This is a viral ad. Why am I showing it to you? It uses Brains, one of the characters from the Thunderbirds, and combines puppetry, CGI and motion capture to good effect. What I love about it is that, though are a few things that a marionette can’t do, ((The very fast spins, in particular, but otherwise, most of it is possible)) it doesn’t violate the rules badly and it takes advantage of the fact that it’s puppet by doing things that a person simply can’t.
But what’s even better is the behind the scenes footage. It showcases the work of Ronnie LeDrew (who did the giant marionette Levi’s ad) as the head puppeteer on this one.
Spotted at PuppetVision.
The very fast spins are physically impossible for a puppet to do. However, if they really want to, they can film it slower and then play with the frame rate. Either way it’s fun to watch though. 🙂
Nah, it’d be just as hard slow because the pendulum action would be all wrong when you sped it up. I’ve done spins that fast, but not with a puppet with legs and exiting the spin into a specific movement was, um, challenging.