Ray the Alien: From Concept to Creation and Future Unveiling
What the client requested and how it drove the design
With every custom build, I love to ask my customers questions that clarify the overall goal. This project was my first build based an Ai image generated by the client and created a few design challenges. With both the image and the background information on the show, the idea of how those four arms should function was hammered out over email. Images, words, and diagrams helped create a plan. I mention this because it may be easier to skip this step and start building from the sketch alone. Starting quickly can be a missed opportunity to innovate and create something more supportive of the vision.
How the idea evolved
Above is the Ai image of Ray. Ray the alien was initially going to have his second arm set hovering by his head at all times. The second arm set was requested as a way to make the character unique. As a curious alien who is learning new things, the vision shifted from arms near the face all the time to arms that remain down and pop up when Ray learns something new. This allowed for novelty and supported his personality as a curious newcomer learning new things about earth and expressing delight by raising his arms in joy.
Design challenge: Only one puppeteer to control 4 arms
Kevin Kammeraad is a talented puppeteer, but tasking him with controlling 4 arms while talking on a live broadcast seemed like asking a lot. Pasha Romanowski suggested a mechanical solution that would shift the control of the rear arms to a “mech”. I mounted those controls on the left arm rod handle since Kevin would have his right hand operating the mouth. He would then double-hand the rods of the front arms and manipulate the rear arms with the slide control on the left rod handle. This slide control is inspired by Jim Kroupa’s design that I learned at the 2023 O’Neill puppetry conference. It has one small upgrade. It contains two locking points, so the arms can be locked in the up position to give Kevin’s thumb rest if the arms are up for the entire episode.
Jumping Jack Toy Inspiration
Pasha suggested the mech design for raising the arms could mimic a Jumping Jack toy. A pull string activates arms and legs to rise on this toy when the string is pulled down. While the final mech in my alien used gears, the idea was enough to get me started. I tested and revised prototypes for this mech over many weeks. I finally landed on a design that was robust, reliable, could be firmly attached, and didn’t transfer movement to the rest of the body.
Alien eyes
The eyes of this puppet also varied from previous puppets I’ve made. The Ai sketch needed to be interpreted into a viable eye design for the alien puppet. We decided to reinterpret the colors surrounding the eye as iris and eyelid. Blocking off the iris and pupil colors on this 3″ eye created a technical challenge. Flat materials added to this large eye would wrinkle, and painted colors meant taping off circles to make two properly focused eyes consistent with each other. Taping or masking consistent circles was difficult to do perfectly. To solve this I used my previous failed attempts at painted eyes as templates for splitting the eye into sections in Tinkercad. I could then 3D print, sand and paint the sections separately, allow them to dry and cure, and glue them together. I then sealed them with several coats of clear satin spray paint.
What’s to become of Ray?
Stay tuned. Once I get an update on the specifics, I’ll share more details on the show featuring Ray and his squirrel sidekick Rover. I’m eager to see this new show take flight!
