylic paint]
Head
[styrofoam, magnet, canvas, acrylic paint]
Hair
[Alpaca hair on canvas wig cap]
Armature and early foam fitting
Replacement eyes & a simple way to keep track of them
Concept Sketch for Judy the Puppet (2021)
9x12
Red pencil on paper
Drawing to scale