Foam Ventriloquism is easy when wearing a helmet

DimeyKaloeye

New Member
This will be my first time uploading a build log. Long time lurker, watching all these amazing threads and builds come together, I thought it was time I presented some of my own work. I've built several suits in my time, a MK VI, MK VII, MK V(b), and even a Sean Bradley ODST kit. Now, I'm making something kind of... strange.

I'm currently in the process of starting a Halo CE MK V suit. I'm still trying to track down some good foam unfolds, specifically of the new Infinite version, or ideally, an unfold of the Marcus Lehto render that came out a few years ago. I know ODCA made a good one but the link to the downloads have gone dead, so if anyone reading this has a copy, I would really appreciate a link!

To go with this new project, I have decided to combine my love of creating these suits, with my love for crafting Muppets. Hence, I have begun the process of creating a Muppet of Cortana to wear and operate on my arm in place of forearm/glove armor on my right hand.

I learned how to create these puppets from the Puppet Nerd on youtube, he has great tutorials and I'm basing my work on his free patterns if anyone else is curious about doing something similar.

The process is quite similar to doing foam pepakura, but with sewing in place of contact cement.

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After some simple pattern tracing and gluing, I have a basic shape of "her" head:

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Most of the processes becomes cutting the pattern out of foam, and then replicating it on fabric slightly large to accommodate for seam allowance.


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In hindsight, I wish I had used a slightly lighter shade of blue for the skin tone, but I also think the color adds to the cartoon-ish vibe I'm going for.



Everything was sewn inside-out to keep the visible stitching to a minimum. A lot of it will also be covered up when adding features and details later on.
I did not take as many pictures of the body creation, but here is the head, neck, and torso done:

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After that, the arms were created by sewing some blue fabric around a few lengths of foam and quickly attached a couple mittens before attaching to the torso.

Once I had all the major creation and sewing done, eyes were made from some foam balls, the nose is a piece of foam sewn into some fabric, and I began gluing/sewing bits of purple detailing around the body. The result was slightly... terrifying...


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For the pattern on the body/arms, I took reference from images of Cortana, but most of it translated poorly to a puppet so I just kinda vibed with it.

After adding the pupils it was slightly less scary, and the basic form is done!

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Next steps are adding more fine detailing and most importantly, adding hair. I'll most likely be doing the bob style cut Cortana is most popular for. I've never really made a humanoid puppet with long-ish hair, so im expecting some trial and error with that. I have some blue yarn, so I'll either try fabricating some kind of wig out of that, or if that fails, see if I can't find a small wig online.

I'm not sure why I'm making this lol

If anyone has any suggestions for things to add, let me know!
 
THIS IS FANTASTIC!! I have never seen anyone make a puppet version of Cortona and I gotta say I love it! Great work!

Unfortunately I do not have those files you were looking for, but I'll ask around for you.
 
Today I added a few ravioli-esque ears and eyebrows and tackled the hair.

The ears were just some fabric sewn in a semi circle around some foam and the eyebrows are two strips of fabric meant to somewhat resemble cortana's caterpillars.

The big thing completed was the hair. I tried making a wig out of yarn, searched for small blue wigs, and even considered cutting some of my own hair to use and just bleaching/dying it blue. Nothing looked very good. After much trial and error, a good friend of mine suggested creating a hairpiece similar to how the rest of the puppet is constructed.

The specific style I had in mind was the hairstyle from Halo 3:

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I created a template for an encompassing hairline on Cortana's head and after a few attempts, created a decent looking pattern. After cutting out the foam/fabric and sewing them together, I was left with something close to what I had imagined:

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It's definitely not perfect, but with that, most of the project is done! I want to revisit the purple detailing on the body, specifically the arms, when I have the time.

I'm also looking online at some kind of sound/voice line player to use so that I do not have to always be straining my voice when performing with Cortana. I found this "glove" on amazon that looks promising, going to look more into this and find some clips I'd want to have handy:

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One last thing I'd like to add is a small prop for the puppet to hold in their hand. One hand will be attached to a puppet rod, which will allow me to move the arm and simulate movement. In the other "dead" hand, I like to make them something to hold.

My first thought is to try and make a small version of the Index that fires the Halo Arrays out of some eva foam. Then, I can shove a magnet into her mitten and have one built into the prop for easy use.

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After that, next step is tracking down those files and getting started on my MK V Chief suit to go along with this cursed companion!
 

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