Modern STRING DUET
Make: Believe talks puppetry and 3D printing with Images in Motion.
Kamela Portugues and Lee Armstrong have been making puppets and performing together for over 25 years. Armstrong, who’d gotten her big puppetry break on Jim Henson’s Fraggle Rock, met talented sculptor Portugues at a puppet festival; the two soon combined their talents to create their Sonoma, Calif., studio, Images in Motion. Since then, they’ve been steadily producing TV shows, commercials, and live performances, as well as lending their expertise to major studios and toy companies. Perhaps most memorably, you may have seen their marionettes in the movie Being John Malkovich; director Spike Jonze sought Portugues specifically after seeing the line of celebrity toys she’d sculpted.
Watch Portugues and Armstrong's puppets in motion in the upcoming episode of our Make: Believe video series, and learn how they keep the ancient art of puppetry current with an infusion of 3D printing technology. Then, stay tuned for a behind-the-scenes look at stop-motion animation, and visit the Make: Believe page for effects tutorials and even more ways to blur the line between dreams and reality. makezine.com/go/believe
Besides wrangling MAKE photography, Gregory Hayes helps produce Make: Believe.
1. Portugues' analog sculpting station.
2. Portugues at her digital sculpting station, working in Maya.
3. Portugues takes the John Cusack marionette from Being John Malkovich out for a spin.
4. Armstrong and Portugues pose with a small selection of their creations.
5. Portugues and Armstrong demonstrate a smoke-breathing dragon puppet.
6. A 3D-printed skull replica commissioned by Paleomill, made from an on-site scan from the Black Hills Institute.
