Tested: We were extremely privileged to visit the Los Angeles branch of the legendary Jim Henson Creature Shop, where fabricators, animators, and puppeteers carry on the craft made famous by Henson. Our video interview with the shop's Creative Supervisor explored puppeteering history and some cool new modern technologies, but I wanted to give you guys a sense of the scope of workshop. It really is a fabricator's paradise, with tools for machining, moldmaking and casting, electronics work, and of course, puppet building.
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This is probably one of the coolest websites I've ever been one. They had so much behind the scenes work from creators, animators, and designer who definitely have an eye for detail. The work they is put into all of these pieces is incredible. It also helps that I'm a huge fan of Jim Henson. His work has been in many of the films I adored as a child and still love to this day. I hope someday I could see this and actually get to see his work in person. He is such a great idol in my opinion. I mean the attention to detail he has with his characters from Sesame Street and The Muppets is so outstanding. And they seem so simple, yet are very specific. And his other works of are basically the opposite of what he did for sesame street and they are just as amazing.
My high school set design teacher worked for Jim Henson and he said it was one of the most incredible experiences of his life. In the storage closet was one of his puppets that was still in progress and I remember being in awe of how it was being put together. Seeing all of those finished puppets, and recognizing most from my childhood is an incredible feeling. To know that there is such talent in the world and it is still appreciated today gives me hope that this industry will continue on. Seeing the mechanics that go into these projects are as amazing as the artistic craftsmanship that goes into the outside. The amount of detail and attention spent on every part of the projects is what I strive for in my projects, albeit they have more than a week for their work. Jim Henson’s company is a prop dream shop.
I love listening to the way people feel about the place and people they work for. I’ve listened to the guest speaker who came to cmu from the muppet studio as well as watched the documentary called “Being Elmo” that tells the story of Kevin Clash. Both artists talked to the puppets as if they were real people, I felt the same sense here as I saw these artists work and interact with their creations. The way these people feel when they work often makes you think they aren't working, I'm sure the artist feel the same way. I’ve watched documentaries on Disney animators and artists as well. They go about their jobs the same way, often looking up to Walt Disney like they do Jim Henson. It is unfortunately a rare thing to find people who actually take so much pride in their work. you can see that they put a lot of work, a lot of thought and a lot of themselves into each of their pieces. I’m glad we can still appreciate the detail put into hand made puppets and we don’t assemble puppets randomly on an assembly line.
These creatures are absolutely amazing! The detail that is put into each character is staggering. I could stare at these pictures all day. But not only are the completed creature amazing, but the size of this shop! It’s beautiful. It is awe inspiring to see all the half completed creatures- they look so creepy and deformed but then you can see all the small parts that go into making it move. The engineering with the puppets is just as important as the fabrication of what they look like on the outside. I would love to visit here someday or intern or work or something, anything. It’s really great to be able to see behind the scenes of these beautiful undertakings- you can really see how much love and care is put into each puppet, they seem to be alive just sitting there.
This was a really cool series of photos, and it showed a side on Henson that I hadn’t really seen before. I’ve seen muppets under construction and things like that, but Henson makes so much other cool stuff that I wouldn’t normally associate with them because it doesn’t look nearly as huggable as Elmo. The amount of creepy stuff there was awesome, and I wish that there had been more context/descriptions given next to the pictures because I would have liked to see what they were from. Their usage of materials is fantastic, creating really interesting surface textures for some of their puppets. Also, I was surprised at how many electronics were in use there. I thought of them as a more traditional puppet company, so to see that much automation gear and small electronics was fascinating. The author said that they were filming stuff, and I was disappointed that there wasn’t a link to the video in the article. I really would have wanted to see some of this stuff in action.
Looking at these pictures, I can really sense the integral partnership between engineering and art. I'm not much a fan of math and science myself, but I know it really can come in handy to create designs and characters like Jim Henson's. It really is credit to Henson's mind that all these characters and their technologies came into being. I can recognize most of the characters, and it really surprises me how they all came from the same mind, the same commonwealth of designers in that one shop. I feel as if, when I create, I keep creating in a theme that is recognizable as 'me'. I suppose that is the beginning of a designer's process -- finding what appeals to them and then expanding their horizons so that they may encompass the fullness of their abilities. And that's just really cool. There's a question people like to ask one another, the one where if you could choose a few people to come back from the dead and have them over for dinner, who would you choose kind of question. I would love to talk to Jim Henson, among others. It seems like he'd have a lot to say about process, and detail, and simply passion. You can see the love he had for his creatures in the work he put on screen.
Browsing through these photos of the different creatures I have seen throughout film and television, and sometimes even in books, brings back many childhood memories. Although I’m sure there have been a few modifications made to various creatures of the past, I would assume somewhat in the electronics standpoint, for some of those components might be a little outdated. The amount of detail that went into each particular design whether it be in the animatronics, or the looks of the figures themselves, all came from the genius that was Jim Henson. So many childhood memories, so many different pieces that made an impact on each of our lives in one way or another. They helped shape who we were, and now there are those who were fortunate enough to get to work with the man who get to carry on his legacy for the years to come, from this generation to the next.
Jim Henson's creature shop is absolutely remarkable. It’s like a crazy mash up between a costume shop, a sculpture studio, an animatronics lab, and steel shop… in short the coolest place in the world to work. Yes, everyone else is right, the details in the work are incredible, and the scope of some of the projects are just awe inspiring, but what I’m most taken back with about the creature shop is the variance of work and designs that pass through there. When first deciding to look at this photo gallery I expected to see primarily just Henson’s most famous work, things like Sesame Street characters and the Muppets, but I’m really surprised by the huge variations in work, from grotesque creatures to dragons, an animatronic gorilla head, cuddly looking monsters, and even the familiar faces of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. It’s amazing to see all of the extremely different stories the creature shop has helped bring to life. I’d love to work in a place like this because everyday would be a new adventure and challenge. Who knows the worlds you’d get a glimpse into and the amazing characters you’d play a role in creating. Littered with fur samples, animatronics, taxidermy, plastic eyes, and infinite possibilities, the creature shop seems like an amazing place where anything and everything could happen.
What an experience to be in this exciting time of puppetry industry's progress! When I am still in the mindset that puppets are played by people, puppetry has already been able to control by sophisticated mechanics. Puppetry is definitely one of the most underrated theater elements in people's lives. It is literally everywhere but we seem not to notice. Films, theme parks, haunted house; puppetry has gone a long way from its start point, theater. Even when the mechanics can imitate creatures perfectly, the charms of the human-puppet connection will never fade. Nowadays, even in the more conventional side of puppetry, the importance of mechanics is emphasized, which means that the performance part is weakened. The preciseness in the movement is a combined work of puppeteers and mechanics. I still believe in performance more than mechanics, so I am looking forward to seeing how King Kong, a heavy puppet musical, will go.
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