The Puppets Inside Jim Henson's Creature Shop
Вставка
- Опубліковано 5 жов 2024
- Support videos like this -- and get a free gift -- by becoming a Tested Premium Member: tested.com/memb...
When we talk about puppets in television and film, Jim Henson is the first name that comes to mind. Henson's legacy endures at his Creature Shop, where fabricators, engineers, and animators continue crafting the art of puppet-making and performance. We're privileged to be able to visit Jim Henson's Creature Shop and learn how modern technologies combine with classic techniques to bring characters to life.
Shot by Joey Fameli
Edited by Jon Finger
See photos from this visit to Jim Henson's Creature Shop (PUPPPETTTSSS!): www.tested.com/art/makers/491537-photo-gallery-jim-hensons-creature-shop/
This interviewer is low-key very good at his job. Sometimes interviewers get in the way, but this feller simply assisted the interview subject to move through the material, and asked questions that an informed viewer would want to know. Really great work. Obviously the content was a treat too. Thanks for sharing this, Adam Savage and talented friends!
11:34 yep...yep...yep...yep...yep...yep...yep...yep...
omg I didn't notice him saying that the first time I watched this XD
i was literally saying this comment alloud then see you comment haha
I read this comment before watching the video and it made me expect to see the martians from Sesame Street!
Gabriel Mendes aaa
Gabriel Mendes a
The fact this guy is making the animatronics for the FNAF movie is absolutely insane
Cool
May the jim Henson company live forever.
They have magic that's more powerful than anything disney could ever do.
Funny cuz Disney bought them
@@TalmoTheSell Just the Muppets.
I always thought Jim Henson and Walt Disney were similar in a way. Well, there work actually.
@@darrylcarter3691Have you ever seen Jim Henson’s Animal Jam?
@@shachiethepom Have you ever seen Jim Henson’s Animal Jam?
It's been a dream to just check out the Jim Henson Shop. Awesome stuff!
The birth place of the one and only Chamberlain
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
lol
YAYYAYAYAY
MmMMMMmmm...
“Shut your whimpering”
HhhmmmmmMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmm........ Pleaaase!
Anyone else come here after the announcement that Blumhouse Productions is teaming up with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop to make the FNaF film possible?
Yeah
@@ocuito4972 Have you ever seen Jim Henson's Animal Jam?
Brilliant inside look, I found it really interesting.
We're at such a pivotal point in innovation for both puppets and CG. I'm actually surprised the Jim Henson Workshop are using mechanical tools to operate the CG character rather than the mocap and face capture used in films like Avatar, is it just that they feel more comfortable doing that?
Most mocap need cleanup so maybe that's why?
Although what they show here is interesting it's not exactly new. Even the Xbox Kinect can get close to the sort of things they're doing with the real time characters
What I'm curious to know is, how close we are to taking the info gathered from Mocap and inputting that into the real puppets. Can those puppets not just have a system in place similar to how a CG rig is created and thus have the Mocap move the real puppet and create a performance close to what the CG version would do?
Another interesting tech emerging is Augmented Reality. I doubt it will be too long before the actor can wear contacts that display a virtual character in front of them.
Interesting times.
OMG I know you from bills chanal
Dident think I'd see you here
Exactly what I was thinking watching this. The diminished relevance of hard earned skill-sets can be tough to process and people cling to former glory. Puppeteering will always retain relevance to actual puppets, but nothing else. It's embarrassing to see. The same thing happened when I went to a screening/book signing of Ray Harryhausen... He was dismissive of computer animation and declarative about (even cranky about) the superiority of stop-motion animation for believability. It was the best technology and the best technique for a time and he was the grand master. Stop motion can still be wonderful, but it simply can never hold or deliver the power it once did. I suspect that many puppeteers embraced the time when a certain level of expression (and also believability) in fantastical props could only be achieved through puppetry. Now that computer graphics, nuanced motion-capture, and advancing robotics technologies have far surpassed puppetry as a means to breathing life into the lifeless, there's an unwillingness to recognize that some of the glory bestowed upon it in it's heyday was not inherent, but simply a matter of timing. The idea of creating a clunky mechanical glove for controlling a computer-graphic character when one could easily achieve a better effect by simply mo-capping a sock puppet is just bizarre. The insistence that the end result is in any way more communicative or more believable than through other methods is cringe-inducing. :/ Anyways, I'm still glad they're doing what they're doing because despite errant missteps like this they'll continue to add to the conversation of practical effects. Oh -- regarding it not being long before an actor can wear contacts that display a virtual character in front of them... Of course that's just AR/VR ... I would offer to you, in the context of this discussion that it won't be long before an actor's eye movements can be tracked and translated instantly into mechanical eye movements of a practical robot. I'm looking forward to that. :)
@@williamhand3896 Yet of course, people seem pretty bored by CG mega-wicked effects at this point.
Mocap looks weird to people. Feels like cheating from this animator's perspective.
@@Captain_MonsterFart - I began replying to you here and came to realize I had no idea what I was originally talking about, much less how I’d be able to elaborate or engage.
It’s been so long since I watched this video and commented that I had to re-watch it just now. 😝
Um… I still don’t know what I was responding to or why I had so much to say. I might’ve misunderstood something in the video, or maybe I was just wanting to express some pent-up feelings relating to CG and practical f/x…
I’m seriously at a loss. I think there’s great value in any approach, whether it’s claymation, traditional cartoons, straight-up puppets, directly or remotely puppeted things, mechanical rigs, all variety of CG approaches, all variety of mocap, procedurally animated things…
I think it all has something to offer the world when utilized deftly. So, for whatever that’s worth.
--------
As far as people being tired of CG stuff, I agree. I think most CG creatures have been animated unrealistically (usually far too speedy), and HOLLYWOOD squandered the impact that it all could have had. But I don’t think that’s due to mocap… I think it’s probably poor writing and rushed (or tightly budgeted) scenes. Movement achieved by any technique can look bad once you remove frames to shoehorn it in, or substitute thoughtful choreography and storytelling with a more-is-more approach.
We’ve been saturated with great looking models that are unbelievable in their behaviors and movements, so the magic that they could have had was usually lost, and it’s ubiquity sapped out a lot of wonder and surprise from even those rare occasions where it was done right.
It seems to me that an intrinsic benefit of mocap is that it can quickly capture subtleties of biomechanics that animators won’t ever nail, and communicate complicated movements of a system that’s subject to real-world forces.
I don’t see it being appropriate for every situation, though.
Mocap wouldn’t have made sense for use in HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, but it made perfect sense for the cats in the recent video game STRAY.
Am I addressing what you were saying, or am I just rambling?
Chamberlain just creepin’ in the back there.
Mmmmmmmmmmm
Looks more like he dosed of while Skekok next to him listens intently.
I had to watch this after the FNAF announcement!
Who's ready for another movie in the same genre as "Dark Crystal"? +1 if you say yes.
William Hayden hell yeah!
Probably old news now, but The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (10 episode series) is coming to Netflix! Woot!
William Hayden I know I found out yesterday i'm so HYPED!
William Hayden dark crystal 2 is coming
WHAT?!?!
How have I never heard of this?!?!
I can't believe people would compare FNAF to the brilliance of Jim Henson. What he did changed the world..not everything is FNAF.
edit: lmaooo 💀well, i'll hand it to them, it's fucking cool that they're working on it now
Exactly.
well, to be fair the animatronics for the FNaF movie are being made here, I guess most of those comments are kids too young to see the movie even when it comes out who don't know better.
Gil Kenan does not work at the Jim Henson company, though. These are not the FNAF animatronics.
Takashico101 I think I remember someone (the director or producer, IDK which) posting on Twitter about visiting Jim Henson's shop for inspiration. I think that's what he's referring to. And to address FNaF not changing the world, it did, just not in a good way. Scott Cawthon has good intentions, and first game was quite original and tense, but the fanbase is a disaster, and he probably doesn't realize it since he mainly interacts with Steam, Reddit, and a handful of UA-camrs. Most of the cancer is the SFM animations & Let's Play commenters. It's a good thing Scott is motivated by religion and not greed, otherwise this situation could be a lot worse.
Could you explain how he changed the world a little more thoroughly to me? I am researching Jim Henson for a school project and I'm not sure what direction to go in. :D
0:22 Robbie Sinclair from Dinosaurs?...I'd love to see more on that. The costumes were incredible. So sad how that show ended. It seemed so wrong...:(
However my ultimate favorite would always be the goblins and other strange fantasy creatures from The Labyrinth..
What do you want? A comet hit the earth millions of years ago. It’s had to end
They have to rehire those guys for the next Ninja turtles movies...
Skeksis!!!
I love them!
So do I!
They look so dam good in HD
fnaf if mangle was like a creepy human head
I didn't realize until now that there was a Crocodile maw incorporated into the beak designs of the Skeksis. Awesome stuff.
the CGI model of Rygel from Farscape on the screen really really really really excites me..... we can only hope that another Farscape could happen....
I second this, thought i was the only one recognising Rygel :D
+Cris Black It took me a while to figure out who the character was but when I did I couldn't stop smiling
I forgot that the Jim Henson Company produced Farscape.
I loved Farscape.
@@Pallekatt Same until I found this comment
Jim Hanson was a legend
Chokon Mi Wang he passed away
The waldo movement - Black Mirror. This reminded me of that episode which was awesome and this gave me a lot of insight. Awesome video.
Jan I was looking for a comment like this!
Same :)
How awesome is that idea to do digital puppets with a live performance? Brilliant concept!
glad they will be working on the fnaf movie with blumhouse
some of these puppets look astonishing and I would love to see more of them in movies.
some of the others can remain incomplete and be part of horror movies about studio puppets eating people
Who’s here after hearing that great news that there finally starting to film FNAF in Feb/2023 and have Matthew Lillard playing William Afton and Josh Hutcherson playing Mike Schmidt leave a like if your excited. And have JimHensonCreatureShop making the FNAF puppets or animatronics lol
Leave a like if your excited 👍😁❤️
And these guys are making the fnaf movie 💯💯💯
Soooooo freaking excited, I can't wait !!!
I really need to go watch The Dark Crystal now. Awesome piece of content as always guys, great work Norm!
+Tony Mo That movie scared the shizzle out of me when I was a kid. I still see why it would :D
+Coco Haha along with The Neverending story they both gave me the creeps as much as they fueled my imagination at a young age.
The mystics are my favorite puppets ever made.
Dark Crystal and Labyrinth were two of the best puppet movies I've ever seen.
I WAS THINKING THE EXACT SAME THING Rip David Bowie....
Fascinating ! This is the kind of workshop I could stay and just watch them working for hours!
Animatronics over CGI any day.
What about CGI Yoda over Puppet Yoda?
Godzilla
Hell no! Puppet Yoda is way better.
Yes but not everywhere
A mix of both is great
Everyone who works for the Jim Henson company has so much passion that SO many other studios/companies lack. It's really inspiring to see people who genuinely care about what they're creating.
Cant wait for their FNAF animatronics!
Ok who's here because of the FNAF movie that's FINALLY being released?
Digital effects still rarely look real to me... I much prefer great puppets.
I reall do laugh at the idiots who immediate thinks the skulls are from the FNAF movie when they are actually the skulls for the puppets used on Jim Henson's Dinosaurs
That show is too underrated
When I was a kid the baby dinosaur scared the shit out of me.
+SamDaManVLOGS I had thought the thumbnail looked like Robbie Sinclair
goddam baby Dino would make me shit my pants when I was little
+Igotbored I think that and I wish all people from the fnaf fandom would just leave the Internet
Norm: "This really reminds me of a fabrication shop at an effects company."
Peter: "Which is kind of what we are..."
Uh yeah Norm, like Jim Henson's CREATURE SHOP 🤦
I'm loving the Farscape.
Five nights at freddys coming soon!!
Fr
Me: sees skesis
Mom: hears very loud fan girl scream.
Me:see skesis
Dark crystal fans: MmmmMm
Isn't it skeksis?
I really really liked the one on one talk. it felt really personal, and real, unlike a lot of the other interviews that have taken place there.
My favorite Jim Henson Film will always be "Labyrinth"
I have it on DVD.
@@marthagilbert3459 i miss David bowie myself😭
I like it when the interviewer has done their research and can site examples of the type of models that were used. Kudos!
Awesome stuff. The Skeksis always creeped me out as a kid, lol.
acs197 *HMMM*
The skinless puppet heads are both impressive and terrifying.
The moment when you realize the "humans" in this interview are actually intricate puppets themselves. Brilliant!
Farscape and the Dark Crystal made me fall in love with puppetry
Wow, probably the best interview since I have started to follow you guys.
loved the mention of wild things. one of my favorite movies of all time. i am still amazed at how great the monsters looked and the marriage of different mediums that translated so well on screen. some of hensons companies best work to date.
That skeksi in the background is freaking me out.
'A bit creepy'?! I'm a 32 year old horror fan and they TERRIFY me!
*high pitched skeksi whine*
SockBadger 24601 whats a skeksi? screw it imma look it up
They're coming back!
Henry DuRocher HMMM is my favorite part in the dark crystal
This is very interesting but also oh so terrifying to watch the puppets 'naked' :'D
I love see that "circuits inside.
James May's voice sounds odd in this one.
I really like the suits. Makes me want to use practical effects if I ever go into the film industry
Puppets work really great in horror. They are even scary when you don't intend them to be.
Not even gonna lie, I am so jealous of Norm right now. Henson's creature workshop is legendary - thanks for this peek inside!
Really good interview, cheers! Want to see Henson's workshop and Weta collaboration.. Something like The Dark Crystal in scope. That's my wish.
I'm glad they did a show called Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challange it was awesome and I hope they do another season
I luv Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth. Those both have puppets in the movies (Dark Crystal is all puppets/Labyrinth is some puppets and people) Both really good movies.
You remind me of the babe.
William Palkow ...What babe?
Babe with the power
I like the fact that they're remaining true to what Jim Henson started but are also exploring the possibilites of marrying analog and digital puppetry. But the slow death of puppetry and animatronics is still visible. Since the advent of cheap CG, movie makers and those making TV shows have been using CG as a cheap and quick alternative to traditional model making and using animatronics. And it can be done right. But then there are things like CGI Yoda in the Star Wars prequels where all there was was a CG character. Or that turd Jar-Jar. Maybe they could've made him more tolerable if he wasn't a cartoony, racist parody with whom the actors couldn't interact. You can tell in the movie when their expressions don't mirror what Jar-Jar is doing. How can they if they have nothing to look at?
Corristo89 Jim Henson was alive when the digital Waldo character was created.
I could listen to this guy all day. Thank you so much for showing this part of Jim Henson.
You guys at tested have the best job ........well time to move to l.a and apply
I've decided to check out here cause of the fact that Jim Henson's Creature Shop are gonna do the effects for the FNAF movie
Fraggle Rock is my childhood in a nutshell.
And Sesame Street as well.
This is so neat! I love Muppets. I didn't realize Henson made the Country Bears suits. I used to love seeing that show at Disneyland.
hell yes can’t wait for the fnaf movie
lol i love that they have Rigal floating on the monitor in the back.
Dear Jim Henson Studio... Make the Dark Crystal II already!!!!!!!!
They did a prequel series on netflix
yes.
Some of the animatronic parts (seen in this video) used in films and shows were used for the first FNaF film if you look closely at them, being seen, being old, unused parts in the Parts and Services room, where Shreddy Fazchair is used to kill security guards. The Jim Henson’s Creature Shop company is also now making the FNaF 2 movie animatronics. There are pictures of them. There are the Mangle and Toy Bonnie’s prototype models being made, an Endo-02 torso, and a pair of Toy Bonnie’s eyes. I’m hyped for the second FNaF film.
CGI has an extremely long way to go to come close to how amazing puppetry is.
true
I have worked with Pete before and he is a very nice man. Everyone at the Creature Shop is extremely talented with their art. The best of the best work there.
i havent seen Farscape foryears this was cool to see
This is so eerie. I just got done watching a Black Mirror episode called "The Waldo Moment" that used technology just like what they are talking about. It was at its best when interacting with a live audience too.
1:49 *bets that that bear head was used in The Country Bears* *internally fangirls because she's a country bears fan*
CosplayCore I'm a showbiz fan
I LOVE THE BEARS!!
Those Farscape props
WHEN IS CREATURE SHOP CHALLENGE COMING BACK!!!???
I wish that was a whole series. It was definitely interesting. But I guess the creature shop can't really hand out a job every year.
Sharp Shot EFX Same here! I want that to happen but with different challenges featuring creatures for STAR WARS, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Godzilla, etc. along with real-world animals, dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals and all kinds fantasy and sci-fi creatures like the Chocobo from Final Fantasy, Yoshi from Super Mario Bros., some Kaijus from Pacific Rim, the different creatures from Adventure Time, the different creatures from Gravity Falls, etc.!
Cody Denver that was a great show. You could see how things were made and see how challenging it was to create characters with such a tight budget and deadline.
Love the Skekis in the background.
Awesome
This is fantastic guys! Always loved watching the old series about hollywood special effects, always loved looking at behind the scenes.... thanks!
Norm! Your interviewing has vastly improved in a pretty short period of time, and I wanted to really commend you for it! I always look forward to these videos and this one was fantastic!
This is an interesting video, for sure... but I can't help being creeped out by seeing Robbie Sinclair's skull mounted on a wall. lol
Here because of the Dark Crystal Age of Resistance
No One cares.
Gotta love Rygel just chilling on the monitor.
who remembers fragile rock?
+ULTRAxKILLERMAN 543 You mean Fraggle rock
Yes. I don't know how to spell it because I'm not from the 80s and 90s era
It's not whether or not your from the 80's or 90's. Many of us as children had Phonics which taught how to spell different words and provided a base for correct grammar, not you're fault
you mean your
Fraggle rock
"This... in it's essence".
While The Chamberlain is standing right beside him
Shit! Everyone run! The FNAF community is coming!
Quit treating us like demons
I really hope they do another season of the Jim Henson's creature shop television show on Sci Fi channel again opposite face off. Tuned in for every single episode. Was a great great show!!!
Everyone's going off about FNAF,
What I want is 123 Slaughter Me Street puppets
Weird, I was seeing lots
.....
That Farscape on that screen! Woo!
I knew there were gonna be comments about fnaf in this video
5:24 "Pizza dude's got thirty seconds."
The best live action Turtles movie, by far 👌
imagine how terrifying it would be to be there alone in the dark. and the you see one of the puppets move out of the corner of your eye....
The Jim Henson characters are full of great wonder and such amazing detail.
I saw the post and saw the thumbnail and I was going to mention FNAF.. but since everyone else is.. I guess not..LOL
Technically you just did
This is a pointless comment
I LOVED seeing this creature shop. I am the type of consumer that grew up on Dark Crystal, and puppet Yoda (and felt a strange sense of betrayal when he was made completely digitally), so I will always prefer the realism and skill that puppeteering lends and requires. You both touched on a topic regarding how 'believable' a character can be depending on the media used to create it; puppets will always be preferred in my book. I hope the demands for these skills never disappear.
We all felt betrayed by that CG Yoda.
You remind me of the babe ...
straight quavers what babe?
Thingamabob Lapetus the babe with the power
straight quavers what power
Thingamabob Lapetus the power of voodoo
Voodoo?
I really liked this, I grew up with Henson's Workshop and always loved seeing the behind the scenes. Thanks for the vid Tested.
For me, one of the most interesting episodes to date. Thanks.
One thing I'm curious about, though. Wouldn't full-on mocap, complete with facial expression markers, be easier and ultimately more cost-effective than (apparently) purpose-built control rigs when it comes to controlling digital characters like Rygel? Or is mocap technology not quite there yet?
Tim Cortesi Yes, I had considered this, but it seems to me in cases where a character has a range of recognizable human-like expressions, it perforce has most of the same features, i.e. flexible lips, eyebrows, etc., so the movements, at least, would be very similar if not identical.
Perhaps, as you suggest, scale is an issue, but I would think this could be calibrated in the software. I could be wrong, of course.
I think it might also be a matter of making it look sort of interesting in a surreal way, people know puppet movements aren't real of course, but they have some charm that would be impossible to replicate with real human face movements
I've heard that mocap isn't as precise as people make it out to be. You still have to clean up a lot of the models, and additionally, the characters facial expressions would be limited by the actors skill.
I would think that the digital puppet solution also works better with characters that are not necessarily human / bipeds, like if you are controlling a dinosaur for instance.
A major issue with motion capture is that (currently) it's done with a visual system, IR/colour dots on a bodysuit or face. The dots are recorded by an array of cameras and then interpolated to get 3D coordinates moving in space. The issue with this is that they're fairly inaccurate. The interpolation can get noisy, especially when dots get occluded (blocked). Keep an eye on the feet of any raw mocap data, they tend to skitter and skip around. So while mocap is good for broad movements, you'll notice that movies and games employ "motion cleanup artists" who's job it is to lock feet, remove jitter and fix occlusion issues.
Meanwhile, the digital puppet rigs provide far more precise control, much like a gaming controller or mouse provides very precise control in a game. It also affords you control of additional details, like articulated ears, nose flaring, tongue, etc.
“This puppet shop really reminds me of a puppet shop.”
im here for fnaf, who else is with me.
Yo xd
I love seeing these videos it shows that the craft isnt dead.
They should burn that "the Hangover" movie poster
Denver January why?
+Alejandro Marquez trash series
Denver January those movies are fucking hilarious
+Alejandro Marquez no they're not...its the one franchise that definitely didnt need a trilogy
I'm so appreciative that they used Rygel for the digital puppet demo as Farscape is a GROSSLY underrated show.
In before the "five nights at freddy's" comments.
Deathbrewer you might have been one of the first comment about five nights at Freddy’s actually 😂
Bruh that stuf be dead now lol
love the fact Rygel is his screensaver.
Goddamn, EVERYONE here is talking about the FNAF movie LMAO that film's gonna have one hell of an opening week!
+Velter Alex. C Full of teens, saying "This is gonna be the scariest movie of all time"
+Velter Alex. C It's especially funny because those animatronics aren't even from FNAF. They're much, much older than that.
I'm gonna shoot people who see it
+Treykarz can I come with you?
+Treykarz same I'll bring my cross bow and shoot people also lol nice joke