For this video, I designed, constructed and puppeted the Godzilla-style creature. (there are some shots of the process of building the puppet over here) I also made a few of the props for the city and helped to dress the set.

I worked with Ryan McFaul (director, camera, props, set) and Katie Akana (props, set, moving vehicles and things around with magnets) It was so much fun to smash things with them, even though I spent the better part of two days crammed under a table with one arm reached as high as I could manage, surrounded by the output of a sweet-smelling fog machine.

We even managed to make Godzilla breathe fire! (kids at home: the secret is an aerosol can of WD-40 and a lighter.)

You can see the video in high-resolution at the Youtube site. High Res.

 

I made some marionette puppets for the J. Viewz music video “Come Back Down” (the boy, girl, birds, and turtle.) The puppets were made out of blue polystyrene foam and acrylic paint and dressed up in bits of foam and some bright fabric from socks. Some tiny wire hinges kept the puppets joints loose enough to be puppeted by fishing line, along with bendy yarn legs.

Alisa Stern, Peter Ahern, Jeff Wallenhorst, & Matt Witham put this whole project together with their super design work, puppeteering, propmaking, and animation skills. Alisa even made us waffles!

Right now, the video is exclusively on Spinner, so please check it out:

http://www.spinner.com/2010/03/11/j-views-come-back-down-feat-joshua-james-video-premiere/

I made this puppet for a health-care advocacy group. In a short video, the puppet will wreck hospitals, clinics, and maybe even get to eat some ambulances and doctors. I’ll be doing the puppeteering today, so I’ll post a link as soon as it is available. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that fire will be breathed.

The puppet is made from urethane foam covered with liquid latex and acrylic paints. I also added UVA foam teeth and claws, and some red LED lamps for eyes. Steel rods inside the puppet can be used to move the arms, and there are two dowels that fit into sockets located at the back of the puppet’s knees so that the puppet can be “walked” without a puppeteer’s arm inside.

Of course this isn’t THE Godzilla. Godzilla has powerful lawyers with radioactive law breath. Let’s just say he’s a Destroyosaurus. Or possibly a Destructiodon.

 

One of the things I make at Sesame Street is graphics for some of the packages and labels that appear on the show. (And sometimes a sign for the dressing room of a guest too.)

 

These drawings were made to look as if they were drawn by Elmo. But they weren’t!

 

This bicycle was rebuilt from a machine that was used the previous season. I only ended up using a few pieces from the original machine since it functioned in a very different way – the contestants needed to be hit in the face instead of the groin, so the new machine needed to be completely re-designed.

A big challenge was designing the wheel to carry the tennis balls into the tennis ball launcher, since they needed to be metered out one-by-one without binding.

 

I had fun making a system of wooden gears to operate this mini-catapult. The mechanism tightens slingshot rubber bands, and a pull-cord releases the catapult arm.

 

I’m working in the Art Department of Sesame Street, and I made plenty of letters and numbers for the 41st season. Most were made out of foamcore or blue foam, but I did make some “7’s” that I scored so that they would break apart easily when Cookie Monster chomped on them.

 

I made this out of an old exercise bike, a right angle drive, PVC pipe, steel pipe, gears, chain, and four giant flyswatters. When the bike is pedalled, the wheel of flyswatters spins to hit a contestant in the face.

 

I made a crane designed to look like an engine hoist using some square tubing, simple hardware and casters. The pink claw was made out of some PVC pipe and fittings (with some clips added to the ends so that they would pull on a contestant’s hair.)