Inspired by the recent 3-D re-release of the Nightmare Before Christmas and a photo of a similar puppet, this 8' Jack Skellington puppet was actually a last minute costume idea my wife and I put together on a whim over the course of a week or so. This instructable will show you how we accomplished it so you can make any large puppet based on this design, and more importanly, how you can improve on our results.
Materials:
About 50 feet of 1" PVC pipe
1" PVC pipe joints: Nine elbows, Six T joints, One cross joint
Two .5" x about 45" dowels
twine
duct tape
black felt
black foam sheets
white felt
batting/stuffing
3/4" or 1" braided elastic strap
pipe cleaners
3 or 4 yards of black pinstripe fabric
Tools:
hacksaw
scissors
electric drill
needle and thread
glue gun
exacto knife
The structure of the puppet, supports and shoulder harness consist mostly of
1" PVC pipes and joints (you might notice a 1.25" cross joint in the chest in
my photos -- Home Depot was out of 1" cross joints, so I used this with some 1"
to 1.25" couplers instead.) The PVC can be cut with a hacksaw with little
effort, and I drilled through with just a regular drill bit -- whatever came
with my wife's drill. Remember to take into consideration that about .75" of
the pipe will overlap with the elbow, T, and cross joints when designing your
puppet.
Materials:
About 50 feet of 1" PVC pipe
1" PVC pipe joints: Nine elbows, Six T joints, One cross joint
Two .5" x about 45" dowels
twine
duct tape
black felt
black foam sheets
white felt
batting/stuffing
3/4" or 1" braided elastic strap
pipe cleaners
3 or 4 yards of black pinstripe fabric
Tools:
hacksaw
scissors
electric drill
needle and thread
glue gun
exacto knife
The structure of the puppet, supports and shoulder harness consist mostly of
1" PVC pipes and joints (you might notice a 1.25" cross joint in the chest in
my photos -- Home Depot was out of 1" cross joints, so I used this with some 1"
to 1.25" couplers instead.) The PVC can be cut with a hacksaw with little
effort, and I drilled through with just a regular drill bit -- whatever came
with my wife's drill. Remember to take into consideration that about .75" of
the pipe will overlap with the elbow, T, and cross joints when designing your
puppet.
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Signing UpStep 1: Construct the skeleton
The skeleton starts with a large cross built out of the cross joint and 4 pieces of pipe: neck, shoulders, and trunk. (See scale drawing here for our lengths -- we wanted our Jack to be 8' tall with his legs bent.) Plan on the neck pipe extending all the way through to the top of the head, actually slightly longer than in the drawing. Also, it's not reflected in the drawing, but I cut a section out of the trunk pipe a few inches below the cross joint to insert a t joint and cut a few inches off the bottom of the trunk for another t joint -- these joints will connect the skeleton to the harness later.
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And then, instead of attaching the feet directly to your feet, what about attaching the feet a little bit away from your own feet and have shoes that have a little thing in front where jack's feet attaches to(if that made any sense.).
Finally, Articulated hands. Using the same principle as Articulate Hand Instructable, have articulate hands. This would be fairly easy.
I have been trying to think of a way to make the mouth be able to open, but unfortunately, I have no conclusion due to the fact that while operating this puppet, you will have all your arms and legs busy. And you could use your head, but It would become uncomfortable after a while having to move your head. In the end it might look like an epileptic guy is stalking Jack Skellington.
I guess you could turn to a mechanical aspect of making his mouth open, but I would like to keep this away from electronics.
I am going to be taking this out to Comic-con!
But really, amazing job.
At any rate, if you put up an instructable, drop me a note, cause I'd love to see it.