In Part 1, the puppet was sculpted and cast in Dragon Skin silicon. At this point, the silicon parts were trimmed and connected with silicon glue (silicon sticks to itself incredibly well). The back of the bug was strengthened with wire loops. Teeth and horns were carved from balsa wood and sculpted from Sculpey clay (which can be fired to desired hardness). These were attached to the body with more silicon glue.

Here’s a test of the puppet with all the parts attached:

Normally, silicon casts requires silicon paint. SmoothOn manufactures paint for this purpose, but it can be expensive. Hence, custom paint was created by mixing silicon glue, acetone, and acrylic paint. The custom paint retained flexibility without flaking. The resulting surface texture is fairly rough and matte-like, but is suitable for the evil bugs.

The puppet offers the advantage of natural movement (think of the Muppets). However, facial expressions are somewhat limited. Therefore, the puppet footage will be combined with 3D animation and digital compositing tricks to make them even more alive. For example, here’s a lip sync test using all those techniques: