BTS of Swampy!

Bringing Swampy to Life – Part 1: The Build

Swumpy the Worthoffle illustration from the new cbbc series

Its time for some BTS of Swampy. Some of you may know that I puppeteer the mischievous Swampy, the family pet in CBBC’s Pickle Storm. But what you might not know is the incredible journey that brought him to life!

Originally, Swampy was just a small background character in the script, but as we developed him, he quickly grew into something much more. It takes a small army to bring even the littlest characters to life—from the writer’s initial inspiration to story development, producer input, and then onto the design phase, where countless sketches are refined until the final look is settled.

My journey with Swampy began at this stage. I’ve had a long working relationship with my good friends at Millennium FX, where I frequently collaborate on puppet characters. So, when they needed someone to lead the puppet build of Swampy, I jumped in.

By the time I joined the team, the design was already taking shape. The brilliant Gary Pollard sculpted Swampy’s furless form, which was then molded and cored. This process allowed us to create a soft, flexible foam latex skin, reinforced with a stretch net for added durability.

From there, the core of the mold was scanned and a digital file was sent to animatronics specialist Adam Keenan. Around this time, I was invited by Black Dog TV to officially join the production as Swampy’s puppeteer and Head of Puppetry for Blackdog TV and CBBC.

Adam and I worked closely to ensure the animatronics were tailored to my hand size and the demands of the script. As he began constructing the mechanical elements, I started the fabrication process—turning the foam skin into a fully functional puppet.

the raw foam latex sin with some initial painting on the nost
oplus_1310720
bts of swampy the skin is cut and and divided and sections made with squahs and stretch areas like the neck here
oplus_1310752
bean bags create belly rolls and and move with the skin
oplus_1310752
tiny poseable armatured hands
oplus_3145760
the tiny connection point inside the hands that the rod bolt onto
oplus_3145760

Fabrication is all about “soft mechanics.” The skin needs underlying forms—body, arms, joints—all designed to allow movement, squash, stretch, and poseability. I added structural elements, rotational parts, a flexible neck, and even tiny bean bags in Swampy’s tummy to create natural-looking skin and fat movement.

Once the body structure was complete, it was time for hair work. This involved underpainting the skin, followed by layering, flocking, hair replacement, punching, and wig making. Lenny Sant, Rob Mayor, Sharna Rothwell, and I worked together to bring Swampy’s fur to life.

oplus_1310720
oplus_1310720
oplus_3145728
behind the scenes look at how my desk looks during a built, body parts, paw pads, tongues, rods, mouth pallets all waiitng to be used,
oplus_3145760
bts of swampy with the fabrication side of the build is coming together. zips, clips, pivot points, detachable limbs, ways into the body for repairs on the job all have to be considered.
oplus_3145760

Meanwhile, Adam completed the animatronic mech, which featured blinking eyes and moving ears controlled by a hand-slide mechanism. Then, everything had to be assembled—positioning the mech inside the skin, attaching and tensioning the wires, securing the body components, and installing the mouth interior and teeth.

the raw freshly cast foam latex skins drying out
oplus_1310720
the naked cable controlled animatronic
oplus_1310752
the naked eye blink mechanism by adam keenan
oplus_1310752
eye mech in bts of swampy
oplus_1310752

Finally, we moved into the art finishing stage, where the team made final refinements—last-minute hair punching, adjustments, shading, painting, and the all-important trim and styling.

ready for filming (with igor the Octopus)

And with that, Swampy was ready! Packed into a box, he was off to Belfast for filming.

Stay tuned for more BTS of Swampy in Part 2, where I’ll share what it’s like working with puppets on set!

Chris xx