Barnaby Dixon

Hey! On the topic of puppetry and animation, just wanted to share the work of Barnaby Dixon. He started off as a stop motion animator, and in an attempt to find ways to speed up the process, started making these puppets that he could control in real time, and the results are SO COOL. The designs he comes up with are always wonderful and he's gotten so good at the actual puppeteering and presentation that I have such a hard time separating him from the puppet in my brain. It just looks like it has a life of its own. Plus he does a lot of performances on a drum pad, so he's able to have sound effects in real time and make the puppet interact with the environment which just adds a whole other level.

Bug Puppet is my favorite ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUUtK9FFIt4 ) but his latest puppet has a live face cam and blinkable eyes and a slinky torso that just gives it a lot of unique movement. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm_wP5atGYc ) Raptor is also an oldie but a goodie! ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRg_WBlzHu8 )

He's got other ones like Dabchick and this fuzzy ant-eater/armadillo. If you want to see kind of more behind the scenes of how they work, Tested just released a video interviewing him and it's super cool to see how he made them! ( https://youtu.be/rOmdQQCVjjI )

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