Gettin' squirrelly

I recently built a squirrel puppet for my friend and incredible animator Sihanouk Mariona. He's got a really cool project in the works, and has invited several animators to build and animate characters in the film. I was assigned a squirrel, which I built using a wire armature and foam build-up.

Here is the bare-bones armature:



Wood head with facial controls screwed into threaded inserts:



Starting to build up the foam, and I shortened the neck and used a ball joint there and in the jaw:



And here is the finished puppet- life size!



Fake fur and flock: