Narrative
Long ago, a mysterious creature formed in a vast ocean. It was born of ancient sea magic, a forgotten spell woven into the depths of the waves. This creature, The Shrouded Wisp, had a form that shimmered like a jellyfish, glowing faintly in the moonlight. Its body seemed fragile as it glided around, but it was unyielding to the harsh conditions of the ocean.
Legend says the ocean, in its vast wisdom, granted the Wisp a gift, or curse depending on how you look at it: it would never dissolve, never decay, no matter how many years passed. It was a spirit of the forgotten, drifting endlessly on the tides, its glowing presence a mystery to all who glimpsed it. Sailors whispered of its eerie glow, and some swore they saw it rise from the waves like a ghost, only to vanish as the tide rolled in, always a part of the sea, forever untouchable by time.
Making the Puppet
Originally, I had a completely different narrative and puppet. The idea was that the puppet was an ancient spirit, reminiscent of a sunflower with deformed body parts and a mystic essence. However, I struggled to take inspiration from this and when I had finished making it, I felt that it was not properly emphasising the flowy, mystical nature of the character.
I deliberated on how to remake the puppet so that I could accurately portray the character, but after days of not being able to come up with a solution, I found inspiration in objects around me at home and came up with a new character with an entirely different backstory.
With a bin bag for a head, I attached some toilet paper to some wire using masking tape and put it inside the bin bag to create this creature reminiscent of a jellyfish. I felt much more inspired by this character, and a mysterious, ancient magic story felt only correct for its background.
I named this character The Shrouded Wisp, and I am much happier with this than I was with the previous puppet. The video of this puppet can be found here: https://youtube.com/shorts/cD_jwSFzXXs?feature=share
I added some extra materials to the tentacles to give it variation. These materials were some string and cut strips of scrap fabric that I found. This made the puppet look much better compared to before, and so now that I am confident with the puppet, I will be animating it next.
Animating the Puppet
To animate the puppet, I used an app called Polycam. I made many attempts at scanning the puppet upright so that there could be a full 360 of it, but after struggling to do this with the model coming out normal, I decided to just lay down the puppet and scan it like that.
The final video can be found here: https://youtu.be/juK0sOtxAYU
Reflection
Starting this assignment, I had a lot of inspiration with the first character I created, but it was hard to keep that inspiration as I could not think of ways to bring the character to life with what I had available to me. To properly create a character like that and be satisfied, it would take more resources and time than I had. However, I am quite proud with my quick thinking and ability to take inspiration from the objects that I did have around me, because I was able to create a new character with a backstory from essentially nothing- a roll of bin bags and some toilet paper and masking tape. While I was not happy with the execution of the first character, I think the idea was unique and interesting and would have become something incredible had I had the resources and inspiration to create it. On the same note, while I admittedly put the second character, The Shrouded Wisp, together quickly, I think it came out well and acted as inspiration for me to put together a cohesive narrative that really brought it to life. If I were to do this assignment again, I would definitely try to think of more, better ways to create the original character. However, I would also put more time and effort into The Shrouded Wisp so that I can make it look even better and give it more life.
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